02. Humor and the Good Life

I don’t remember how it started, but somehow throughout my career at Cal Poly Pomona, Dick regularly asked me what colors I wanted. Then, a few days later, he would leave a bag of bearded iris rhizomes in our department office for me. Evidently, Dick was obsessed with breeding these plants, and his breeding program generated many “rejects,” which he shared with his friends and colleagues. My garden was full of his beautiful rejects, and I soon learned to appreciate these plants, which I think was Dick’s true aim. [excerpt