Flower confessions

Ok. . . so, I freely admitted awhile back that I have a Harry Potter garden.  The height of nerd-dom, you probably thought at the time. 

Flower confessions time. A few years ago I was browsing through the Schreiner’s iris catalog online—man, do they have a huge variety of irises.  Any color you can think of.  All different sizes, styles, more than I ever imagined was available, as a former non-iris aficionado.  Well, you should also know that Star Wars first came out about the time I was in junior high (I know I’m seriously dating myself), and my two best friends and I were just crazy about that rakish Han Solo.  We went to The Empire Strikes Back many, many times.  So as I was browsing through this iris collection online, I came across a gorgeous, batik-y sort of looking dark and light purple iris called Millennium Falcon (which was the name of Han Solo’s ship, for the uninitiated).  Do you think I could resist it?  (If you answered “No,” you are learning.)  Although it was a bit pricier than I was used to paying for irises (I think it was in the neighborhood of 30 dollars, as opposed to my usual 7 or 8), I just had to have it. 

Millennium falcon

Then I stumbled onto a beautiful, light periwinkle blue one called Skywalker. . . and you know the rest of the story. 

Skywalker

Then the little dwarf iris called Dark Vader was added to the mix, and there you go. 

Dark Vader

 It’s not really a “Star Wars garden,” per se, because it’s only the three irises that are named for Star Wars and they’re mixed in with a bunch of other things. But every time I see those Dark Vader irises I chuckle to myself because of the play on words (I’m easily amused), and the Skywalker and Millennium Falcon irises are truly stunning. I think the whole concept also loses a bit in the translation because Dark Vader blooms quite a bit earlier than the other two—it’s done before they’ve even started.

I don’t spread it around too much, what their names are, because you know, people already think I’m a bit strange.