ROOTS Journal of the Historic Iris Preservation Society
Volume 29, Issue 2 Fall 2016 ROOTS Volume 29, Issue 2, Fall 2016 2017 HIPS General Meeting Date Everyone is invited to attend the 2017 HIPS CONTENTS General Meeting, which will take place during the AIS Convention in Des Moines, Iowa, May 23-27. 3 From the President’s Garden - Cathy Egerer The exact time and date will be posted on the 4 Call for Iris Lists & Note from the Editor HIPS website this winter and will be sent to 5 Announcements members via our email list. If you would like a 6 Letter to the Editor; Book Review on Bliss Irises written notice, please send a postcard to President 7 Capturing the Rainbow - Carlos Ayento Cathy Egerer. Please note there will no longer be 12 Meet the Research Curators - Cathy Egerer section board meetings at the AIS Convention, so 14 The Locator the HIPS Board will meet by teleconference prior 15 2016 HIPS Distinguished Service Awards to the Convention. a 16 HIPS Outreach - Cathy Egerer 16 In Memoriam Copyright Information 17 In Memoriam: Jean Witt - John “Jack” Finney Unless specifically stated otherwise, all rights 20 Jean Witt’s Scrapbook Legacy - Bob Pries are reserved by HIPS. AIS and all affiliates may 21 Hereafter - Paschall, Carver, & McDonald reprint freely, with attribution; please send the 26 Shirley Jean: An Epistolary Story ROOTS editor a courtesy copy. All others, please 29 From Beds of Raging Fire - Barbara Peters inquire. a 34 Breezeway Iris Garden - George Bacon 35 The Wanda Rezac 2016 Iris Rescue - Susan Flow THANK YOU! 39 HIPS 2016 Rhizome Sale Report - Judy Schneider Again, many thanks to Phil Edinger and Janet 41 Society Business - Cathy Egerer Smith for ID and photo work. And thanks to so 42 The Last Minute - Nancy McDonald many of you for your kindness during my family’s 43 HIPS Contacts difficult time with three major health problems. It helps to know you care. You are the best. a
HIPS MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION
- All prices are in U.S. dollars. Subscription Votes Price: U.S, Price: - E-members do not receive paper copies of Choice Canada, & Rest of World ROOTS; all others do. ROOTS will be available to Mexico (Overseas) all members on the HIPS website. TRADITIONAL MEMBERSHIP - ALL memberships include access to the HIPS website. Single Annual 1 US $13 US $20 - U.S., Canadian, & Mexican members pay the same price & have access to the HIPS Rhizome Single 1 US $33 US $52 Sale. Members elsewhere pay extra for postage. Triennial We’re sorry, but we cannot ship rhizomes overseas. Dual Annual 2 US $15 US $22 - Join online or send a check or money order in $US, payable to HIPS, to our Membership Chair Dual Triennial 2 US $39 US $58 Judy Eckhoff, 7911 S Yoder Rd, Haven KS 67543-8114; 620-931-5114; you may also reach Youth, Annual 1 US $5 sorry, not Judy at
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 2 Fall 2016 From the President’s Garden
Autumn is here, and once again the summer seemed to fly by. I hope your summer brought lots of beautiful iris blooms. The HIPS summer started out with a bang as we hosted three special guests at the AIS Convention: Milan Blažek from Prùhonice Park Garden near Prague, Czech Republic, and Barbara Wüthrich and Lisa Eggenschwiler from Merian Park Gardens in Basel, Switzerland. Along with Suzanne Broullon from The Presby Memorial Iris Garden, they presented a fascinating program about the founding of these famous gardens and the irises on display at each. Rounding out the pro- gram, Douglass Paschall shared the development of the Guardian Gardens program and its progress to date, and Bob Pries gave an overview of the Na- tional Collections program that the AIS is develop- ing. Our thanks to all of these speakers for their first-rate presentations. Because this was such a special opportunity, HIPS arranged for the full pro- MDB ‘Perky’ (W. Welch, 1959) Carlos Ayento photo gram to be videotaped. Links to the videos are on the HIPS website (look under Resources) and we forward. I think surveys can best be conducted by hope you’ll take the time to view them. teams, as it lightens the work and narrows the focus, This year’s HIPS Distinguished Service but they can be accomplished by a willing Awards were presented to Milan Blažek and Anner individual. Aside from TB (39,000+) and SDB Whitehead at the AIS Convention. Milan and (5,000+), most classes are small, especially after Anner have made many contributions to the world factoring in extinction.” of irises and to HIPS, and this honor is richly de- If you have some time available to help with a served. More information is on page 15. survey, please contact Charlie at It is my great pleasure to introduce our new
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 3 Fall 2016 Call for Iris Lists: From the Editor Needed by December 31, 2016 “If you want to see your mother alive, get here One of the most valuable ways you can quick,” said the doctor at the nursing home 400 contribute to HIPS and help strengthen it is to send miles away. I dropped everything and hit the road. in a list of the historic irises you are growing. Lists Therefore, ROOTS is late. I apologize for the of members’ holdings help us determine which lateness, but not for the reason. Family comes first. irises are in danger of disappearing and need more Mom, at 100, rallied, conquered the focused preservation efforts. Irises 30 years or older pneumonia and the blood clot in her lung, and is qualify as historic, so for the list we’re compiling still with us as I write. We failed to take into for the coming year please include all of your irises, account her incredible immune system, which has in any class, dating from 1987 and before. kept her alive and mentally sharp all these years. Our databank chair, Lori Lensch-Marcotte, She is ready to go but in no hurry, cheerful, not in can work with all types of formats, from pain, and always interested in life. handwritten lists, simple email, word processing This experience reminded me of a project I’ve documents, and spreadsheets. She invites you to toyed with for years: a memories garden. This communicate your list to her by December 31, differs from a memorial garden in that the loved 2016. An easy template in PDF format is available ones celebrated may still be living, and might like to on the HIPS website,
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 4 Fall 2016 ANNOUNCEMENTS
Carlos Ayento Photographs job descriptions of AIS offices. The Index can help In this issue we feature the glorious photos by you find caps, sweatshirts, t-shirts, and coffee mugs our own Carlos Ayento. You will love Carlos’s with AIS designs that you could give as Christmas website,
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 5 Fall 2016 of color by eye and brain: the decay of sight with Letter to the Editor age and the slow onset of cataracts, for example. Dear Ms McDonald: But this discussion I must leave to others more Anne Milner in ‘Iris Colour Rendition’ qualified for the task. (ROOTS, Vol. 29, Issue 1) broaches a subject that Let me mention also a subject for which I am concerned me greatly while employed in the Kodak highly qualified: manure. Here I refer to page 34 of Ltd. Research Laboratory, in Harrow, England. It the same ROOTS issue. As a schoolboy I was sent concerned me also as editor of Pacific Horticulture by my father into the streets of Dagenham, just while here in California. Photographers using the beyond London’s East End, to collect horse manure silver process were troubled by the film’s sensitivity left by the delivery carts of bakers, milkmen, and to infrared radiation, wavelengths to which our eyes rag-and-bone men. Later, as a young man, I worked are not sensitive, but which are plentiful in sunlight. on a farm near Esher, in Surrey, and was sent each The effect of the film’s sensitivity was to render week to Epsom to collect the straw and droppings some blue and bluish flowers as though they were from racing stables where a higher class of horse pink or magenta. A few red flowers gained unreal was lodged. When, later still, I had my own garden, richness and yellow ones a warm glow. (Some I met a neighbor named Alfred White, a wise old viewers found the result pleasing.) gentleman who “fed” me several fine rhizomes and Not all flowers were subject to this color persuaded me to join the Iris Society, now known as distortion, and the difference spurred a study by the British Iris Society. Mr. White had a small botanists and photographers. It was found that petals nursery plot specializing in irises and fuchsias, of some flowers absorbed the sun’s infrared which I visited often. One day I was amazed to see radiation (an adaptation, perhaps, to cold climates) his irises heavily mulched with well-decayed horse and were generally well rendered on color film, manure. I told Mr. White that I understood this to while others reflected those same wavelengths. In be bad for the irises; that they were likely to die. this second case the camera, loaded with film of any “Perhaps,” he said, “Some may, but my brand, received an image including infrared word, you should see those that survive!” radiation indistinguishable from visible red and was With kind regards, George Waters a recorded as such. Flowers with bluish petals that absorbed the infrared rays and were more likely to be accurately rendered included, for example, many BOOK REVIEW bluish delphiniums. Blue gentians and blue poppies BLISS IRISES by Anne Milner (Mecanopsis) photographed well. Irises proved to by Janet Smith be a mixed bunch. The pale aquamarine blue In my hand is a 6 inch by 9 inch book about partially coloring petals of some California native the Bliss Family and Flowers: The Journey to a hybrid irises was usually well rendered. But National Collection. Anne Milner begins her story generally iris photographers seeking good color with the history of the Bliss family, how she is rendition worked in overcast weather, when much related to Arthur J. Bliss, and his story. It is packed of the sun’s infrared radiation is absorbed by clouds. full of family photos and Bliss irises. It’s very well Lens filters said to correct for the infrared effect written and describes a most interesting journey the were available, but their use required long author has taken to discover what Bliss irises she exposures. had in her garden, how to truly identify an iris, and Today’s cameras (and mobile telephones) great stories in between. The latter part of the book using electronic imaging avoid many of the faults of contains photos, prints, and descriptions of A. J. silver film. They also allow the use of very short Bliss introductions in order by date. There are 232 exposures, even with small apertures, yielding fine, pages included in this book, in which you get to sharp images. But they also allow easy doctoring of share in the journey Anne Milner took, and the image, so that the viewer must always ask: is continues to take, and the adventures she has had in this exactly what the camera saw? the iris world. I could hardly put it down, and In addition to the many factors affecting the learned so much about A. J. Bliss and his reproduction of color discussed so admirably by Ms. contribution to the iris world. Thank you, Anne Milner, there are others concerning the perception Milner, for the adventure. a
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 6 Fall 2016 CAPTURING THE RAINBOW A Visit to the Presby Memorial Gardens Text & Photos by Carlos Ayento
I have been involved in irises since I was That would not happen for another fourteen twelve. Back then, in 1992, my iris knowledge was years, when the 2016 National Convention for the limited to the eight iris cultivars that I grew in my American Iris Society was set to take place in backyard and those pictured in various perennial Newark, New Jersey. Of course, the Presby catalogs, such as Burpee or Spring Hill. A few Memorial Iris Gardens were on the official tour. years later, I was introduced to Schreiner’s Iris Laetitia Munro, one of the first HIPS members that I Gardens, and that became the catalyst of my current “met” upon joining in 2004, asked consistently if I collection. That will be a story for another day, but was going to attend. Mind you, it took me 27 years my first reference to the Presby Memorial Iris to finally “go west” and visit the famed Schreiner’s Gardens would be through them. Iris Gardens last year and that was with some family It was in the spring of 2002. Gracing the members (who actually knew how to drive) tagging cover of Schreiner’s Iris Lover’s Catalog was the along with me. I had my doubts about going to blue and white plicata ‘Presby’s Crown Jewel’ Newark alone, but about month before the (Tragitt, 2002). Upon reading the description I convention, I finally purchased that plane ticket to then learned about a national garden of irises on Presby. public display. In 2002, I was in my final semester It is ironic that the first person to greet me at of college, studying to become a band and music the airport and act as my chauffeur was none other educator. I was a broke college student, but I than Laetitia, who over the years provided me with thought to myself, “I would love to see the Presby so much information on locating rare iris cultivars Gardens one day.” and helping my collection grow. Through urban
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 7 Fall 2016 one that I originally chalked up as just another variegata, was ‘Navajo’ (Farr, 1913). It, too, had an amazing display of blooms. The falls of ‘Navajo’ seal the deal with those white haft markings extending nearly all the way to the bottom edges of the deep red petals. One obscure iris I was able to capture was the recently re-identified ‘Mlle Schwartz’ (Denis, 1916), formerly incorrectly listed as ‘Lady Foster’ (Foster, 1913). While this iris is officially described as a pale mauve self, to this writer’s eye, its color is a pristine light lilac. Whereas ‘Mlle Schwartz’ had no shame in flaunting herself to the public, another obscure iris nearly escaped capture. This was Olive Murrell’s appropriately named iris, ‘Witchery’ (1929). It was just beginning to bloom; its first few blooms were being obscured by its much taller neighbors. Had it not been over 90EF out, there perhaps would have been a darker infusion of blue coloration on the ‘Mlle Schwartz’ (Denis, 1916) falls. Its total effect reminds one of a reverse amoena, with mustard yellow on the standards and a skylines and twisting suburban roads, Laetitia drove pale blue-white on the falls. me straight toward the Mecca of East Coast Irisland: Thanks to Catherine Adam’s work in acting as Presby. a liaison between HIPS members and Richard That first view just upon passing the barricade Cayeux’s personal historic collection in 2014, many of trees blew my mind. While I knew the Presby of us received some extremely rare historic Cayeux Memorial Iris Gardens was a grand collection of creations here in the United States and Canada. I irises, seeing was believing…and believe me when I was gladdened to see many irises of the Cayeux say that my camera was out and ready as soon as I legacy finding a home at Presby. From creamy stepped out of the car. yellow French Dykes Medalist ‘Alice Harding’ Laetitia explained to me how the gardens run (1933) to the watermelon pink flavoring of sequentially according to introduction date. ‘Aubanel’ (1935), to the rare and unique plicata, Therefore, I thought it would be best ‘Donatello’ (1947) and to the more to start photographing them from the recent French ‘Cancan’ (2002), the oldest and work my way up to the hybridization work of the Cayeux newest. My goal, while sounding legacy was well represented. ever so simple, was perhaps one of Another hybridizer’s work that the most arduous tasks I have ever was well represented, and one that is undertaken: photograph everything. near and dear to my heart, is that of Not only were there so many irises to the Schreiner family. It was fun photograph, but time and the seeing some of my old friends in extremely hot weather made it nearly different settings. The striped plicata impossible. ‘Gypsy Baron’ (1942) was in full One of the first irises to capture bloom, along with its neglecta my attention was the purplish-blue classmate ‘Lothario’ (1942). It was ‘Violacea Grandiflora’ (collected by also great to see the iris that brought DeBerry, 1856), one of the oldest the iris world to a halt in the irises in the collection. It produced a mid-1940s as being the darkest iris stunning clump that was ready for the ever introduced at its time: ‘Black convention. A surprising iris, and ‘Witchery’ (O. Murrell, 1929) Forest’ (1945). Seeing one of the
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 8 Fall 2016 many Schreiner 1950s orchid pinks, ‘Lavanesque’ (1953), made me realize that the one I have grown as that for many years is incorrect. ‘King’s Choice’ (1957) was for me the most exciting Schreiner introduction at Presby. It’s a midnight-blue self with an infusion of plum in the hafts. ‘Pacific Mist’ (1979) put on a spectacular display of light blue blooms, which Communications & Donor Manager Suzanne Broullon described as “an ocean wave.” The gardens even had some of the Schreiner’s 2015 introductions on display, including the yellow and purple bicolor ‘Makin’ Good Time’. When I was collecting the irises of Gordon Plough in my original garden, one of the most sought after of his introductions was the iris ‘Eastmont’ (1956). What a pleasure and treat it was to see ‘Eastmont’ growing amongst the 1950s iris beds. Eastmont is a census-designated area of Wenatchee, Washington, where Plough resided. It was also in the registered names of his beloved Boston Terriers: Eastmont Spooky, Eastmont Sparky, Eastmont Lucky, and Eastmont Buffy.
