Ken,

I'd never heard of "petoskey stones," so you gave me an interesting little look-up assignment. Very cool. My mom's house in Idaho was basically an old river bed--a little dirt and lots of rocks, which made gardening really tough. Here in Nebraska, where I am now, I sometimes am struck with the irony of my scavenging rocks and sometimes transported them long distances to put in my garden.

Brett

Outer Edge


Subtle Beauty

Paul, nice clump of Simple Beauty!

Brett, I'm like you, I picked so many stones off the fields as a kid, I swore I'd never want to see another rock, but here where I live, it's all sand, not a rock on the place, except the ones I have brought in. Funny how that works.

Brett: Petoskey stones are mostly found in the great lakes area. They get their name from Petoskey, MI. I have never really found any outside of the great lakes. But if you do go looking for them, the best way to see their pattern is when they are wet. Unless polished, they just look like any old brown rock when dry. (Can you tell I grew up with them in Michigan? hee).

I have three Petosky stones, each about 2 inches across. Remind me of where I am from. Would love to have some large enough to build beds.

Wanted to add Simple Beauty to my wish list and did not find that entry in the database or out on the web?

I love them all!

signed,
Clumpless in California




I think I've gone

We are very inclusive of nutty people Rob!

I have been posting pictures of Subtle Beauty and mistakenly calling it Simple Beauty. Sorry

Okee dokee, have now booked it on my list!! Thank you, Paul.

brettbarney73 said:Ken,

I'd never heard of "petoskey stones," so you gave me an interesting little look-up assignment. Very cool. My mom's house in Idaho was basically an old river bed--a little dirt and lots of rocks, which made gardening really tough. Here in Nebraska, where I am now, I sometimes am struck with the irony of my scavenging rocks and sometimes transported them long distances to put in my garden.

Brett

Here is one I cut and somewhat polished. Don't know if you can see the pattern They are mainly found in the Great Lakes region from ancient fossilized reefs.

Here is that bed in bloom a couple years ago, with my purple noid and that one yellow one.

...Arlyn

Another noid

That's a nice one ! Does it often display that "broken color ? ...Arlyn

Last year was the first year that it displayed a broken color on those. I asked that a question on here during the winter asking if it could be a virus that caused it or recessive gene trait. Irisarian said it probably was the late cold frosty weather we had here last spring (during bud development) that caused it have the color break. I will be watching for it again this year.

Really cool stone, Ken -- I haven't seen those before. I'm from the Great Lakes region -- Chicago area specifically -- why have I never seen those?

Your garden display of NOID's is lovely -- but the yellow is substantially outnumbered!!! How did that happen?

I particularly like your white NOID -- the orange beards are wonderful on it!! It'll be interesting to see if you get another color break on that this year.

The stones are mainly found here in Northwestern Michigan, from Leelanau and Traverse city up to Petoskey Michigan.On the shoreline or within a mile or so from Lake Michigan.

The yellow one was a rescue out of the woods that I planted there. Not sure what it was going to be. Turns out that it is probably Flavescens is my guess.

Thank you so much for indulging me. I can't believe how many fantastic photos. I have picked out a bunch already. I like to see what they hopefully will look like in a garden setting, as all my bearded irises are in my gardens.

Thanks so much all!

I like that broken color.