Dividing Irises

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July 23, 2025

Irises have a rhizome root system. Every year, each rhizome yields additional rhizomes creating a larger network of roots. After several years of this development, bloom production may slow down or halt altogether if the rhizomes become too crowded. This indicates it’s time to divide the rhizomes.

When the bloom season has ended dig the entire plant including all the rhizomes. Break the rhizomes apart by hand at the joints where they are connected. Healthy rhizomes should have roots extending below and a fan of leaf blades above. The rhizome should be firm and at least the width of your thumb. Discard any rhizomes that are soft, have an odor or do not have leaves protruding.

Trim the fan blades to about eight inches, cutting each blade at an angle to keep water from collecting in the thick, open leaves. Trimming the leaves prevents the plant from falling over while the roots become established. Dig a hole just deep enough that the top of the rhizome is slightly exposed when placed inside. Irises will tolerate poor soil conditions, but well-drained soil is best. Space plants 12 to 18-inches apart and do not mulch. Irises do not respond well to over-watering; however newly planted rhizomes need to be watered in thoroughly.

Fertilize according to soil test recommendations or by applying a complete fertilizer, such as a 10-10-10, at the rate of 1 pound per 100 square feet. Mix the fertilizer into the soil to a depth of 6 inches. If your soil test shows high phosphorus levels, use a fertilizer that has a much higher first number (nitrogen) than second (phosphorus). It is important to get irises planted early enough in the season to allow roots to establish before the first hard frost.

Rooted in the Land: Legacy, Stewardship, and the Power of Playas

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Guest Columnist

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July 23, 2025

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GREELEY COUNTY, KS – When Alicia Allen returned to her family’s farm in western Kansas at age 24, she never expected that a patch of water-holding ground — one her dad had always said “just shouldn’t be farmed” — would turn into a cornerstone of their conservation legacy.

That water-holding patch is a playa — a shallow, round wetland that fills with rainwater and runoff. Playas are vital for recharging the Ogallala Aquifer and provide essential habitat for wildlife. Even though they may remain dry for extended periods, when filled, they support a rich variety of plants and animals.

“My dad didn’t know what a playa was at first,” Alicia admits, “but he knew that soil was different. It supported wildlife, and it just felt like it needed to be conserved.” That instinct led her father to explore a Wetland Reserve Easement (WRE) through USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) — but enrolling wasn’t straightforward. With half the mineral rights owned by an outside entity, the family spent over a year navigating legal channels before finally securing permission to move forward.

Today, that once-overlooked playa wetland spans about 100 acres including grass buffers, bursting to life with birds and deer after a good rain. “It’s always fun to go there after a storm and just see who shows up,” Alicia says. “It’s like a magnet for wildlife.”

Alicia and her family now have multiple playas enrolled in conservation programs, including a second WRE site added just last year. They’ve also used the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Migratory Birds State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE practice to protect additional playas. “They dot the landscape out here,” she says. “You just have to know what you’re looking at.”

But their work goes beyond the technical. For Alicia, playas represent a deeper purpose.

“When I think about the power of playas, it’s really about their ability to recharge the aquifer,” she explains. “Water is life out here. And if we want this place to be sustainable — for my daughter, for the next generation — then we have to take care of that.”

That commitment also means managing challenges. “Some of the maintenance practices available through CRP just aren’t great fits for our region,” she notes. “Interseeding is effective, but it’s expensive. Burning’s risky during dry spells. I wish there were more farmer-friendly, land-friendly options.”

Still, she wouldn’t go back. “You get this sense of pride seeing deer come in for water or ducks resting during migration. It just makes your farm really pretty — and it feels like the right thing.”

Alicia hopes more landowners will consider enrolling their playas, even if the process takes time. “With WRE, it’s a bit of a journey,” she says, “but you’ll be glad you did it. It benefits the land, the wildlife, your operation — and the future.”

That long view is what keeps her going. “In 50 or 60 years, I’ll be gone,” she says, “but what we did with this land — that’s what the next generation will remember. It’s a relationship we’re building, not just with the land, but with those who come after us. And I think that’s exactly how it was meant to be.”