‘King’s Choice’ (Schreiner, 1957)
Lloyd Zurbrigg’s 1959 introduction ‘Gentian Falls’ also ranked high among my favorites of the convention. While its color combination is not unusual by today’s color values, this light blue amoena with fiery red beards is unique due to the glowing yellow infusion at the haft. Zurbrigg’s more recent ‘Tudor England’ (1980) was another eye-catcher with its reverse blue bitone and faint old-gold rim around the falls. Two hybridizers that never really sparked much interest in me before visiting the Presby Memorial Iris Garden were the Sass Brothers. While I was familiar with their more popular hybridization efforts, such as the glistening ‘Blue Shimmer’ (1941) and the luminous ‘Moonlit Sea’ (1949), it was their obscure creations that caught my eye and camera. Two of their standout yellow efforts, ‘Lindora’ (1950) and ‘Mustard Stick’ (1956) were outstanding and simply unique. As I approached the 1960s, one of the most striking irises to catch my camera was ‘Fourth of July’ (Clifford Reynolds, 1962), a wonderfully pale The ocean wave of ‘Pacific Mist’ (Schreiner, 1979)
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 9 Fall 2016 I could write and take up a whole publication of ROOTS with my thousands of photos and experiences. It was indeed a pleasure to visit the gardens and finally put name-to-face all of the wonderful HIPS members that I have conversed with over the years. Thank you again to Laetitia and Linda for offering me a car ride not only to the gardens, but to a lifetime of memories. a
‘Coralene’ (Caroline DeForest, 1965)
blue-white self with a striking tangerine-red beard. While George Shoop was responsible for pushing the development of irises with white standards, blue falls, and red beards (dubbed red, white, and blue irises) during the 1980s, ‘Fourth of July’ was a big advancement in a color palette rarely seen in the 1960s. Other favorites from the 1960s included the creamy pink ‘Coralene’ (C. DeForest 1965) and the hauntingly serene powder blue of Sanford Babson’s ‘Apropos’ (1964). ‘Apropos’ (Sanford Babson, 1964) Of course, I would be remiss if I did not talk about the Queen of Presby. No one could ignore Former President and Curator of the Presby Memorial Iris Garden, ‘Barbara Walther’ Portraits by Carlos of other irises mentioned in (Casselman, 1959), or deny that she is still the this article may be seen on these pages: reigning queen of the gardens as she welcomed the ‘Aubanel’ (Cayeux, 1935) - page 5 visitors to the convention. Linda Sercus, former ‘Donatello’ (Cayeux, 1947) - p. 11 Executive Director of Presby Memorial Iris ‘Eastmont’ (Plough, 1956) - p. 11; ID uncertain Gardens, told me the story of Barbara Walther and ‘Fourth of July’ (Clifford Reynolds, 1962) - p. 41 Arthur Casselman. Apparently Barbara agreed to ‘Lothario’ (Schreiner, 1942) - p. 11 have an iris in her name, but requested that it be ‘Navajo’ (Farr, 1913) - p. 15 blue, her favorite iris color. She was quite upset ‘Tudor England’ (Zurbrigg, 1980) - p. 11 when it bloomed white, but nevertheless, Barbara lives on through her namesake iris.
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 10 Fall 2016 ‘Lothario’ (Schreiner, 1942)
‘Donatello’ (Cayeux, 1947)
‘Eastmont’ (G. Plough, 1956) - ID uncertain
‘Tudor England’ (L. Zurbrigg, 1980)
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 11 Fall 2016 Meet the Research Curators by Cathy Egerer, HIPS President
I am delighted to introduce two very special country estate was located on a peninsula where the irisarians who have agreed to lend their expertise to only irises were water irises, growing in profusion HIPS as Research Curators. Catherine Adam in on the edge of the waterways. France and Phil Edinger in the United States are When I left the homestead, I came to live in working with Doug Paschall, the Guardian Gardens another house where a former orchard of pear trees program administrator, to identify irises on two had given way to a flower garden and a vegetable continents. Catherine’s work with historic irises at garden. At age 10 I learned to hoe the aisles. My the Parc Floral de Paris has been invaluable in grandmother hired a gardener, but Mom also establishing IDs for their collection. Phil’s handled much of the garden and loved roses, tulips, expertise in identifying historic bearded irises has irises, and sweet peas. For many years I was the clarified many iris identifications and helped in the little hand of the garden, and my mother taught me re-discovery of many missing cultivars. Let’s meet the names of the plants, especially roses. them, in their own words. The only hybridized irises we had were a series of five that Mom ordered in the 1960s, and she did not know their names. After her death, I found the bill for these irises. It included the words “recent introductions of the U.S.A.” and included one yellow iris, one blue, and one pink. Other irises came from friends’ gardeners. One day Mom said she wished to have more irises. I contacted the premier iris supplier in France, Cayeux House, and I ordered modern irises. I’ve been caring for the garden full time for years, and I find I prefer the old irises. I decided I wanted to learn more about historic irises, but I ran into a wall: the commercial iris growers had little information. It seemed the French iris world wasn’t interested in the old irises. I phoned the Parc Floral de Paris in order to obtain old irises. My plea for information reached the head gardener and, as it happened, he was looking for someone to validate the identities of their entire collection of bearded and species irises. I received many old irises from this garden for the purpose of study and validation. The HIPS website helped me a lot in terms of methodology. The request by the P.F.P. was a big Catherine Adam project and I reached out to other iris experts for I was born in Aquitaine, France, and lived in help. I thank Milan Blažek, Phil Edinger, and Terry the countryside until I was 10. I first fell in love Johnson for their help. I created various working with the wildflowers growing nearby, and remember documents, including an Excel document containing staring at them for hours. The wheat ears in the all the descriptions that I could find in French and fields fascinated me as much as the flowers. Roses English. Finding descriptions from the earlier grew around the house, along with orchids, daisies, breeders has proved difficult. This work is ongoing. poppies, even a palm tree, a souvenir of the France is the cradle of iris hybridization, and Colonial Exhibition held in Paris in 1931, brought botanical gardens are home to many French by my maternal grandparents. As for irises, the cultivars and many Cayeux irises. Ferdinand
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 12 Fall 2016 Cayeux founded a dynasty of iris breeders, and all from the patch, and it produced large, mid-lavender members of the Cayeux family are represented in blooms. I pointed it out to Mom, and she told me it the P.F.P. collection. The other well-known French had come from our neighbor Dorothy. The next step iris hybridizers were Vilmorin, Millet, Lémon, was obvious: ask Dorothy about it. Well...she told Denis, Simonet, Turbat, and de Bure, and they tend me its name was ‘Nemo’ and that she had other to sink into oblivion. Even the Cayeux irises, which irises as well. I noticed where they grew beside a make up the largest palette of old irises, are not well picket fence, so the next spring I kept close watch represented in the rest of the world, as many were and was rewarded by seeing one that was...brown! never exported. It was ‘Francheville’—not really brown, but My goal is to restore the French iris heritage. certainly a departure from lavender and purple. International cooperation is the only way, since Thus, ‘Francheville’ and ‘Nemo’ began my iris many cultivars are no longer to be found in France. garden. Irises that have already disappeared from France can In 1948, Mom spotted an ad for a commercial sometimes be found in other countries such as iris garden in the Yakima Valley and ordered a Canada or the United States. My work is to compile catalog. What a revelation! The result was a small a definitive list of existing French irises in the Parc order of 25- and 35-cent varieties in brown and red Floral de Paris, and find missing irises in other tones. She placed a similar order the following public collections or in private collections in France year. However, the tipping point came in spring of and especially abroad. Obtaining living irises for 1950, when we went to an iris show in West comparison is the stumbling block to iris Hollywood. I was overwhelmed and thrilled! In identification. addition to the specimen-stalk part of the show, This year I am particularly impressed by there were lavish commercial displays: Tom Craig, ‘Monsigny’, ‘Egée’, and ‘Korsabad’, irises that I Lyon’s Irisland, Syllmar Gardens, plus several received from the P.F.P. as part of my survey. I smaller operations. One of these was run by a look forward to working more closely with my kindly older couple who invited us to visit their HIPS friends. planting the following weekend. We did, and I returned home not only with several potted irises but—more importantly—five issues of the AIS Bulletin from 1947-1949. They were my window into the national world of irises and the people involved, iris culture, and the realization that people were raising new irises from seeds. Call this the “total immersion” phase. I could hardly wait until the following year’s show. By spring of 1951 I had accumulated a few more named irises (e.g. ‘Shining Waters’ from an aunt), some nameless ones from the neighborhood, and I decided I’d like to try some hybridizing. By that time, Dorothy had ordered about a dozen more from Cooley’s, including ‘Great Lakes’. From Phil and Carson the Maine Coon cat reading the Bulletin I knew that the much-praised ‘Sylvia Murray’ was from ‘Shining Waters’ and ‘Great Lakes’, so I made sure to do that cross. The Phil Edinger iris show arrived and I promptly joined the Southern I was born in 1940 in Los Angeles County, California Iris Society and then AIS. My first California, and from the time I could walk in the Bulletin arrived in July, the month after my first iris garden I was drawn to flowers, in particular the society meeting. From that point on, the affair with “common purple” iris that grew all over southern irises was unstoppable. California because it flowered several times each It was hybridizing that sparked an interest in year and needed no care—not even division. But older irises—the ancestors of ones I was growing. when I was about six, I noticed a tall stem emerging The 1939 Check List was still available, and I added
