Things get away from me in the garden — and I’m not talking just about the devil’s trident of quack grass, bindweed and thistle. Even some of my favorite plants have wandered off to pursue a lifestyle I never envisioned when they went in 10 years ago.
Last weekend, a blank space near the mailbox was screaming to be filled with something with a laissez-faire attitude about dog pee and blistering sun. Deep purple iris that fares as well in the shade of a cottonwood in my yard as it does on a friend’s hell strip seemed a pretty and fragrant choice.
But when I went to lift a clump from a tangle of santolina, the garden fork hit concrete. Neglected for too long, the about-to-bloom rhizomes had set out for more hospitable conditions across the driveway.
Once they were broken apart and replanted in honest-to-god dirt near the curb, I remembered the gentle prodding last summer by my garden pal who suggested a plant swap. I laughed and said I didn’t have much to offer. She raised her eyebrows and pointed at overgrown mounds of daylilies.
I needed the encouragement of the pioneering irises and their reminder that there is much to share in the unfettered garden, and that this is the summer to divide and cultivate it. Dana Coffield, The Denver Post
