Mother, This One's for You.

I have some exciting news to share. Well, exciting to me anyway. It has to do with flowers and my heritage. So if you don’t like flowers, specifically peonies, iris, and old fashioned roses, you can just skip this blog.

When I was young, my mother was a very good gardener. And at the house they purchased when I was sixteen she planted a hill full of iris. It was a sight in the spring when they all bloomed. But as the years passed (40+) it got harder for my parents to maintain the hill. And the iris got overgrown with grass and weeds. Every spring there would be a few blooming, but most of them could barely make it through the prairie grass. One of the special irises was an old fashioned lavender one that smelled like grapes. So the second year we were here in Minnesota (2007), I went back for a visit and dug some of her iris to bring to Anniversary Grove. They grew and increased, but never bloomed. Then the year the folks moved out of their house and put it up for sale, I went up on the hill and dug a rhizome from every iris bunch I could find. Look what I got this year!

Just a sample of the gorgeous blooms this spring. And next year will be better.

When I lived in Piedmont, SD we were only about ¼ mile from the Black Hills. Up one of the trails into the hills, was the old Piedmont garbage dump that had been put on an old homestead. When they cleaned up the dump and moved it, the area was cleared of trees. The dirt on the hill is very shallow with limestone bedrock only about 1-2 inches below the top soil. When walking there one spring day, I found a bed of iris growing almost out of the rock. These irises were yellow and smelled like lemons. I took one rhizome and planted it in my Piedmont garden. When we moved to Minnesota, I grabbed one of the iris plants in my VERY large iris bed, hoping it was one of the yellows. And I lucked out. But it also had trouble blooming, until this year!

Blown over by the high winds, but still blooming.

Next to roses, peonies are my favorite flower. I love the look, and the smell of them. At the same time that I took the last batch of iris from my parent’s home, I took some pieces of my mother’s peonies. This is their third year here and the first year to bloom. I took four different plants; one name I know, the other three will have to be researched. Those of you that know peonies know that it will take about 3 years for the bloom to develop into its prime. After that, if taken care of they will bloom for years and years. My mother got her original plants from a friend’s mother sometime in the mid to late 60’s. And that woman had them for years before that. So these 4 peonies should have been hybridized sometime before the 1930s. That means they are a heritage flower. But what means more to me is that they were my mother’s and I will someday give some to my daughter, nieces and granddaughters.

Festiva Maxima (Miellez, 1851).



Unknown bloom. The last two are mid to late and haven’t bloomed yet.

And speaking of peonies, I spent the last two years here rescuing small peony shoots that kept coming up around my trees and in a wood pile east of the house. I have figured out that they were planted along the original fence line. My house was built in 1910 and we bought it from the family that moved here in 1950. Her mother was not a gardener, and never grew peonies. I have a picture of the house taken around 1920 with that same fence line and some small bushes (too fuzzy to tell what kind). So I think my rescue peonies were planted here somewhere around 1920. Because of this rescuing, I have about 23 peony surprises growing. I was told by a peony expert online that given care and years to grow, someday I would get blooms. Well…..after 2 years look what I have now! And there is one more with buds that will bloom next week. The bushes are small yet, but in a few years...what a picture they will be.

Laura Dessert (Dessert, 1913).



Possibly Avant Garde (Lemoine, 1907).



Probably Mons. Jules Elie (Crousse, 1888).


And finally the Memorial Day Peony that has been around since the middle ages.

Memorial Day peonies, Officinalis Rubra Plena, were carried across America in covered wagons. It is also called Old Double Crimson. For anyone that wants to research their peonies the Peony Database and the Heartland Peony Society are good places to start.

And finally Mother….It Made It!

Grandpa’s White shrub rose.

This slip of a slip of a slip of a slip is from the old shrub rose that grew at my Great Grandparents homestead in Big Stone, South Dakota. And I don’t know much more of the history of it, except I think it was originally brought from Germany. Mother had a huge one at the house, and when it was taken out, she put a piece up on the hill. This is the first time in all the years I have been gone from home that I have been successful growing this rose. I think it has finally found a new place at Anniversary Grove.

Hated Telephone

Right now I can say I am not happy Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. It is amazing that such a little instrument can bring so many emotions to people. Happy, sad, scared, angry. And the caller ID is the worst. You can pick up a phone expecting to hear the voice you know so well and instead hear “Aunt Candy, this is CJ.” and know immediately that something is terribly wrong.