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 13 Fall 2016 that to my small library of bulletins. Some of the “ancients” I knew: ‘Purissima’, ‘Alta California’, The Locator ‘San Gabriel’, and ‘Crimson King’ (the “common purple” of my childhood). But what were HIPS can help you find an iris when all other hope ‘Dominion’, ‘Bruno’, ‘King Tut’, ‘W. R. Dykes’, is gone. Check the Commercial Source List online ‘Kashmir White’…? Gradually I accumulated a or, if you do not use computers, write to Dave few, starting with several from the extensive Irma Prichard. If the iris is not commercially available, Melrose collection that passed along to Ben Hager look at the HIPS Databank online or write to our & Sid DuBose when they bought Melrose Gardens. Databank Chair, Lori Lensch-Marcotte. If the iris This was the early 1960s, and there were a number is in the Databank, Lori will inquire of the owner of commercial vendors offering “antiques.” From whether the iris can be shared. If neither of them them and Melrose I began at least sampling the can help, write to the editor; we will publish your historic iris world. quest here. Let us know if The Locator helps you The move to northern California and find the iris; we love success stories. Contact acquisition of acreage in 1968 removed all the space information is on page 43 of this issue. restrictions, letting me aggressively pursue historics. But by then some of the best sources were defunct. MTB ‘Tammy’s Tutu’ FOUND! It became a case of “get what was available” We are pleased to announce that via this because I never knew about the next year. column in the Spring 2016 issue, hybridizer Kevin Fortunately, through the Historic Iris Round Robins Vaughn now has a plant of his MTB introduction I found private collectors like Leta Morgan in Paw ‘Tammy’s Tutu’ (1982). Alert reader Jacquie Paw, Michigan, who had begun collecting in the McDonald in Canada was able to arrange for Kevin early 1930s and, because she lived on a farm, had to receive his lost iris. Kevin wrote, “It’s like merely added to it each year—no discards! Leda having my child back!” He is still seeking another Christlieb in Kansas had numerous historics from of his irises, MTB ‘Little Bluebeard’ (1977). the disbanded Rutgers collection, Jean Witt in Washington had assembled old diploids for MTB TB ‘Mary McClellan’ FOUND! breeding, Murray Smith in Canada had a small but We are also pleased to tell you that siblings significant collection. Sometimes I’d get a rhizome Rupert Deese and Martha Deese are now the in the mail from Harriett Segessemann, who delighted owners of ‘Mary McClellan’ (Tom volunteered at Presby. Except for Wilma Vallette in Craig, 1952). “Dr. Mary,” as she was known to her Idaho, it was largely from private collectors that patients, was Rupert and Martha’s childhood doctor “finds” and exchanges were made for the rest of the in California. When they learned of Tom Craig’s century. My first dip into European collections irises, they started collecting. They had found came in the 1990s via Dorothe Schroeter and the ‘Tabasco’ (1951) but wrote to the HIPS Rhizome collection in Basel, Switzerland. Then, in the early Sale committee in search of the iris named for 2000s, Bruce Filardi engineered two exchanges Mary. We were able to steer them to Bluebird between the Czech Republic’s garden Haven Iris Garden to purchase some. in Prùhonice, overseen by Milan We were also able to send them Blažek, and several west coast some other Tom Craig irises. If you are growers. also interested in Tom Craig irises, or Now HIPS is in a better those bred by his children, please write to position than ever before, with a
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 14 Fall 2016 2016 HIPS Distinguished Service Awards
Two deserving people received the 2016 HIPS Distinguished Service Award. Below are excerpts from the letters of nomination, which must remain anonymous. Hearty congratulations to both recipients of the award.
Anner Whitehead Milan Blažek
Anner Whitehead has been instrumental in I’d like to put forth an individual who is a the promotion of historic irises. Her contributions bit of an unsung hero to HIPS members overall but include participation in historic garden restoration, who is a truly heroic figure to those of us who have presentations on historic irises and collections, had contact with him (and received precious donating rhizomes from her own garden for these rhizomes). Milan Blažek of the Czech Republic has collections and researching and referring gardeners been involved with irises since at least his teenage to current sources for historic iris rhizomes. She years. His first international appearance was at the has served as HIPS Commercial Source Director first International Iris Symposium in Florence, Italy, and earned a HIPS Tip of the Hat commendation for in 1961. At that time, he was just a few weeks shy her work in that capacity. Her greatest contribution, of twenty-one, presenting a program on species however, is the tremendous amount of knowledge irises in Czechoslovakia (as it was then). she has made accessible to irisarians through her For decades, Milan maintained the historic skilled research and scholarly publication. iris collection at Prùhonice gardens, under far from Her work has appeared not only in ROOTS, ideal political circumstances. The collection is but also in the AIS Bulletin and the publications of really stellar, and he has been eager to share irises in other AIS sections. A partial list of titles shows the order to guarantee preservation. He is now retired range and extent of her work in ROOTS: from that position, but his successor is continuing in - Richmond’s Alley Irises - Spring 1998 the same vein. - Preserving the Past: The F.L. Olmstead Project - Milan was born just a few years before his Fall 1998 country was overrun by Nazi Germany; then after - What’s in a Name? Alice Harding - Spring 1999 the war it was swept into Soviet orbit and - Historic Irises in Context: Fairstead - Spring 1999 sequestered behind the Iron Curtain. Somehow, he - Historic Irises in Context: Oldfields - Fall 1999 persevered, getting a doctorate in botany. But travel - Mrs. Lloyd and her Fairy Amphitheatre - Fall 1999 outside the Soviet orbit was impossible; not until - Restoration of Gibraltar - Fall 2000 after the “Velvet Revolution” was Milan able to get - Irises for an American Legend: Replanting Eudora out and about a bit. I met him in 1994 at the Welty’s Garden - Spring 2001 Portland AIS convention where we - Rev. C. S. Harrison: Adorning the quickly discovered we share an Beulah Land of the Hither Shore - Fall academic field (but both of us had only 2003 & Spring 2004 one foot in botany, the other in - The Mysterious Macrantha - Spring horticulture) and that we share an 2011 interest in the germanicas. Milan is an - All That Glitters: The Story of enthusiastic, lively fellow speaking William J. McKee’s Half Century of fluent English. Iris’s - Spring 2012 - Rarebits & Oddities: Motes from My Milan was able to travel from Notes - Spring 2013 the Czech Republic to attend this - The Emergence Years: Geo. C. year’s AIS convention in New Jersey, Woolson, H. Meyers, and Divers where we presented him with the well- American Bearded Irises, Iris deserved HIPS Distinguished Service Collectors, and Nurserymen of the Award. a Later 19th Century - Fall 2013 a ‘Navajo’ (Farr, 1913) Ayento photo
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 15 Fall 2016 HIPS OUTREACH by Cathy Egerer, Public Relations Chair
HIPS is growing! As of press time we have the weekly blog Grounding in the Spirit. Will is a nearly 800 members, the highest number in years. HIPS and GG member, and the article is at Interest in HIPS was high at the AIS convention and
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 16 Fall 2016 IN MEMORIAM Jean Witt Has Left Us a Legacy to Carry On by John R. “Jack” Finney PhD
Jean Witt died at the age of 95 passion for collecting diploids in on August 27, 2016. I have lost a order to preserve the hybridizing dear friend and the iris world has lost work of over 100 years. It was, and a giant. About 2002, I attended a still is, in danger of being lost Median Iris Society event in because so few people are working Portland, Oregon. We got onto a bus with them and growing them. and went to various gardens. On this Several times a year Jean and I tour I met Jean Witt. I immediately would talk by phone about all things decided she was a unique person that iris. I took notes because she voiced I would like to know: she had ideas and information that I found notches on her cane for the nowhere else. We also met up at acceptable heights of the various several subsequent iris garden tours. medians. I am attracted to people I visited her in her home as well. whose creativity is unencumbered by Reviewing the memories I have of what others might think, because I Jean, I realized she has left me a rich am like-minded. After we had legacy. I identified five enduring talked and I expressed my interest in Miniature Tall characteristics of Jean evident in the history of our Bearded irises (MTBs), she said, “I’ve been looking interactions. We all could do well to foster these in for someone to get my hooks into.” It sounds harsh, ourselves as ways in which to further the cause of but in context, it was a compliment. Our irises. relationship deepened and out of that came my Jean had an encyclopedic knowledge of MTBs, diploid antiques, and iris species. I showed her over a hundred pictures of MTBs to confirm their identity. She was familiar with roughly 98% of them. A few years ago for an Iris Round Robin we both were in, Jean prepared the document “A List of Miniature Tall Bearded Irises with the Best and Brightest Colors.” She had surveyed the previous 40 years of hybridizing work in the MTB class and selected the most outstanding in each color. One day I asked her if Iris pallida cengialtii looked like most pallidas but with fine stems. Off the top of her head she told me, “No, but Iris illyrica ‘Munich Blue’ does. There was an occasion when I reported to Jean that I had a deep purple tall bearded iris blooming in March. She said, “Oh that is probably I. x germanica ‘Kochii’.” She was right. When I was discussing antique irises with Jean that had potential for MTB breeding, she told me that in the 1939 Check List, “IB” does not refer to time of bloom as it does today. All it means is that the iris is short. That is important information that I had not found anywhere else.
