roots - Historic Iris Preservation Society

The Pickle Barrel House (photo: Cathy Egerer)
the members of the Historical Society, and plans
began.
When the bearded irises bloomed around
town, I put a small article in the Grand Marais
Gazette requesting pups of any older irises people
might have – and did people ever respond!
Over the next few weeks, I photographed dozens
of irises and took measurements and notes,
securing promises for plants later on. I asked the
international Historic Iris Preservation Society
(HIPS) for help in identifying the old treasures
we found. From them I learned how to photograph
the flowers for identification, and what
plant parts to measure. The history of the irises,
their provenance, is vital information, too, and
this I carefully recorded for every iris photographed.
Delay followed delay in the construction
of the garden, but in the end
we got the space prepared. The new
garden sits on the former site of the
warehouse for Hill’s Store, torn down
in 1975. The soil is essentially glorified
beach sand, plentifully larded with
broken glass, old nails, and odd bits
and pieces of junk. A friend came with
his excavator and removed the sod,
such as it was. Another kind person
donated a dump truck load of topsoil.
My neighbor owns a former sawmill,
with a mountain of 30-year-old, partially
decomposed sawdust out back.
We shoveled one trailer load after
another of this brown gold onto the
garden. Two wonderful men with tillers
ground it all in for us.
above: The garden under construction
below: The garden ready to plant
left: The
garden
site,
with
Grand
Marais
Harbor
in the
background
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