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Our garden stated as a flower bed in 1973, but it quickly grew into something more. The local couple whome we had been buying from for several years called one evening to say they were going out of business. They reasoned that since I was such an iris lover, I should become more interested in the business end of irises. Their conclusion may have been influenced by the fact that our flower beds had pretty much taken over my yard and had expanded to our vegetable garden.
Some 32 years later the garden is now approximately 2 acres with over 1000 varieties of bearded irises. Now in my sixties my wife says that I have, “completely lost my mind.”
She may be right but I would do it all over again. The transition of the garden from a bleak baron field in February to the astounding beauty of bursting buds and overwhelming aroma in May is breath taking to say the least. The garden has paid me back ten fold for all my toil and sweat over the years. The pleasure of enjoying first hand one of Gods Springtime miracles and the many magnificent memories of visitors who have touched my life through the years is payment enough. The garden has never been about making a vast amount of income but one of mostly love and making enough to support my iris habit. Seeing a new variety and thinking to my self, I just gotta see what that one will look like in my garden.
The garden has been and will remain a Mom and Pop's endeavor. Pop, (that's me) spends a lot more time in the garden since retirement then does Mom. Mom says, “I still have a real job.” Asthma now hinders her trips to the garden during bloom time so she usually only makes a prolonged appearance in the garden come digging time in July. Our two grown daughters do not share dad's joy of getting dirt under his fingernails but they also contribute with the digging. I am hoping to have a little more influence on my grandson and grand daughter who are 5 and 2.
LIFE IS SHORT, so remember to “STOP AND SMELL THE FLOWERS ALONG THE WAY.” You will not be sorry that you did.
Twana and Jim,
The Exlines
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