MTB ‘Dappled Pony’ (Witt, 1981) Jack Finney photo
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 17 Fall 2016 Jean probed iris history to learn from the ‘Buriensis’. In 1830-1850, the French horticultural past. In the month before she died, Jean and I had a press repeatedly raved about this new plicata raised series of conversations about where the dotted by Marie-Guillaume de Bure. Since it was so plicata pattern (as opposed to the stitched plicata popular, it is reasonable to assume that it was pattern) came from. She explained that the iris widely distributed and made it to England. originally named ‘Plicata’ (Lamarck, collected or Unfortunately, the chase ended here. There is no garden hybrid, 1789) was stitched. Jean told me detailed description of ‘Buriensis’.2 that a poem written in the Victorian era was the earliest evidence of the dotted plicata pattern. I did Jean had a scientific curiosity. She was one some detective work and found it. Christina of the small cadre of iris enthusiasts who has a Rossetti (who lived from 1830 to 1894) wrote a background in botany and genetics. She never pageant in verse named The Months: A Pageant.1 flaunted it, but it was evident in her thinking. For Each month of the year was personified by an actor instance, in her 1967 AIS Bulletin article on the or actress. This is what Ms. Rossetti had the Month progress in MTB work3, she wrote, “A few lucky of July character say: things have come from F1 seed plots, but in my experience the F1 are more often ‘near misses’ and Blue flags, yellow flags, flags all freckled. good parents. Now that F2 and later generations are Which will you take? yellow, blue, speckled! appearing, we are coming closer to our goals of Take which you will, speckled, blue, yellow, thinner stems and improved color and form.” Each in its way has not a fellow. In 1996, Jean deluged the readers of the AIS Bulletin with scientific questions about irises4. This poem, written in 1879 then, indicates that Although it is hard to choose, one that stands out in the dotted plicata pattern existed by that year. my mind is this: “In TB what is the barrier that Taking the next step in the pursuit of the first dotted keeps us from having petals as vividly tangerine plicata pattern, Jean wondered if it might have been colored as the beards?” In 2007, Jean prepared a wide-ranging discussion of broken color and the
MTB ‘Orillia’s Ring’ (Witt, 1991) Jack Finney photo MTB ‘Redrock Princess’ (Witt, 2006) Jack Finney photo
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 18 Fall 2016 plicata pattern5. She related broken medium rust brown, has a similar color in irises to things observed in heritage: (Spanish Coins’ x trillium, coleus, poinsettia, cosmos, unknown) X seedling #70-06-GR impatiens, and petunias. Frustrated “red”: ((‘Golden Light’ x Pluie with the lack of attention to the D’Or) X (Ruby Roundfall x I. science of irises, she wrote, “It is too reginae)). easy to breed pretty flowers without asking questions.” With her Jean critically examined enthusiasm for paper current practices and chromatography, Jean made it clear assumptions of the iris world. that everyone could turn their She was passionate about the need kitchens into iris science labs. for diversity of form among the various classes of bearded irises: Jean was a skilled “We don’t want them all to look hybridizer. She registered 60 irises Award-winning MTB ‘Ice Fairy’ (Witt, like hollyhocks or colored lettuce.” of her own. She introduced her first 1966) Carlos Ayento photo She had reservations about the iris in 1962. There are still more to criteria for MTBs and helped me come because she has left behind seedlings to be develop an alternative grading tool. The first evaluated. She counts ‘Dappled Pony’ (1981), criterion on this is the “Wow” Factor: “The flower ‘Orillia’s Ring’ (1991), and ‘Redrock Princess’ is so stunning that it draws the observer back to (2006) among her best MTBs. She was given the look at it again and again.” Jean lamented the AIS Hybridizer Award in 2012, and the 2015 neglect of diploid irises in hybridizing because she Bennett C. Jones Award for Outstanding Median believed that work with them would result in new Hybridizing. She won the Williamson-White patterns and colors, just as the work with tetraploids Award in 1973 for ‘Ice Fairy’ (1966) and in 1981 has done. She believed that there is a crying need for ‘Spanish Coins’ (1976). for irisarians to engage with the greater gardening Anticipating future MTB work, Jean left me public rather than being so focused on talking with a number of hybridizing recommendations. among themselves about the virtues of irises. If she For work with the variegata pattern, she suggested would have had the opportunity to work extensively using anything with orange-yellow standards with the AIS Wiki, the iris encyclopedia that Bob because it is a rare color. For yellow, she said to get Pries has championed, she would have applauded it the antique ‘Siskin’ (E. B. Williamson, 1931). She as a step in this direction. Nevertheless, there is also told me that ‘Virginia Moore’ (Shull, 1920) much left to do in marketing irises to those who [(Her Majesty x Honorabile) X (Honorabile)] is plant all different kinds of flowers. preferred over ‘Pluie D’Or’ (Cayeux, 1928) or Jean Witt was one of the great minds of the ‘Sherwin-Wright’ (Kohankie, 1915) because it has iris world. Her example challenges us to cultivate better form. Jean advocated the use of irises that are in ourselves the qualities that made her so part of the Honorabile-related group because she exceptional. believed that the genetic instability in them held the potential for new patterns. She noted that ‘San REFERENCES Souci’ (Van Houtte, 1954) produces thin, 1 Selected Poems of Christina Rossetti, Burke, ed. curvaceous stems with 3 branches and 9 buds. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1913), p219 Intriguingly, Jean said that she once bred a red 2 Classic Irises and the Men and Women Who iris but she didn’t know what she had and threw it Created Them, Mahan, Clarence (Florida: Kreiger away because it had really bad form. What were the Publishing Company) pp1-10 crosses behind this red iris? She reviewed her stud 3 AIS Bulletin, January 1967 #184, Section 1, books and reported the following: ((Reginae x Ruby pp39-42 “Miniature Tall Bearded Irises” Roundfall) X (Pluie d’Or x Golden Light)). She 4 AIS Bulletin, April 1996 #301, pp22-24 “The Need elaborated that (Dogrose x Her Majesty) produced for Iris Research” 5 Ruby Roundfall (unregistered and unintroduced, AIS Bulletin, April 2007 #345, pp50-52, 72-73 apparently). Jean’s 1995 release ‘Wawona’, in “More Complicated Than You Think” a
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 19 Fall 2016 Jean Witt’s Scrapbook Legacy by Bob Pries
Jean Witt was one of the giants of the conclusions, but I would assume that a watercolor in American Iris Society. Her creativeness was the same sheet protector with a photo was especially felt in Miniature Tall Bearded irises, influenced by that photo. Pacific Coast Natives, and the Species Iris Group of Watercolor is actually one of the more North America (SIGNA). When her daughter called difficult media. An errant brushstroke cannot be me to tell me that she was very ill, I was stunned. I taken back. I like to think that I have some artistic had just seen her this spring and she seemed very talent also, but I have never been brave enough to well. She died at age 95 after a short illness. Her do watercolor. Jean had a great talent. She could daughter told me Jean had requested that her begin with a view looking down on a flower and scrapbooks be sent to me for inclusion on the create an image that was a perfectly poised American Iris Society online encyclopedia, the AIS side-view. Wiki. I knew Jean had produced a few watercolors There are irises in this gallery that have never over the years. SIGNA published twelve of them been seen by most botanists. Iris narcissiflora is and I had placed them on the Wiki some time ago in still a virtual unknown. There is only one photo, the galleries of botanical art. I agreed to take the taken by a tourist who asked botanist Brian Mathew scrapbooks and asked her daughter if there were for an identification. The photo is not great, yet more watercolors. She said, “You will be Jean was able to create a very acceptable watercolor surprised.” based on this meager data and her knowledge of When I received the scrapbooks, I discovered irises. I invite everyone to view her gallery. It may that Jean had assembled and be slow to load because the organized information more images are high definition. or less by type of iris. She One can click on each name had clippings from for a page with the image magazines, photographic enlarged. In the future I will prints, and even a few dried add that background of flowers. But the essence of photos and other items from the scrapbooks was the 130 her scrapbooks to these watercolors. In some cases enlarged pages. Once I have one could see the photograph scanned everything, the she used to develop a scrapbooks will be stored in watercolor. I was amazed by the AIS Library. Enjoy this the diversity of the drawings. great gift from Jean Witt. a Some were of very rare irises. To reach the Jean Witt Surely I needed to get Gallery, go to the AIS Wiki this information into the and click on the yellow Index Wiki as soon as possible. I box (see page 5 of this issue, believe that paintings and in Announcements). Click on drawings can often tell us the letter B, then select more than a photograph can. Botanical Art. Once there, The artist may emphasize scroll down to Contemporary elements that are not obvious Botanical Art, where you will in a photo. Here was an find the link to the Jean Witt archive that showed us the Gallery. The images load finished art, but also in some slowly but are well worth the cases hinted at the process Pacific Coast I.purdyi selection ‘Memoria Elwood’ (B. L. wait. involved. I am jumping to Davidson, 1972), named for biologist Elwood Moleseed.
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 20 Fall 2016 HEREAFTER by W. Douglass Paschall, Charlie Carver, & Nancy McDonald
“There are people like Senhor José everywhere, irises die quickly, from pests or drought. Others, who fill their time, or what they believe to be their not deadheaded, become adulterated with charming spare time, by collecting. . . . [U]sing their limited but certainly different seedlings. Some simply get powers and with no divine help, they attempt to separated from their identifying labels—the pleasant impose some order on the world, and for a short flower survives, but not its name. It’s why so many while they manage it, but only as long as they are iris cultivars are already lost to us, and why there there to defend their collection, because when the needed to be an organization devoted to day comes when it must be dispersed, and that day preservation at all. always comes, either with their death or when the This is not a new phenomenon. It has been collector grows weary, everything goes back to its endemic to what growers have done since humans beginnings, everything returns to chaos.” first cultivated plants. Any success we have today —José Saramago, All the Names we have because those before us grasped the lesson, and took the steps, generation after generation, to Irises, at least most of them, are resilient pass the torch. The torch of passing on living plants plants; some are tough as nails. They’ll take on and seed-saving, the torch of plant lore, the torch of swamps and deserts and mountains and droughts collection care. and deer and lawnmowers and, if given half a None of us wants to dwell on our mortality. chance, will spread and bloom to delight us (or But think of what has already been lost of our iris more immediately, the bees) again and again. Yet heritage when steps were not taken, when every one of them succumbs to challenges preventions against disasters were not put in place. eventually. So do those who care for them. Think of the example of Audrey Cottam Ours is a horticultural society that by its very (1888-1960), who knew the risk. It took five name is dedicated to the preservation of treasures strokes to separate her from her garden of 3,500 that without our help would almost certainly cultivars. Her heirs had the generous good sense to eventually disappear. That task, moreover, is find a fellow iris enthusiast to try to place what she carried on by individuals and groups who are could of the collection in equally attentive hands. working with limited means, Some of those irises undoubtedly limited abilities, and limited exist today only because of that lifetimes. One gardener takes up effort. Now think of those who did the torch, does what he or she can not have such help. We today, with the resources available, and more or less healthy, need to take a seeks allies in HIPS to coordinate few moments to plan for the day yet stronger combined efforts. when we won’t be so hale. Even that is not enough, as the Many of you have put years garden rescues that HIPS into your iris collections. You hold undertakes prove. Those rescues treasures that were hard-won. are most often emergencies, We’ve all heard the truism: the best conducted after the preservation way to save an iris is to share an regimen fails. A gardener becomes iris. We can take those steps now, physically challenged to tend the every time we divide rhizomes, to collection that was amassed over place our greatest rarities in decades of diligent searching and multiple caring hands. But what saving. Or a hybridizer or collector about entire collections? Who else passes away, frequently without would know their value? Who else sufficient warning or proper plans would protect those irises for the for the collection’s care. We all The virtually unknown Iris narcissiflora generations to come? Has a family have seen the outcomes. Some Jean Witt watercolor member caught the bug? If so, the
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 21 Fall 2016 task should be simple. But most of us will need to class that are on the brink of disappearing. The look farther: to fellow gardeners, to local iris National Collections being inaugurated by the AIS societies, or beyond. are more catholic in their coverage, seeking every For collections of common irises, or for the cultivar of iris that survives, in every class, of any common things in collections that include rarities, age historic or modern. Both programs will be able the best destinations would be local: friends, the and interested to take on gifts of irises of which they nearest iris group, or public parks. For rarer do not already hold sufficient number. But those cultivars, the destination should be more programs, too, will require advance conversations to specialized: someone who knows what those irises determine whether, or what, items within a are, what their proper cultivation entails, and how proposed gift would meet their missions. This, critical their numbers have become. indeed, happened in the case of the Lankow A small number of collectors have stipulated Collection, as various parts of that extraordinary their collections are to go to botanical gardens. whole—hundreds of rhizomes of its rarest cultivars Such disposition must be worked out in advance and several sub-collections of the iris classes the with that institution’s curators, who almost always Lankows had amassed or bred—were carefully will want only a portion of what is being offered. steered into Guardian Gardens and National As just one example, the Denver Botanic Gardens Collections sanctuaries, to thrive and increase today. recently were given their choice of what was in the The AIS and HIPS also would be excellent choices Lankow Collection; what they accepted was only a for any catalogues or other historic documentary fraction of the private holding. The Presby archives that should be preserved. Memorial Iris Gardens was another beneficiary, Most gardeners, nonetheless, will need to steer receiving a near-complete collection of Carol their garden holdings to family, other collectors, or Lankow’s introductions. Such outcomes are groups, and even then it should be no surprise for prestigious for the donor and a the recipients. You will not delight for the institution’s merely be imparting rhizomes to audience, and there is a someone but rather an reasonable likelihood that an expectation to care for them. It’s institution of that significance an agreement with which both and experience would only take parties should be comfortable. It what it anticipated it could care is an agreement that ideally for responsibly in any foreseeable should be in written form, to future. Be aware, though, that prevent interference in its being such plans are not foolproof. carried out. Remember Mrs. Cottam? A The laws concerning sizable portion of her collection bequests differ from state to came to her in 1956 when the state, country to country, and no Missouri Botanical Garden one solution fits every traded its 35-year-old iris circumstance. Your estate collection for some botanical planner should be consulted to prints. There are more such determine what will achieve the stories. Institutional missions, desired outcome most goals, and leaderships change. effectively. In many cases, it is In the past two years, two probably best not to make a new options have arisen as the stipulation about the garden in a AIS and HIPS have both will, where it could prove a launched new collecting roadblock to the disposition of programs to preserve our iris other assets. Instead, a letter of heritage. The Guardian Gardens intent, clearly conceived and program of HIPS is strictly ‘George’ (P. B. Eeden, 1973), a cross between drafted, signed and witnessed, dedicated to historic rarities, Iris histrioides ‘S. Arnott’ and I. reticulata can cover almost any situation irises “of a certain age” in any Jean Witt watercolor with greater ease, less expense,
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 22 Fall 2016 and less resistance. You will need to have problems for the person(s) to whom the irises are conversations now—modestly awkward, frank destined to go. This is not an appealing task we conversations —with anyone to whom you propose recommend. Few among us relishes discussions of to leave all or any part of your plant collection. our mortality. But the burden on those who would Both parties, donor and recipients, must understand follow our path without this discussion would be and agree on the plans. The conversations will worse. So, too, would be the disappointments of necessarily extend as well to your family, who many if your iris treasures were not preserved, as similarly should be aware of your proposals for the few gardens are. This is a discussion that has been dispersal of your collection. The letter of intent raised as long as gardens have existed; by having it should not be a surprise to anyone, but a smooth now, you permit the continuum of horticulture to restatement of your wishes, a seamless and endure, uninterrupted. This is the legacy we share, comforting continuation of your touch upon the this gathering around the torch. Do not put it off. world. Hereafter, let’s see to it that our irises live on, to If the land upon which your garden sits will be delight future generations as they did ours. a sold, the transfer of ownership may not fall at a time of year conducive to digging irises. In that case, Below and on the following pages are sample stipulating that the property does not include the documents that can be adapted to fit your own plants can be among the terms of the transaction. A situation. Please note that these are not legal brief document, to be signed by the new property documents nor are they intended to be so. You are owner, explaining the plans for the plants’ removal responsible for your own legal documents. at a more auspicious time, can forestall any
______
SAMPLE Agreement between Landowner(s) [name] and Iris Owner [name] Concerning the [name of] Iris Collection
Irises from the [name of] Iris Collection are growing on my property. These irises legally belong to [name of iris owner] or to [her/his] heirs upon [her/his] decease. If at any time I wish to stop housing these irises, for instance if I or my heirs want to sell my property, I will give [name of iris owner] (or [her/his] heirs) as much warning as reasonably possible. [She/He] will need to find a new home for the irises, which can only be transplanted during the growing season. I hereby informally agree to allow [name of iris owner] one calendar year, if possible, in which to move the irises. If I sell the property, I will attempt to get the purchaser to agree to such a clause in the purchase agreement. If I die before the irises are moved, I encourage my heirs to see that the Historic Iris Preservation Society be made aware of the need to move them, and that representatives of that group be allowed to move (or hire someone to move) the irises.
