My daddy had the most beautiful iris bed I have ever seen.
We both ordered from Cooley’s (now defunct) decades ago.
I divided up my collection, but Daddy constructed a bed just for his dozen types.
Those iris exploded with color for years.
Then they got too crowded, so Daddy and I dug them up. We amended the soil in the bed. Then we bagged up the leftover rhizomes and gave them to Daddy’s friends.
We attached the Cooley planting instructions to each paper bag.
His iris bed looked perfectly spaced and tended. We were looking forward to spring.
Then the cancer came. Daddy could not garden anymore. He could only direct from his chair next to an open window.
During a visit home, I walked up to check the iris bed. The leaves were lying flat on the ground, detached from their half-eaten rhizomes. A vole had been eating my precious Daddy’s precious iris.
I researched solutions, I mixed sharp gravel in with the soil, smashed every tunnel and installed a stake that makes noise. I guess this helped some.
Daddy died in July that year.
I still tend his iris bed. There are signs of a vole despite my efforts.
The iris are blooming again now. Only two are hybrids. The rest are old types that were never planted there.
Maybe Daddy and I missed some seed pods during that terrible time. I do not know.
All I know is I feel like I keep losing things of great value no matter how hard I try to prevent it.
FLOW
floweralley 
Sorry that the voles snuck in and stole this treasure. The treasure of your father in your heart no one can steal.
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Thank you Rebecca. He is with me every day in my garden. He taught me many lessons. I really miss him.
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It’s lovely that you fended off the voles enough so that your Daddy’s irises are still going strong. They are resilient plants. It’s tragic that he was taken away too soon by a cruel disease and that the voles prevented the irises looking good during their last flowering for him. He will never leave you. Sending virtual hugs.
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I feel like he is still here sometimes. My sister and I just planted his vegetable garden. Mama can watch it grow and eat delicious tomatoes.
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I had a beautiful garden of purple and peach colored irises that I had gotten from my grandmother and mother many years ago. The flowers were so crowded. Every year I said that I was going to dig some of them up to share. Well, the next year came and there were NONE! Not a one. The voles must have eaten every last one of them because there is absolutely nothing there now😡
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I am so sorry Betty. If you know their names, I can track some down for you. Pass-along plants are living legacies. I cherish mine.
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A lovely story despite the voles menace. We have lost gladioli to them.
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Oh my.
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Glad Daddy doesn’t have glads.
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