2023, animals, gardening, home, Mysteries, Nature

Floral Vandalism

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Went out on Saturday morning and discovered that two of my iris’ are gone!   Not eaten by some little critter, but gone – as in pulled up and removed.  I water these things every day so I know it happened between 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon and 9 a.m. on Saturday morning.

One was a brand new Red Raptor (the deepest reddish purple you can get without it actually being black) and a lovely shade of orange call Savanna Sunset, which I planted last year.  Both of these are colors that are outside the iris norm and that I really loved. 

It was quite disheartening and I feel like I’ve joined the ranks for crime victims in the Twin Cities.  Obviously this isn’t on the level of car theft or having your house broken into, but it still makes me a little sad. At least both of them were just past their bloom glory for the season.

Give me some songs or book titles to cheer me up!

41 thoughts on “Floral Vandalism”

      1. VS, I actually do think rabbits are a possible culprit. A very large rabbit could pull up the shallow root system of a iris with a lot of tugging. The deadheads, stems and leave are lunch. Maybe even the rhizome. Or it could be a really jerky human.

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        1. There wasn’t anything that could indicate it was an animal. Not one leftover bit of leaf, not one dirt trail from where a large iris would’ve been dragged off, nothing. I have never seen a bunny on my boulevard. In fact, even the squirrels pretty much stay away unless I tempt them by planting new bulbs in the fall. They don’t care about the second year, the third year but that first year they’re all about my new bulbs. That’s when I use chicken wire.

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  3. This year we planted snap peas, bush cucumbers, and green beans in our church vegetable garden raised beds so as to reduce the occurrence of “finger blight” that you recently experienced with your irises. All the produce in the church garden goes to the local food pantry in our town. We had cabbages, squash, and melons taken from the garden on several occasions after dark before the produce was even ripe. Peas, beans, and cucumbers are more time consuming to harvest, so we hope to have more produce for the food pantry. We will have an abundance of butternuts and tomatoes from our own garden to take to the food pantry and donate on behalf of the church.

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  4. Our favorite source for irises is Schreiner’s Iris Gardens. They are a reliable source of iris rhizomes with an extensive collection of varieties. Check them out. Now is the time to order iris for late summer and fall planting.

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  5. Our home veggie garden is in the front yard right next to the sidewalk. I am always amazed we have never had anyone help themselves to our produce.

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  6. That is just really sad, VS. I feel as bad for whoever did it as I do for you.

    There’s only a few of the words that apply, but it’s all I’m coming up with so far:
    Oh baby baby it’s a wild world, and it’s hard to get by just upon a smile…
    You know I’ve seen a lot of what the world can do, and it’s breakin’ my heart in two..

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  7. One of the reasons I chose to give up my plot in the community garden was theft. It’s so disheartening to watch as a tomato is reaching perfection only to discover it has disappeared in the night.

    If you haven’t read any Andrea Barrett, you should check her out. She tends to write series of interconnected stories. Ship Fever won the national book award, I think. I particularly liked her Archangel.

    When we were in Sheboygan and visiting a used bookstore, Inklings, I picked up a copy of The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin. It’s a historical novel, which I read very selectively but this one caught my eye for some reason. Maybe it was because, when I was in NYC with my daughter and her friend, who was serving as our informal guide, this friend/guide remarked, “There’s Grace Church, where Mr. And Mrs. Tom Thumb were married.”
    “Lavinia Warren”, I added, as that factoid bubbled up.

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      1. No. He is part of a clan in Vermont that are not related to us. Our last name is a mystery–there are two theories. We may have derived from 1. a William Stratton in Stratford on Avon in the 1690s who sent his boys, Mark and Emmanuel ages 11 and 12, to America with an older adult, Richard Bradock, age 20 to the Penn Colonies. OR 2. A man name Webster sent his same two sons with the same Braddock to the Penn Colony and they changed their names to Stratton when they arrived. The American DNA matches the Webster story.

        Charles Stratton, aka Tom Thumb, is from Strattons in which the men are very, very short and they match the Vermont DNA studies. I met one of his family at church. Her maiden name was Stratton, and she only recently passed away. She is the one who told me all the men in the family were very short.

        Bet you are now sorry you asked!

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  8. I went to the church garden this morning and found that someone had left a dozen bedding plants, serrano peppers, squash plants, and tomatoes for us, and planted tomatoes in cages in three large pots we asked the congregation to fill. We will find room for them, although it may be tight

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    2. Well, I do have to let the mystery be because this will never be solved short of someone knocking on my front door and confessing. This is not something I’m holding my breath for. We do have a ring doorbell, but it didn’t catch anything on the boulevard. However, since this happened, YA has upped the sensitivity so now anyone who walks by on the front sidewalk is tripping the ring. This is slightly annoying but it’s making YA feel better for right now.

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  10. I always try to remember that the good in this world outweighs the bad in this world by about 100:1.

    If the culprit wasn’t a rabbit, don’t let the lowlife get you down, VS. He/She is the real loser here.

    Chris in Owatonna

    **BSP** https://downtownnorthfield.org/community-events/third-thursdays-downtown/
    Tomorrow (Thursday) from 5-8 pm at Bridge Square near 4th & Division in Northfield MN. Should be a lovely evening for strolling, shopping, eating, drinking, listening to music, groovin’ on the small-town downtown vibe with some good people watching thrown in. I’ll be selling and signing my books and have information about pre-ordering my new book, “Little Mountain, Big Trouble.” I’d love to see you there if you’re in the area. **END BSP**

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      1. I don’t think so. Not sure how fast copies can be printed and delivered to me. If I had to guess, I’d say no for July 1. Probably for July 15 in Hopkins. Watch my newsletter or blog for information on that.

        Chris

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  11. I recall specifically my first encounter with a flower thief. It was in Cheyenne, Wyo in 1966. I had planted a red geranium in a clay pot and put it on the outside stoop of the entrance to our basement apartment. The apartment was too dark to grow anything in it, and I missed having houseplants a lot. Two days later it was gone. I was so disappointed that a flower lover would steal a plant from someone else, so I know the feeling, VS. Hope the encouraging words, thoughts, and music coming your way today help lift your spirits.

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    2. What a great bunch of musicians that was. At least four of them are gone now. So glad I had plenty of opportunity to hear them, and there are still recordings of some of those performances.

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  16. Mood update. I stopped and bought myself a Mouses Ear hosta on the way home from lunch with YA today. Obviously, I’m not planting any new iris at this time of year and will wait until the fall, but I’m looking forward to putting my little mouses ear in the dirt tomorrow morning.

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