Letter of Intent [from Landowner to His or Her Heirs] I agree to write a letter of intent to my heirs concerning these irises. This letter is not part of my will, nor is it legally binding. It simply tells my executor what I intend or wish to happen to the [name of] Collection irises that are growing on my land. I will review my letter of intent with my heirs ahead of time, so they understand my wishes and will comply with them when the time comes.
Signature ______[printed name of landowner here] Date
Signature ______[printed name of iris owner here] Date
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 23 Fall 2016 SAMPLE Letter of Intent
This sample letter of intent contains words or phrases in [square brackets] from which you could choose, or supply your own to fill in the blank. You will need to tailor this letter to suit your own situation and needs. This sample is very similar to the document that my husband and I have created. My iris collection grows on our own land, at the homes of two other families, and on local Historical Society property. This sample is written to address those intricacies. Your letter will be simpler if all your irises grow on your own ground. A list of contact information should be appended on a separate page for ease in annual updating. Please note that this letter refers to a Power of Attorney. We have that document already in place. If you do not already have one, make sure to consult your attorney; making one solely for your irises will probably open up a larger scope that you may not want. A letter of intent is not a legally binding document. Wills and powers of attorney are legally binding. Once you have crafted and signed a letter that satisfies you, it is VITAL that you review it not only with your executor, but with all your beneficiaries. Do not wait to review it with these people, but do it promptly. None of us like to think of our own mortality or that of loved ones, but this review step is crucial in preserving your collection—and preservation is, after all, your goal here. - Nancy McDonald
[Your Name] [your address at time of signing]
[date]
Dear [family and friends, heirs and assigns],
This letter expresses my feelings. I would like you to follow its instructions and suggestions when I am unable to care for my irises (see below) for either mental or physical reasons. If I am still alive, but am sufficiently mentally incompetent that all decisions must be made by the person named as my Power of Attorney, it is time to put into effect the wishes stated in this letter.
This letter is not my will, nor do I intend it to be an interpretation of my will. My most recent will is the sole expression of my intentions concerning all my property and other matters covered in it. Should anything I say in this letter conflict with, or seem to conflict with, any provision of my will, the will should be followed.
I request that you give a copy of this letter to each person named in my will to take property, or act as a guardian or custodian, and to anyone else you determine should receive a copy.
This letter concerns a group of garden plants that I possess, the irises generally known as [collection name, if any]. These irises are of great importance to me. They grow on my own land and on the land of friends, with whom I have written agreements (copies appended). I value the irises not only because they are beautiful in bloom, but because most of them are historic (that is, 30 years old or more) and have the intrinsic value associated with that history. I wish to ensure their continued survival as historic irises after I am no longer able to care for them for either mental or physical reasons.
The Historic Iris Preservation Society (also known as HIPS) is a section of the American Iris Society (AIS). I work closely with this non-profit organization in my iris gardening efforts. Members of this society are the best resource for advice about what to do with my collection when the time comes to disperse it.
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 24 Fall 2016 The names and records of these irises, as well as location maps, appear in a spreadsheet on my computer in the Irises directory [tailor this section to your own situation]. The current version of this spreadsheet and maps are sent to the HIPS Guardian Gardens administrator annually. However, since I update these records often, please send a current version of the entire Irises directory to that person and to the HIPS Cultivar Preservation chair as soon as you reasonably can.
[Name of collection, or My iris collection] grows in four locations in or near [town, state] (see addresses and contact information, which I will keep up to date, at the end of this letter). These locations are:
1. My home on [street name] (address above) 2. The home of [person’s name] 3. The home of [person’s name] 4. [Public park, historical site, or the like]
Irises growing at the [name of public park or whatever] are historic, but not particularly rare, and I am happy to donate those plants to the [name park] to maintain as a garden or to dispose of as they will.
[Friend 1] and [Friend 2] are aware that the irises belong to me. I am happy to let these nice people keep them if they wish, as long as the irises are cared for and distributed to other historic iris lovers when it is time to divide the plants. This distribution may be done in any way the landowners see fit, including sales and/or donation. However, it is crucial that the irises be made available to HIPS members, as well as to local sales if those are held. The landowners may keep any profit they make, donate it to HIPS, donate it to the [name of park], or anything else they wish. The important thing is that the irises are preserved—and known and available to HIPS—with their identities intact.
[Local iris gardening friend] (contact information below) also lives in [name of town] and is also deeply involved in historic iris preservation and HIPS. Please give [her or him] full access to both the irises and the iris records; [she or he] will be able to help you in preservation and distribution. Please allow [name] to take any irises [she or he] wishes to have.
These irises are of no great monetary value, though of course they have some monetary worth due to their sheer numbers. HIPS members should be willing to pay postage and labor costs for digging and shipping. I do not wish the irises or the dispersal of the irises to become a burden on those who inherit them from us.
If no friend or family member is interested in continuing my work with these irises, I would like them to be made available to HIPS members. The HIPS Guardian Gardens administrator, HIPS Cultivar Preservation chair, and American Iris Society National Collections chair will help you organize a rescue of these irises; please extend them all the courtesy and cooperation that you can.
If my property is to be sold, I ask that you attempt to distribute the irises first via HIPS. If the sale needs to be quick, I ask that you work with the purchaser to allow HIPS one full calendar year in which to remove all or some of the irises. These are living plants that must be moved during the growing season if they are to survive.
Thank you for doing all you can to preserve my beloved irises.
______[typed name] date
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 25 Fall 2016 Shirley Jean: An Epistolary Story by Debbie Gillespie, Shirley Walson, Sandy Dawson, & Nancy McDonald
Thursday, June 9, 2016 - Debbie Gillespie to the HIPS Rhizome Sale Committee of Judy Schneider, Cathy Egerer, & Nancy McDonald: Hello Judy: With all the rain the Pacific NW had this year, I had some reliable historics rot on me, but I still have a few I could donate: [there followed a long list of irises, including] Tall Bearded ‘Shirley Jean’ The last two—‘Shirley Jean’ and [name withheld]—don’t have photos on Iris Wiki as far as I know, so I’m sending photo attachments of them for you. Hope that helps. Sincerely, Debra Gillespie
June 7, 2016 - NM to DG: Hi, Debra, The most interesting and pleasant situation has developed. As you may know, I’m the ROOTS editor as well as being on the HIPS Rhizome Sale Committee. Yesterday, Doug Paschall, our HIPS Cultivar Preservation Chair, forwarded this letter to me to include in the “Locator” column of ROOTS: My grandmother registered iris in 1963 that were named after her three granddaughters, me being one of them. I want ‘Shirley Jean’, ‘Janice Lee’, and ‘Sandra Elaine’, created by Geneva Wilson of Hilltop Iris Gardens, Sandpoint Idaho. Can you please provide any information? My sister, Janice Lee, has passed and I would like to have some planted at her grave and of course, I would like some of my own. Thank you for your time. Shirley Walson, Hayden ID The name Shirley Jean struck me as familiar, and suddenly I realized that I had seen it in a rhizome sale donation list. A bit of searching found your letter, and voila! This is one of those moments that makes all the hard work we do for HIPS absolutely worthwhile. We have a chance to connect a historic iris with the person it was named for, and whose grandmother bred it. Could we please beg a rhizome or two of ‘Shirley Jean’ from you for the original (human) Shirley Jean? If you’d like to correspond with Shirley directly, her email address is.... I’m sure she’d be thrilled to hear from you, to learn how and where you got the iris. Thanks and best wishes, Nancy
June 7 - DG to NM Hello Nancy - I was very glad to hear that one of Geneva’s granddaughters still lives in the general vicinity where Geneva lived. You see, my mother and I went many times to her Hilltop Iris Garden above the Sandpoint, Idaho, cemetery as we lived in another town 20 miles away. Her iris when they were blooming was one of the main reasons that both my mother and I got the “iris virus,” when I was 13 years old. Geneva would dig up an increase right there on the spot for us, while they were still blooming. I believe we bought ‘Shirley Jean’ on the spot one year for the princely sum of one dollar. Sorry to say that ‘Janice Lee’ and ‘Sandra Geneva Wilson in her iris garden, mid-1960s
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 26 Fall 2016 Elaine’ were also nice irises, but ‘Shirley Jean’ was the one we really wanted and our “mad money” could only go so far. We also had ‘Thrilling Moment’ of Geneva’s for many years, but it died a few years ago. Another historic from her that is still around is an MDB, ‘Yellow Moth’. I think very fondly of Geneva—her garden was one of the nicest memories of my teenage years, and she was a sweet lady. The book she wrote of her childhood memories in the Midwest was fascinating; she went through some rather tough times back there. Anyway, I’d be glad to give Shirley Jean a rhizome named for her. Truly yours, Debbie Gillespie
Still June 7 - NM to DG & SJ Oh, how nice! Is it OK with both of you if I print this little story in ROOTS? And do either of you have a photo of the iris or of Geneva that I could use with it? I’m so glad this is working out. Nancy
June 8 - SJ to DG & NM Oh my Lord. You people are seriously making me cry this morning. Such amazing people and very blessed am I. Grandma’s house is still intact. A realtor friend of ours purchased it many years ago and was going to use it for a getaway cabin but it sits, for the most part, empty. My Aunt Marilla, the younger of her two girls, lives in a house immediately west of the where the iris garden was located. The trees in the cemetery have grown so much that you can’t see the lake and river like you once could. My cousin Sandra Elaine and her husband live with my aunt as she was recently widowed. Sandy thinks her brother, who owns Western Pleasure Guest Ranch, has some of her namesake, so hopefully her iris is not completely lost. I called them last night and gave them an update. Sandy & Shirley as seedlings We all remember the open garden season very well. I remember Sandy and me deadheading iris blooms when we weren’t much taller than the iris. We couldn’t understand why we got a paddlin’ when we were just trying to help, but apparently we could not tell the difference between a dead bloom and a bud! I have a photo of me with my ‘Shirley Jean’ iris taken when I was around 10 years old. If I can locate it, I will send you all one. It is faded somewhat, so it most likely won’t show the true color of the iris. I just cannot express my excitement in this development, the dedication that you have for helping, and the appreciation I have for what you have done. If ‘Janice Lee’ appears, I would most happy to plant some at her grave. Please inform me on how to proceed to obtain the ‘Shirley Jean’ iris. Thank you again so very much. Shirley Walson