Explore Wetland Reserve Easements

For more information about the program and how it can support your conservation goals, contact us.

Abe Lollar, Ducks Unlimited
620-214-2693
[email protected]

Matt Carey, NRCS
785-545-7081
[email protected]

Baa…d Moo…d

By

Lee Pitts

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July 22, 2025

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Today we discuss a very delicate subject… women.

I feel sorry for females, I sincerely do. They have to undergo nine months of craving pickles, experiencing the excruciating pain of trying to pass a basketball through a grapefruit sized hole and then do most of the major lifting in raising the resulting child. We haven’t even mentioned ballooning in size so she looks like she’s got a soccer ball under her shirt that also kicks like a soccer player. And the average American mother repeats the entire process all over again averaging 2.07 kids, while all the father has to do is pass out cigars and accept congratulations. So who can blame a woman for the occasional bad mood, irritability, territorial behavior, becoming a little testy or for transforming into a raging lunatic?

As a kid growing up I was always told that it was a fair deal; the women raised the kids while the men went off to war. But 84.3% of females have had a biological child while only 6.1% of males serve in the military and a large percentage of them will never see combat. And for 56.8% of women they not only have to experience the pain of childbirth but go to work soon after. Our government calls moms who don’t enter the work force “non-working women” but I contend there is no such thing. It’s almost as bad as days of old when a woman gave birth in the back of a covered wagon in the morning and was expected to cook dinner that night.

Does that sound like a fair deal to you?

The biggest enemies of motherhood are hormones like estrogen, progesterone, prolactin, oxytocin, luteinizing hormone, FSH (follicle stimulating hormone), Relaxin, HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin hormone), and on and on. They are all engaged in a nine month biochemical tug of war in the pregnant female’s brain and body and there’s not one ‘happy hormone’ amongst them. Even after the baby is born these hormones are not done with their terrorizing and tormenting.

I know about all this stuff because I’ve raised lots of cows and sheep, not that I’m equating cows with human moms, mind you. Do you think I’m that crazy? The last thing I’d want to do is invite the ire of the 5,359,550 pregnant women in this country who are subject to extreme mood swings and are also handy with a baseball bat.

Here’s an animal example that makes my point. We purchased a heifer at the county fair that would eat alfalfa cubes out of your hand, appreciated a good neck massage and was so sweet we called her Angel. But as her pregnancy progressed Angel turned into the devil. Try to feed her out of your hand and she’d run right over the top of you and eat YOUR lunch. Try to get close enough to rub her neck and she’d kick like a mule. She plowed right through a five wire fence just so she could upend my horse Gentleman who had previously enjoyed a peaceful relationship with her. From then on Gentleman was never the same and approached every cow as if she were pregnant. Which is actually not a bad policy with people too.

Then there were the 20 bred cows I bought on a whim one day at the auction because they were super cheap. They were Holsteins carrying Angus embryos. I thought I’d get a decent calf and then I’d sell the cows and make a little money but they were absolutely the worst cows to ever set foot on the place. When they calved every single one took one look at the hairball trying to attack their flanks and then they ran away with Secretariat-like speed. I never did get one to accept her calf and our barn was filled with hungry calves.

I had made the mistake of expecting those cows to use nature’s own formula in feeding their calves with the idea being as long as you got ’em you might as well use ’em. But the cows, who’d never had contact with their offspring before, had other ideas, all because man has intervened in the hormone hostilities in the Holstein brain.

And don’t get me started on the horrible horror-mones at work in the sheep’s brain… or lack thereof.

HUTCHINSON COMMUNITY COLLEGE AN ECONOMIC FORCE IN RENO COUNTY

By

tammiehoeme

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July 22, 2025

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Richard Shank
Columnist

Hutchinson Community College (HCC) is a major economic driver in Hutchinson and annually pumps $400 million into the local economy, according to Dr. Tricia Paramore, the school’s president. In a July 15 keynote address to the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon held at the 1861 Club on the Kansas State Fairgrounds, Paramore provided a wide range of statistics about the myriads of curriculums and courses of study available at HCC.

