Sunday, October 21, 2007

Invasion of the pods :<)

I've been meaning to write about this subject all summer. We have a huge, huge iris plant. I don't recall where I bought it, but I've had it a few years. It didn't blossom for a while, but had gorgeous, lush leaf growth so we let it stay, hoping the flowers would eventually come. Well, this summer, they did. We had very, very pretty yellow iris flowers.



But I began to wonder about the plant itself, about why it was so big, and I discovered that in some places, including my own state -just this year, it is considered an invasive species. Apparently it goes wild if planted near water. Well, ours is along the fence which borders our road and there is no water anywhere, but still it grows. It was planted on one side of the fence, but it has spread to both sides.


This is what I saw when I went out today, and I thought it plenty scary. And this is just one pod. There were many of them, all waiting to grow and grow and grow.



It is overpowering everything around it. So, we've decided to dig it up, and I hope we don't need to rent a backhoe to do so.

4 comments:

  1. I saw one at my older son's university yesterday. The smell on the one there was wonderful. I thought that iris only bloomed in the spring. Didn't realize the fall. The amount of seeds on yours is pretty scary.

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  2. I wonder if it is the same plant. My iris bloomed the end of June. And I don't remember it having any particular smell. Yeah, those seeds are scary, and Tom is outdoors right now on this perfect autumn day, digging it up!

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  3. Yikes! This isn't what you were going to send to me, was it?! ;)

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  4. Don't worry, Les. I was going to send you (and will next summer) the purple ones you commented on.

    http://lettersfromahillfarm.blogspot.com/
    2007/06/book-passageone-mans-garden_
    13.html

    ReplyDelete

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