June 9 - SD to NM Hi Nancy, I am so excited about the communication that has been going on between all of you and my cousin Shirley. Grandma had two iris named for her daughters as well, ‘Alice Lenore’ (Shirley’s mom) and ‘Elsie Marilla’ (my mother). The last one that she did was a dwarf iris that she named for my oldest son, Bill. It is called ‘Billy Blue Eyes’—she loved the blue color of his eyes. She used my iris, ‘Sandra Elaine’, in creating it. I do still have some of the ‘Billy Blue Eyes’, thankfully. I know that my Mom has a lot of pictures of Grandma and her iris. I will see what we can “dig up” for you. Thank you for all of your research and help. Sandy Dawson
Also June 9 - NM to SD Sandy, this is so exciting! I’d really love to put an article in ROOTS about it, if you and Shirley are OK with that, including those photos, if possible. Also, we need to get those irises into the Guardian Gardens program as soon as we can, so they’re preserved by more than just a few people. Best, Nancy
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 27 Fall 2016 Still June 9 - NM to SJ & SD, Doug Paschall, Bob Pries, Judy Schneider, & Cathy Egerer Hi, Everyone, Shirley and Sandy, there is a page on the AIS Wiki Encyclopedia about your grandmother, here:
More June 9 - SW to NM Thank you, Nancy. I reviewed that Wiki page a few days ago just prior to me making contacts. You have my permission and Sandy lives with her Mom so Aunt Marilla can provide permission with Sandy. Last night, I set out some newspaper articles that had pictures I was going to send but forgot them this morning. Sandy – do you have any pictures? I have a few slides is all. And darn the luck, I couldn’t find the one with me holding my iris. You people have it going on! Once again, my MOST heartfelt and humble thanks. Shirley
June 9 - DG to All Hello, Everyone, The only concern I had was that my mom had ‘Shirley Jean’ for many years and hybridized with it, and there was a very slight chance that the photo I’d sent was a SJ seedling and not the actual variety. Fortunately, Mom took photos of all the seedlings she kept for evaluating, and taped them onto index cards with comments (name of cross, year kept, what happened to it, etc.). She did keep a couple of SJ seedlings—apparently it was a good pollen parent—but from their photos they’re clearly not the SJ I have. The clincher is that the seedlings look slightly more modern and have different coloration. A load off my mind. Also, there’s comments on their index cards as being discarded. I always wondered how much money she spent taking photos of seedlings—in pre-digital times it must have been a pretty penny. In looking through Mom’s index cards, I found a postcard from Geneva reminding my mother of the upcoming Sandpoint Garden Club picnic and what irises she liked this year (1987). I had forgotten that there was a garden club in the late 1980s that both my mother and Geneva belonged to, and they and several other older women toured members’ gardens. I found a few photos of the group but unfortunately Geneva is facing away from the camera. Glad to see that ‘Shirley Jean’ is getting interest. I’ll have to get out to my friend’s garden to see how much increase it has; when my mom passed away four years ago there were only so many irises of hers that I could assimilate into my iris patch, and my iris friend John Ludi from nearby Sandy, OR, generously gave me some space to plant more of them. Talk to you later. Debbie Gillespie
What Happened Next
Debbie did send ‘Shirley Jean’ to Shirley Jean. She sent some to Nancy so we could get it into the GG program. She also donated some to the HIPS sale, so a lucky few were able to purchase it. If you got it, you now know how special it is. Treasure it! Please propagate it and send it back to the sale. Geneva’s descendents are growing on the other existing irises mentioned in this article with an eye to sharing them in the future. Please keep an eye out for the missing ones. a
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 28 Fall 2016 FROM BEDS OF RAGING FIRE by Barbara Peters
This article describes the fate of the author’s aril and arilbred irises that endured a fire in 2012. The title is from John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” Book 2, dating from 1674; here Milton writes of the extremes of fire and ice, surely appropriate in this context. The article covers historic & modern irises.
In the course of my life I often saw irises in built in his life, intended to become a carpenter and the neighborhood yards, and in my grandfather’s do this with his own hands. He started driving the garden, but nothing sparked an interest in growing 100-mile round-trip most weekends during the them. I noticed but gave them little thought. summers to build our house. I would accompany After my husband and I moved to our present him when I could. We were both still working. location, where only wild nature resided, I started We moved into the house in 1990. It was not thinking about planting something that would grow finished yet, but livable. I retired from my job that here. I met a woman on the Internet who introduced year. Ben, who worked in a different town, was me to irises. She sent me The Gardener’s Guide to able to continue his work part time. We had Growing Irises, by Geoff Stebbings, and five or six electricity by then, although no water except what rhizomes. I planted those and they grew. I began to we carried in a plastic water tank in the back of our look at them in a different light. Eventually I had a pickup. We didn’t have much garden, for water was chance to tour Cooley’s Gardens and found their precious. Natural water here from rain and snow is irises a wellspring of color, form, and texture. 11-12 inches per year; comparable to Santa Fe, New Nowadays I find them delightful and Mexico. Our altitude at the top is 5,600 feet. interesting due to the vast array of irises and the I became interested in planting things beyond accessibility of new ones. Being able to look up the native flora. When the Cooley Iris catalogs photos and information from your own desktop by came to the new address, I started looking at them. computer is just marvelous. In my childhood most of the irises I saw were one My interest started growing in 1983 when we shade or another of purple. In the catalogs I found bought land in the foothills of the Highland many colors and forms. They suddenly became Mountains of Montana, about 50 miles from where more fascinating. we lived. This new property was virgin country and Within our first year there I bought 3 apple completely wild, with no one else living nearby. trees and felt we could afford to hand-water those My husband Ben, a psychologist who had never with our transported water. The land was pretty but not exactly conducive to raising veggies or flowers. Our property is athwart a ridgeline of a hill and goes downhill to the south. Our view stretches across the valley to take in the Tobacco Roots mountain range to the south and the Highland Mountains to the west. The backside of the ridge to the north went downhill and the view was of foothills covered in native vegetation. We built on the upper third of the hill on the south-facing slope to use passive solar energy in the house and to see the mountain landscape. There were no homes there then, nor on our hill; there was just our dead-end road, and a rough one it was. It is rugged country filled with rocks…rocks everywhere, for we are in the heart of the Rocky Mountains and they were named that for a reason. Digging required a pick-ax. Clearing rocks is a Arilbred ‘Childsong’ (Elm Jensen, 1984) E. Jensen photo never-ending job. Rocks range from gravel size to
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 29 Fall 2016 mammoth monoliths, on top of the soil and underneath it, and underground there are long rocky ridges nearly impossible to get through with hand tools. The alkaline soil is thin and drains very well because it is composed primarily of decomposed granite. The soil is shallow and, without the natural vegetation to hold it down, it would blow away in our strong winds. The land can best be described as semi-desert transitional forest. The native vegetation is primarily Douglas fir with a few limber pines, a lot of juniper bushes, sage brush, antelope and rabbit brush, prickly pear cactus, and numerous bunch grasses. When we moved here I brought along my few rabbits, who lived in outdoor hutches and supplied us with manure, so my trusty compost pile grew along with my plants. In the 25 years we have lived here, our garden has expanded and my interest in flowers has grown along with it. Although we are in Zone 4, winter snow cover is not constant and readily melts when we get “Chinook” weather, warm winds that blow in following a bout of snow and very cold temperatures. This wind melts the top layer of snow and sometimes takes it away completely. This alternating freezing and occasional warming must be confusing to plants unless they adapt to it. Arilbred ‘Blue Arts’ (Danielson, 1985) Ken Walker photo To make a garden, the land needs to be cleared vegetable garden, two aspen groves, the Duck of the biggest rocks on top and amended with the Garden, and about 10 acres surrounding the house compost or other supplements. In the course of with the terraces and smaller gardens where we moving rocks away, Ben would use them to build a raised our sheep. terrace and I would start improving the soil and As the garden grew, so did my interest in plant something in the spot. I looked for bushes and plants that would live here, including bearded irises. flowers that were relatively easy to grow without I discovered HIPS online and joined. The computer rich soil, could take cold weather and periods of gave me ease of communication and the ability to drought, and tolerate alkaline soil. We decided find out information from the websites of HIPS, the early on not to have a lawn because of all the water American Iris Society, and the Arilbred Iris Society. that would be needed to keep it green. Along with TBs, I acquired SDBs, and found those We had a well dug that went down over 1,200 tucked nicely into the rocky terraces. Along with feet to hit water. We had electricity brought in two that came an interest in intermediates. I was miles to reach the house and another half mile to hooked. reach the well-house. We got our first running When the arilbreds came, they needed some water in 1995, after five years of living in the space to their liking. By then my original irises mountains. After that I could plant to my heart were starting to overflow, so I needed room to content, for I had water! expand. The duck pen at that time was vacant, so I Deer do not like to eat irises, but that doesn’t decided to try irises in there and it became the Duck mean they will not nibble the leaves or, in the case Garden. It is 16' by 34', located behind us on the of newly planted ones, pull them out of the ground ridgeline. We fenced the pen with standard stock or sleep on top of them. Now I have a fence panels for pigs, which have closer cross-wires at the surrounding a small orchard of eight trees, the bottom to keep little piglets in; in our case they keep
