Guide to Bearded Irises - Cultivating the Rainbow for Beginners and Enthusiasts

Zusatztext “Norris is a charming guide. It’s difficult not to be seduced by his enthusiasm and tantalizing descriptions of the colors! textures! ruffles! and patterns of the iris species.” — Publishers Weekly “A green thumbs up! especially as this is a fresh! timely! and appealing presentation of the topic.” — Library Journal “A handsome book.” — Country Gardens “Comprehensive and up-to-date! all the while brimming with an enthusiasm that is exhilarating! inspiring.” — American Gardener “[Norris] is an enthusiastic young American who writes in a readable style with his passion for irises coming across on each page.” — The Garden “Norris will offer fresh inspiration! as well as growing tips and descriptions of recommended cultivars.” — NJ.com “It’s a rainbow of a book! with deliciously coloured section pages and graphics that mark it out as having a modern approach to this potentially old-fashioned flower.” — The Independent Informationen zum Autor As a speaker! plant breeder! and expert plantsman! Kelly Norris has garnered national acclaim for his high-energy! zealous presentations. He is the award-winning author of four books! the horticulture manager at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden! and the director of Horticulture Now. Visit his website at kellynorris.com.  Klappentext In  A Guide to Bearded Irises  you'll learn where bearded irises come from how to use them in your garden how the newest varieties are created what the best varieties are in each of the six main classifications how to deal with pests and diseases Above all! you'll learn just how versatile! exciting! and rewarding bearded irises can be. If you'r not an iris lover already!  A Guide to Bearded Irises  is sure to win you over!  Preface I love irises—all kinds, really. But I’m head-over-heels crazy for bearded irises. I guess it all started in 1999 at the kitchen table of Cal Reuter, a well-known irisarian from Wisner, Nebraska. Irisarian—that’s the proper terminology for someone crazier about irises than a normal person would think healthy. I’m one, and I’d venture a guess that if you aren’t one already, you will be, by book’s end. I was all of 12 the summer I sat at Cal’s kitchen table, poring through his small-type catalog in search of what I didn’t know would become an all-consuming passion. I walked away with ten cultivars that day, vowing to keep track of their names as a promise to Cal. He dug them from his expansive front-yard “field,” marked them, and sent them home with me in a box that got stuffed under the backseat of my grandma’s van. I remember feeling giddy about the whole excursion, and as we ambled down the dusty road, away from Cal’s Spruce Gardens, I checked over the seat to see that my box of plants was riding snugly, as the trees at the edge of Cal’s property faded in the distance.             Fast forward three years. In that short span of time, those ten irises cultivated something deeper in me than I did in them. My collection had grown to almost 350 varieties by the summer of 2002, when I sent an email to a man named Cliff Snyder, who at the time owned Rainbow Iris Farm in Bartlett, Texas. Though I had no idea then, my life changed on 30 July 2002.             To make a long story short, I (a mere 15-year-old) talked my parents into flying to Texas, buying, and subsequently relocating Rainbow Iris Farm to our farm in rural Bedford, Iowa. We tilled up seven acres, spent 320-plus man-hours planting 40,000 rhizomes, and watched a former cattle pasture grow into a field of dreams. We opened for business on 18 May 2003 and haven’t looked back, except to chuckle at our craziness, since.        ...

Product details

• Authors: Kelly Norris, Kelly D Norris, Kelly D. Norris
• Publisher: Timber Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 04.05.2012
• EAN: 9781604692082
• ISBN: 978-1-60469-208-2
• No. of pages: 348
• Subjects: Guides > Nature > Garden; Non-fiction book > Nature, technology > Nature: general, reference works