Dr. Paramore is no stranger to HCC, having served for 17 years as a dean at the school, followed by a two-year stint as a vice president. On July 1, 2024 she was installed as the college’s eighth president and hit the ground running with a long list of ways to take the college into the future.

In 2028, HCC will pause to celebrate its centennial as one of the state’s oldest community colleges.

In a PowerPoint presentation to approximately 100 business leaders assembled for the luncheon, Dr. Paramore told how HCC saw its origin in 1928 at 7th and Walnut Avenue, within the city’s original Hutchinson High School. Eleven years later, following the college’s acquisition of a strip of land adjacent to the 13th and Plum Street, the school built its first building, Lockman Hall which remains in use by the college where Dr. Paramore has an office.

Dr. Paramore pointed out that Kansas is served by 19 community colleges, including HCC. “Eleven percent of all community college degrees in Kansas are earned at HCC, second only to Johnson County Community College in Overland Park,” Dr. Paramore said.

In the school’s first year of operation, 170 students were enrolled. “Today, HCC’s student enrollment is approximately 5,000 with 2,500 of the students on campus,” Dr. Paramore said. “HCC’s student to teacher ratio is 18 to 1.”

Dr. Paramore explained the community colleges are divided into service areas. “Included in the HCC service area is Reno County, McPherson County, Harvey County and half of Rice County,” Dr. Paramore said. “Approximately 40 percent of the HCC students come from our service area.”

“There are 33 high schools within our service area and, each year, hundreds of students from these high schools get a jump start on their college education by taking courses at HCC,” Dr. Paramore said.

“HCC provides 78 areas of study and each year we graduate approximately 1,700 students, second in Kansas only to Johnson County Community College in number of graduates,” Dr. Paramore said.

As Dr. Paramore clicked off a long list of college majors available at HCC, the audience was left to think there is something for almost everyone. Among the majors and certifications available are welding, firefighting, cosmetology, para legal training, public safety, fine arts theater, and nursing. “Fifty-four percent of nurses at Hutchinson Regional Medical Center are graduates of HCC,” Dr. Paramore said. “About 54 percent of our students are enrolled in career and technical programs.”

Other highlights included in Dr. Paramore’s 25-minute speech included:

—Tutoring programs are available to all HCC students.

—Free mental health counseling services are available without charge to all students.

—HCC is home to a nationally recognized honors program.

—86 percent of all students utilize financial assistance programs including scholarships.

Dr. Paramore, an avid sports fan herself, is married to Lonnie Paramore who this spring concluded a 17-year career as Haven High School basketball coach, and will continue his career this fall in the same position at Halstead High School.

So, it came as no surprise to the Chamber of Commerce audience when Dr. Paramore launched into a discussion of HCC’s athletic successes which, as she pointed out included 11 national championships, ranging from Football to Spirit Squads. “Many of the student athletes are from low-income homes and are the first generation in their family to attend college,” Dr. Paramore said. “More than 50 percent of the athletes would not have attended college had it not been for a sports scholarship.”

Also, Dr. Paramore spoke of a highly successful apprentice program, which 59 Hutchinson employers are currently participating in. In one case, an employer at the luncheon meeting pointed out how he permanently hired an HCC intern following her apprenticeship with his firm, a story often told in the Salt City.

These days, colleges often hit the road to provide courses and services for nearby towns. To accommodate the growing need for providing classes in other cities, HCC has opened service centers in McPherson and Newton to assist residents in those cities.

Also, HCC provides teaching to inmates incarcerated at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility and, to date, approximately 100 inmates are enrolled. And, for those wishing to fulfill the requirements for a GED, a high school level graduation equivalent, HCC also has a program to make that happen.

Dr. Paramore, like her seven predecessors, adheres to the college’s mission statement, “Expanding the tradition of excellence through learning and collaboration.”