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 30 Fall 2016 smaller mammals out. We surrounded that with house, it continued its downward journey, almost hardware cloth to keep out rabbits. reaching the valley floor before the courageous fire Since it was already fenced, the irises could crews could contain it. By then it was dark. We did move right in. The ducks had mowed down all the not learn that our house had been spared until the greenery and left in its place their manure and next day, and we were not allowed to return home decomposing hay. Outside the fence were scattered for five more days. The fire took many homes in Douglas firs. I started my arilbreds up there in the area and on our hill it destroyed four dwellings, 2011, followed by my overflow TBs. I added more but fortunately none of the owners were living there arilbreds in August, 2012, two weeks before the fire anymore. We were extremely lucky to have our started. home spared. The fire came right up to the Duck Garden, The Fire our northernmost bed. Some trees right beside it burned up. It scorched some of the irises, so they The Nineteen Mile Forest Fire started by were only half alive. The firemen estimated that the lightning striking a corner fence post 10 miles away. heat in that area was 1,500°F. There were patches It smoldered for three days and then took hold. At within the garden itself that burned, but then the fire 6:30PM on August 23rd, my son-in-law phoned; he died out. The western end of the garden got the saw the smoke from his home 25 miles away. He most heat, with the eastern end only damaged by told me to go outside to see what I could see. We small fires that went out quickly. A lot of the irises do not have any windows in the north wall, because were scorched to the ground and some burned our passive solar house is bermed to the roof on that outright. Others had been left scorched but still side. When I went outside and looked north, I saw standing. All the irises suffered from the heat of the behind us a huge billowing cloud of smoke in the fires of the trees burning next to the garden with sky. That was terrifying, and a complete surprise to resultant high winds. Everywhere in the garden us. were heavy ash deposits an inch deep. At 7:30 we received a phone call telling us to get out of there fast, for they were closing the roads After the Fire at the highway below within two hours. There is only one road out of here, so we left, leaving In 2013, the first year after the fire, strong everything behind except our dogs, hoping for the winds blew ash everywhere. It settled not only best. The fire started traveling eastward and south outside, but blew into the house through any towards our place. It burned all the hills we could available cracks or the opening of doors. That did see to the north and came up the back side of our not cease until 2014, the second year, when the land hill, taking all our northern trees, and came over the ridge and started going down the hill in front. It consumed our poultry house and some small bird and animal shelters, the haystack, and some trees on the southern slope as it traveled downhill. It burned to the Duck Garden and entered it in various spots but did not burn it all. Where the poultry house had been, the fire split and went west around our house and down the hill, and did the same thing on the other side before going down the hill. It was like a huge invisible fire-proof cape had been thrown over our house. Thank God for that! Our house was saved! Having gone south and around the Arilbred ‘Genetic Artist’ (Danielson, 1972) Elm Jensen photo
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 31 Fall 2016 ‘Gray Mohr’ (Paul by Muhlestein, 1956) ‘Kalifa’s Robe’ (Hager, 1990) ‘William Mohr’ (Mohr, 1925) These arilbreds were planted in 2011 but were badly scorched and died. ‘Kalifa’s Cape’ (Annand, 2003) ‘Lakeside Elf’ (Moran, 2006) ‘Omar’s Gold’ (Boswell, 1995) ‘Shave First’ (McAllister, 2009) ‘Sheriffa’ (White, 1941) ‘Whiskey Mack’ (Danielson, 1982)
Aril iris ‘Turkish Topaz’ (Austin, 1962) Elm Jensen photo The Survivors Aril: started its recovery by growing grasses and weeds in ‘Turkish Topaz’ (Austin, 1962), a regelia hybrid the burned areas. In 2015, the third year, the native (RH) out of Iris stolonifera lines. Planted 2011; first grasses had grown back completely. bloomed, then scorched by fire 2012; green & Floods followed the burning, mostly because bloomed 2013; very healthy looking but no blooms there was no vegetation left to use the rains and in 2014 or 2015. melting snow and hold the water back. On the top of the hill, the flooding did not affect us, but below Arilbreds: us, a mile away, the floods twice washed out a dam ‘Anacrusis’ (Mathes, 1992) Planted 2011; 2012 with our elevated road. We had to have it rebuilt was on side farthest from fire; 2013 growing well; both times so we could get in and out. 2014 & 2015 many flowers. In the Duck Garden I had planted many of my ‘Blue Arts’ (Danielson, 1985) Planted 2011; 2012 Arilbred iris rhizomes in August, 2012, so they had took the brunt of the fire & heat; 2013 scorched only two weeks of growth before the fire came. yellow; 2014 & 2015 bloomed tall. Amazing Some had been planted longer. Very soon after that survival. they had to cope with winter’s high winds, snow, ‘Cairo Love Song’ (Nichols, 1980) Planted 2011; and temperatures as low as 25°F below zero. 2013 not robust, only 6" tall; 2014 alive; 2015 In March, 2013, after the snow pack left, I blooming and thriving. went out to take a survey and was happy to see ‘Childsong’ (Jensen, 1984) Planted 2011; 2012 several bits of greenery. In mid to late May, some badly scorched; 2013 bloomed anyway; 2014 & of the Arilbreds started blooming; they bloom 2015 bloomed. Wonderful resilient plant. earlier than TBs, about the time that SDBs bloom. ‘Dune’ (Hager, 1981) Planted 2012; alive after fire, Some were not able to survive the fire, strong winds but scrawny; 2013 still alive; 2014 still alive; 2015 and heavy ash, yet some of the neighboring irises filled out & blooming magnificently. A grand seemed to thrive in these conditions. It’s strange. recovery. ‘Eastern Blush’ (Ransom, 2002) Planted 2011; Aril & Arilbred Inventory & Status 2012 bloomed but scorched; still thrived; subject to much wind damage; 2013-2014-2015 alive & The Lost bloomed. Only five feet from western fence. None of these three aril irises made it, though ‘Egyptian Queen’ (Johnson, 2007) Planted 2012 ‘Dardanus’ (Van Tubergen, 1962) tried hard for near fence closest to fire; neighbors had been two years. ‘Merlin’s Magic’ (Jensen, 1985) was scorched dead; 2013 still alive; 2014 alive & some planted only two weeks before the fire; ‘Tadziki growth; 2015 thriving & blooming; magnificent Bandit’ (Ransom, 1997), though planted in 2011, plant & bloom. never recovered. ‘Gene’s Little Secret’ (Hunt by McKusick, 1981) Of the arilbreds, these were planted just weeks Planted 2012. Alive after fire; thriving & vigorous before the fire and had no time to grow roots: late 2013; blooming & happy in 2014; blooming ‘Bedouin Child’ (McKusick, 1973) abundantly in 2015. A cheerful little plant.
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 32 Fall 2016 ‘Genetic Artist’ (Danielson, 1972) Planted 2 weeks Garden live on and almost all of them bloomed this before fire. Alive but very small in 2013; alive & year. I didn’t get as many dug, divided, and growing slowly in 2014; blooming with a few replanted this year, but they didn’t seem to mind. gorgeous flowers in 2015. Planted very near a tree I have many other irises planted in terraces that was completely consumed by fire. A very around this place and they all seem to be thriving, fanciful flower. too. Some of them are planted in such bare soil that ‘High Sierra Snow’ (Wright, 2002) Planted 2011; it really doesn’t deserve that name, for it is not scorched by 2012 fire; by 2013 it had yellowed composed mostly of decomposed granite. It’s really & shrunken with only green in middle; alive but no fine gravel. The irises in those areas look less progress 2014; same condition & never bloomed vibrant and smaller but still alive. I’ve found that 2015. Another of these planted in a terrace 1,000 the little SDBs and IBs do better in those rough feet away is in the same stagnant condition. areas than the TBs do. And they seem to bloom no ‘Jallab’ (Keppel, 2004) Planted 2011; scorched matter what. It’s as if the TBs are the royalty and badly but alive 2013, but only about 6" high; not like the finer things in life, whereas the IBs and robust; alive spring 2014; bloomed 2015 & now SDBs will take what they get and be happy anyway. vigorous & magnificent. I first got interested in the Arilbreds when I ‘Saffron Jewel’ (Abell, 1959) Planted two weeks learned that they came from areas of sparse fertility before fire; alive & healthy in 2013; the same in and amenities. Unfortunately, I did lose one of my 2014 & 2015 but never bloomed. favorite ABs this spring when my ‘Afrosiab’ ‘Scarlet Butterfly’ (Austin, 1960) Planted 2011; (Volfovich-Moler, 2006) died. It was on the front withered in fire but not scorched 2012; alive & terrace where watering was easy for me to do and green 2013 growing & bloomed 2014; blooming & the soil was better. There could be a lesson in that. vigorous 2015. Planted within three feet of the Yet it lived there four years before dying. western fence. (Not quite an arilbred.) I felt the forest fire was beneficial in a way, ‘Scented Opals’ (Danielson, 1980) Planted two because the ash gave some potash and other weeks before fire; alive & green in 2013; appears nutrients to the soil even as the smoke and heat healthy but never bloomed 2014 & 2015. destroyed things. Watching the recovery of nearby ‘Skies Always Blue’ (McAllister, 2005) Planted burned-out hills is interesting. The wild grasses I two weeks before fire & partially scorched; mostly think have recovered to the level where they were green 2013; healthy & blooming in 2014; many before the fire, but the trees themselves have not blooms 2015; very tall & elegant & doing well. A even started recovery, except for a few very small gorgeous plant. junipers. ‘Vera-Marina’ (Ransom, 1998) Planted 2011; One often hears about irises that live on in old scorched 2012; bloomed in 2013, 2014 & 2015; homesteads as uncared-for and unknown for years now thriving; located within three feet of west when the owners have passed on. I’d like to think fence and one foot from north fence. that mine will too someday. a ‘Vera-Ruby’ (Ransom, 1996) Planted 2011; bloomed 2012, then scorched; bloomed 2013, 2014, & 2015; very healthy & pretty; close to north fence Guardian Gardens Ditty right next to a tree that burned. Guardian Gardeners may not get a propellor Addendum beanie or secret decoder ring (darn!), but they now have their own ditty. With a tip of the hat to Anne Some time has gone by since I wrote this McNeil and a wink and a grin to Lady Liberty: article. I am still here, but I lost my beloved husband, who helped me keep it all together with Give me your iris, your lore, his love and support, and labor. I have been trying Your muddled rhizomes yearning to be free since to keep it all up, but that is not possible. The The wretched hybrids of your distant shore biggest, most obvious result is that the weeds live Send these, out-dated, old fashioned, to me on and thrive. But the irises maintain their I lift my spade beside the iris of yore. a strengths. Many of the irises planted in the Duck
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 33 Fall 2016 Breezeway Iris Garden A HIPS Display Garden by George Bacon
historic varieties are very easy to grow and free-flowering, if not outright prolific bloomers. I enjoy being able to see in my own garden, and share with garden visitors, the development of iris form, color, and pattern leading to each year’s new introductions. My collection of historics has grown to 162 cultivars. In the past, they mostly grew in one bed, so I was only offering them for sale every three years, but now I can offer roughly a third of the varieties for sale each year. I hope to get them back in more people’s gardens. The historic cultivars will always have a special place in my heart to remind me of my Mom’s iris garden in the mid-1960s gardening roots: Mom’s 1960s garden.