Oh how a phone call can change your life. Over eleven years ago, I got one of those calls and it wrecked my world. My sister, Cara, had collapsed and was in a coma. Her heart had quit, but when they revived her, she was brain dead. So the family opted to take her off support and she died peacefully after 3 days. She was 50. And on May 13th of this year, I got another call. My brother, Charles, had a massive heart attack and died on a highway in Oklahoma with his wife of 3 months by his side. He was 64.

Charles and wife Donna.

Well, that spoiled this year and shocked me back to life’s realities. I was so happy in my little slice of heaven, thinking life would stay this way forever. But nothing stays the same, does it? His death leaves our family down to 4. Along with my sister Connie, both of my parents are still doing well at 90; as well as you can expect after losing a second child.

I sometimes long for the bygone days, when technology wasn’t even a word yet. The days when good or bad news came via telegraphs. At least then you could see the Western Union man coming and have time to prepare.

Catching Up

Well, I’m home again. For the next eight months. Then back to Marshall for yet another tax season. It’s good to be home. I missed my Hubby, my dogs and cats, my plants. And I missed the peace and quiet. Marshall is a great town with wonderful people, a great grocery store and some very nice restaurants. I’ll be happy to go back for some “people” time, but I also enjoy “alone” time. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones with the best of both worlds available.

A lot of things have changed since I last wrote. The snow is gone. The trees are leafing out. The flowers are coming up. All of my peonies, even the rescued ones, are up. Many of them have buds this year. Keep your fingers crossed. I might get blooms. All of the bushes are back, even if some are very short (thanks to the deer and rabbit population). We lost a few big trees this winter in the grove, but many are growing to take their place. The wild yellow, white and purple violets are blooming in great abundance. I think spring is here.

Mother, this is one of your peonies. Look at those buds.


Black cherry or chokecherry? It’s about 10 ft tall right now.

We still have 3 dogs, but not the same three. Noah, my beautiful Aussie/border collie cross is in a new home, happily chasing Frisbees. He was just too unhappy here, living with two sedate retired people and fighting for dominance with our old Ren. So the Border Collie Rescue of Minnesota took him and found him the perfect home. My new boy is a better suited to our lifestyle. Obie is a 6 month old Papillion. He gets along with the other two and is very happy to curl up on the floor at my feet or in my lap for long periods.

Obie (short for Oberon).

The three cats are still here. Poor Bob is looking a little strange, but happy and healthy. The hair on his bobbed tail has not grown back yet. I am a little concerned that it might never grow. But at least he can run and climb with the best of them. And he and Pickles are no longer fighting, so peace has come to our little homestead.

Funny looking but happy Bob.

I have had some wool fun since I lasted blogged. I went to Little Red Oak Farm to help with the shearing of Gail’s Shetlands and Finns. I purchased two fleeces from her (one was Maple’s of course) and got a free Jacob sheep fleece from the shearer. I had a great time and met a lot of nice people. Then this last weekend sister Connie and I went to Aberdeen to the Weaving Weekend put on by Marie and Kelly, to spend a glorious 24 hours spinning, talking wool, knitting and watching others weave. I also took my 2010 free Shalom Hills corriedale cross fleece (washed and dyed) to Kelly to card into a spinners web. I can’t wait to see the results.

Now back to reality; house to clean, bills to pay, clothes to wash, yard to mow, gardens to weed and wool to process. It’s a lot of work, but worth every bit of it. I'm glad I'm home.

Working and Ice

Let’s see. What have I been doing lately?
Working….snow…..hummmm…..knitting….oh yeah….working, snow, knitting, frogging, casting on, frogging. Working, snow, knitting, frogging, casting on….freezing rain, slipping on the ice….not working, laying on my sore back, watching TV, knitting, frogging, casting on. Working, snow, working, freezing rain, slipping on the ice, putting ice on my bunged up arm, knitting, frogging, casting on. Working, rain, walking gingerly, finally knitting more than two rows. No Olympic medal for me from Yarn Harlot.

I guess I have been busy, doing little of nothing but working. I have however, made some major decisions in my life. I will come back next year and work the tax season again. It’s nice to be appreciated enough to be asked back. And I will not step out of the house unless it is to go to work until the snow is melted. I refuse to take a chance on falling on the ice AGAIN, and getting more award winning bruises.

So that’s been my life the last couple of weeks. I did get home once (and fell there). The Hubby, dogs and cats were all happy to see me. And I was happy to see what I could of the place. Still snow up to my …. But Hubby says it’s melting slowly, which is a blessing. That’s a lot of moisture to find someplace to go. And I did get a couple of photos before I fell there and spent the rest of the weekend on heating pads. They’re just what you wanted to see. More snow.

Gee Look! Another snow picture.


Bob surveying his kingdom.