Laughing Ravens

  Color seems like a simple thing, right? A color is a color. Kids know what blue is.  Blue is always blue. There's something very concrete about color. Until it isn't.  As a little kid I learned that color is complex. First through paint, mixed with my fingers, where yellow and green made mucky brown. Then Playdoh taught me that yellow and blue didn't make green... but more of a vomit color. This was not looking good for my little color wheel. (I went looking for photos on the intertubes that would illustrate my childhood frustration, but apparently Playdoh has changed to remedy that frustration, so that now the colors do blend together according to the color wheel... but they sure didn't in the 1970's. Also of note in my search were the number of sites which offered homemade versions of Playdoh because apparently that's a thing.) At the same time, I was trying to understand how light changed color. My mom found these educational toys at a garage sale one weeke...

  Seeds of various irises, from SIGNA, from friends on Facebook, and from fellow hybridizers I have been waiting for the SIGNA seed exchange to open since 2023. They cancelled the seed exchange last year due to low participation numbers. Not enough folks were excited enough to send seeds. This year, I kept checking the SIGNA website with baited breath.  For other seed loving, iris growing enthusiasts, here is the link: http://www.signa.org/index.pl?Membership So why am I so excited? I guess it helps to understand what SIGNA is. "Species Iris Group of North America is devoted to studying the Iris family in the wild as well as enjoying them in the garden. We're equally interested in species and hybrids. We promote them through our seed exchange while supporting their conservation in the wild. We disseminate scientific and cultural information about them through our members-only publications and to the public at large via this website." - from the SIGNA website. What this re...