Breezeway Iris Garden is a family-owned and My love for irises began with my mother and -operated business just south of Madison, business partner, Doris Bacon. I always remember Wisconsin, between the towns of Oregon and Mom having iris in the garden in the 1960s, and I Brooklyn. Our garden is open to the public during grew up loving the once-a-year spectacular they our spring open house. We sell irises through our brought forth each spring. I have fond memories of website and in our garden in the summer iris sale. helping Mom divide and plant irises and looking at More dates and up-to-the minute information can be iris catalogs. Of course, life gets busy and it often found on our website,
The Age of Nations is past. disabling for him and more strenuous for her. In The task before us now, 1952, Wanda began her first iris garden as a If we would not perish, sanctuary from the burden of providing his care. Is to build the earth. Teilhard de Chardin She discharged her weariness and worry in her garden and emerged daily refreshed and renewed. Since 1952, Wanda Rezac has been lovingly This attention both to the earth and her husband cultivating irises on her small farm just outside continued until October, 2003, when Donald passed Sidney, Nebraska. Her name and contact away. By that time, Wanda’s iris garden had information has lurked for years in the HIPS forums become famous, and after his death, she continued and other venues where irisarians congregate. As a cultivate, collect, give, and sell. (Her favorite neophyte HIPS member, it was in one of these hybridizer, by the way is Keith Keppel.) forums that I first heard about her and her amazing We’re each reading this article because, as a collection. She was revered and deeply respected. member of HIPS, we have a special interest in It was shared that in early times she had sent new historic irises. Some of us are also members of the HIPS members gifts of rhizomes. But now as she Guardian Gardens program; we volunteer to rescue had gotten older and HIPS had grown, that practice and nurture cultivars that are in danger of became overwhelming. She was not on the Internet extinction. The idea of rescuing Wanda’s irises all any longer, after being affronted by a scammer, and started as a conversation in March between Laetitia now managed everything by postal mail. Munro and Leslie Rule, who wanted to acquire In eager anticipation, I sent her a letter more endangered irises. Laetitia wanted some irises asking for a list of her cultivars. A short while later from Wanda, and Leslie lives in Nebraska. Instead I received a handwritten reply. The script was crisp, of driving by and picking up some irises from steady, tiny, and the sentiment was sincere of heart. Wanda, Leslie took it to a new level. She wrote I was invited to call her and come out to dig irises. Unfortunately, she explained, it would cost her $5.00 to send me a list of her 3,000 irises. Little did I know that one day we would meet in person and I would assist her in preserving this legacy by helping to rescue her collection. Wanda grew up in Ohio in the 1930s. On graduating from high school she began to look for a job. The wages, however, for the available jobs didn’t amount to more than $2.00 an hour. But Wanda said that she became aware via newspaper ads that farm workers out west were being paid $5.00 an hour. So as a young girl she picked herself up, moved to Nebraska, and signed up as a farm worker. It was in Nebraska that she met her husband, Donald. Wanda continued to do farm work until taking care of her children required her to remain at home. Today, meeting her, one encounters this same work ethic and is left marveling at her deep-seated resilience and personal determination. Wanda shared with me that her husband, Donald, eventually suffered from 12 different medical conditions, which over time became more ‘Limerick’ (Keppel, 1973) was rescued this year
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 35 Fall 2016 Wanda a letter and began a In the meantime, Doug discussion with her about began to contact HIPS and GG “rescuing” her irises. Wanda, members in the surrounding who is 86 and whose family does areas to see if they wanted to not share her passion for irises, participate in the rescue. was at first curious, then Names started to dribble in. I intrigued, and as the ball started called Brett Barney and Gary rolling she became staunchly White in Nebraska to talk committed to putting her legacy about a date for the rescue. into our devoted hands. Gary and Brett knew Wanda Soon after Leslie and her gardens already. established this amazing Despite being in the same connection with Wanda and state, they both live a plans were being pursued for a considerable distance away: rescue, she found herself in a some 350 miles. Yet both new job. This opportunity were committed to this eliminated her ability to lead or endeavor and we targeted the participate in an excursion. In ‘Wanda Rezac’ (Jedlicka, 2007) Jedlicka photo dates of July 1-3. the initial email traffic looking I contacted Wanda, for helpers for a possible rescue, I had volunteered introduced myself, and explained what happened to “man a shovel.” Living north of Denver, with Leslie. I asked if I could come up to meet her Colorado, I am only about 2.5 hours from Sidney. to discuss plans for the rescue. My husband, Douglass Paschall, administrator of the Guardian Michael, and I made a trip to Sidney on June 11, Gardens program, soon reached out to me and we arriving at 6:00AM. Wanda was already out in the discussed the possibility of me taking over for garden, pulling weeds. I presented her with three Leslie. Doug was creating a document that back issues of ROOTS that she had been unable to contained detailed information gleaned from others’ obtain, and we sat down in the alcove of her garage. experiences on how to conduct an iris rescue. With We spent the next two hours reviewing the that in hand and a promise from Doug that he would operational plans for the rescue, going through her garner a team to assist, I accepted the challenge. location documents and transferring that I had already updated a spreadsheet of information onto my spreadsheet. Wanda’s cultivars and sent it to the conversing We also labeled red flags to be placed in the group. It had been sent from someone who had the ground to mark the irises locations. Wanda last updated list of her iris holdings. The confirmed that the July 1-3 dates would work well spreadsheet identified which of Wanda’s irises were for her. Mike and I offered to help her place the no longer in commerce and which were not already flags, but she said she could do that herself. So being grown by HIPS members. The shorthand for Michael and I spent another hour helping her pull this condition was 0-0: no commercial sources and weeds. By that time, the sun was high and it was not grown by any HIPS members. I composed an very hot. Wanda only works outdoors in the early email with this document attached, outlining the morning hours and retires to the house before process for adopting and paying for these irises. 10:30AM to avoid the heat of the day. Wanda was going to sell us 2 rhizomes for $2.00. I I kept in touch with Wanda weekly and sent the draft email to Doug and asked him to followed up with potential team members. By the forward it to the Guardian Gardeners. Doug, now end of June, we had eight people who planned to coaching me in this rescue milieu, sent out this and travel from Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and other emails. Oklahoma to help. We had one another’s cell After several trials to produce a dynamic phone numbers and a list of instructions, including spreadsheet listing everyone’s choices, payments, what to expect and a list of items to bring. In the and addresses, I finally built three operational meantime, 19 Guardian Gardeners sent me lists of documents that helped guide the rescue team to a irises they wanted to adopt. There were successful outcome. approximately 150 irises on our list for this dig, and
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 36 Fall 2016 by the third week in June every cultivar had been packed truck and trailer in tow), Wendy Scott prospectively adopted by at least two gardeners. (Oberlin, Kansas), and Gary White (Lincoln, Judy Barton donated printed waterproof labels with Nebraska). rubber bands as well as printed mailing labels for The next morning, Wanda was out before the shipment. As Doug had promised, everything we all arrived at 5:45. She had handfuls of markers was falling into place. and was hunting the elusive tags in the tall, tall, Any of you who have been involved in iris over-your-knees grass. She had amassed coolers of rescues know that not everything goes according to water and for food, five-gallon buckets to collect the plan. On June 30, two team members notified me irises, tables to set up for the sorting area, and that they would be unable to come to Sidney. But washstand and chairs—all to assist us in our efforts. this was an eager, dedicated group of people and it And for some reason, on July 1st, after weeks of felt like we could do whatever it took to rescue the 90EF weather, the Nebraska morning dawned cool irises—and we certainly did, and it was managed and misty, a most unexpected but welcome reprieve. with aplomb. But not without another hiccup. It took a matter of minutes to distribute I arrived at Wanda’s late Thursday afternoon copies of the dig sheets and instructions to and walked into the garage to discover that fewer everyone. We gathered around for a short briefing: than a third of the markers were in place for the dig. go to a red flag, use the dig sheet to look up how Despite her insistence that she could put them in the many rhizomes we need, dig ’em, mark ’em, pop ground, our short window from June 11th to July ’em in a paper bag and write the name and number 1st overwhelmed Wanda’s good intentions. The of rhizomes on the bag. When you fill the bucket, gardens were still mostly choked with cheat grass, bring ’em to the washstand. Save the paper bag so slowing her effort to locate the cultivars. The hot we can correctly count the irises and pay Wanda. sun and effort of working four to five hours a day Then figure out what job you want and do it. And simply exhausted her. boy, did they ever! The success of this rescue “Is there any way you can come back later in belongs to this team of individuals who dug, the summer?” washed, tabulated, sorted, and boxed. And during “I don’t think that will work, Wanda.” some confusing times, it required a real Marine-like “I’ll be fresh first thing in the morning and I effort: “Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome.” can get some of them in.” By noon, all the flagged irises were dug, I gave her four more back issues of ROOTS trimmed, washed, and laid out to dry. In the and sent her back to the house. I watched her afternoon, after a trip into town for lunch, we sorted painfully navigate the considerable trek. She had all those irises according to the packing lists, then already spent five hours that morning trying to get packed them into boxes for mailing. Wanda prepared for us. Then for the next three hours I stalked her obscured rows in search of labeling tags. I was really worried at that point. Wanda’s gardens are immense, and it started out as a true hunt and peck operation. As I persisted I got better and I also got lucky. By 6:00PM I had placed many markers in the ground. Shortly thereafter, as dusk lengthened into darkness, I reached a point of diminishing returns and quit for the day. In the meantime, the iris “extractor team” was arriving in Sidney, texting and calling to touch base. Besides me, those hardy, dedicated, and resourceful few were: Brett and Becky Barney (Sterling, Nebraska), Nina Morris (Wellfleet, Nebraska), Debra and Ellie Scott (moving from Tinmath, Colorado; on the way to Minnesota, literally in transit with a Wanda with flags in the Irismobile beside the iris field
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 37 Fall 2016 watched all of this happening, and these “babies” are now in and helped where she could. the hands of our Guardian She said she was impressed Gardeners, who will grow them how well we all worked on, confirm identity, and then together, especially since most propagate them to share with of us just met each other for the others. first time that morning. Wanda was greatly It was all done in good pleased with our operation, and spirit and with precise goals, our efforts were so graciously and we were all friends well buoyed by her generosity. before lunch. Because of the This year targeted only a small extraordinary teamwork and part of her holdings, but Wanda heartfelt camaraderie, all the is committed to continue the boxes were packed by 3:30PM. rescue. She realizes that her Wendy Scott and I hopped in irises need to go to people who the car and ferried them to the appreciate them and want to Post Office. We got there at save them. As relayed by Gary 3:50 and sent everything White: “She is to be Priority Mail before the Post commended for saving all those Office closed at 4:00 for the ‘Marmalade’ (Keppel, 1979) old irises and for allowing us to holiday weekend. What was help save and distribute her rare planned as a two- or three-day dig was historic ones.” accomplished in one. We will be mounting another dig and the In summary, how successful was this HIPS targeted group will be larger. Wanda has already foray? Of the 150 targeted cultivars, we could not supplied us with the locations of the next group of find 38. Wanda believes many of those were dead: rarities. The red flags are made, waiting to go into “I lost them to the grass.” Others were there, but the ground this fall when the temperatures we could not locate them that day. However, we moderate. If you want to join us, mark your were able to rescue the others on our list. Some of calendars for next year; that Fourth of July still the rhizomes were very small, but they may looks like a good target date. represent the very last chance for these cultivars, Wanda is 86 now. She still goes out to her garden every day. The depth of her knowledge about the irises in her garden is amazing. When I called her to check in, Wanda always started the conversation with, “Well, I’m still here.” Considering that her doctor told her a year ago that she had four months to live, that’s pretty good. Over the course of these last few months she has also said, “I hope I’ll still be here.” She said this a couple of times before we showed up at her door, and again before I gave her a hug and pulled out of her long driveway that final time. I can’t forget the last look in her eyes. After twenty years in home health nursing, I can read eyes pretty well. Her eyes said all of these things: “I’m sorry to see you go,” “I hope I’m here next year,” and finally, “You are my legacy.” a Rescuers Nina, Wendy, Wanda, and Gary, July 2016
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 38 Fall 2016 HIPS 2016 Rhizome Sale Report by Judy Schneider, Rhizome Sale Chair
When I was asked last year about documents with a photo of each iris, heading up the HIPS 2016 Rhizome its vital information, and a live link to Sale, I thought to myself, “How hard the HIPS Gallery or the AIS Wiki. can it be, right?” so I agreed to take on Many evenings of research followed the job. I had helped Janice Thompson as Cathy and I added over 650 with the shipping in 2015, so I knew cultivars to those sheets, as well as to the basic plan and duties required. I the spreadsheet for the actual sale. knew there had been ongoing Nancy was busy receiving boxes, difficulties with providing the unpacking thousands of rhizomes, rhizomes actually ordered by the counting them, examining them for buyers and getting rhizomes to them in missing names, mold, and so on, a timely manner. After some writing donor numbers on the fans, brainstorming on the problems, I and alphabetizing them in the storage approached the Sale Committee and system. More than 80% of incoming then the Board of Directors with a new Today’s mail: incoming rhizomes rhizomes needed to be re-trimmed plan based on another sale format I had participated and re-labeled. Nancy also kept track of which in via the Internet. All was approved and we donor donated which cultivar and how many of launched the new HIPS Rhizome Sale for 2016. them, so we could institute a tracking system in case Early on we decided that moving the sale later identity problems arise as the irises bloom for in the year was important for two reasons. It gave buyers. All of this became a full-time job for the the donors a better opportunity to know what would three of us, more than full-time on many days. I’m be available to donate, and it allowed northern sure our spouses thought we had gone totally crazy. gardeners a chance to donate; in the old timeframe, As the sale time grew closer, we realized the their irises were still blooming at digging time. I magnitude of what was happening. The donors asked for tentative donation plans from the donors were very generous, and as we approached the 5,000 and was flooded with a huge list of plants. rhizome mark, I had to actually ask for donations to Another major change was to a “live” sale cease, as we literally were getting more than we with accurate rhizome counts of each cultivar and a could manage. What a wonderful problem to have! system to update sales as they happened, to Finally sale day arrived. To say I was nervous eliminate the need for refunds for unavailable is an understatement. I worried there would be a rhizomes. That would also enable each buyer to see computer problem. I worried buyers wouldn’t what irises they had succeeded in purchasing and understand the complexities of the new format. I make adjustments in their totals. I would like to worried I would goof the whole thing up and delete give a huge thank-you to Patricia Roberson, who shared her formatted spreadsheet with us to use in our sale. It turned out to be a vitally important part of the sale’s success. As sale time approached, the Sale Committee of Nancy McDonald, Cathy Egerer, and I made plans. I would do most of the online work, while they would be the Shipping Department. Nancy and her husband kindly donated the use of their big basement, which was perfect for storing rhizomes —nice and cool with plenty of space. Cathy and Nancy purchased shelving and storage baskets to keep the rhizomes well organized. As the donations started rolling in, we worked on developing online The Basement in mid-sale
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 39 Fall 2016 the spreadsheet. Oh, the month of July. We are working thoughts that went through my on streamlining details for next head! But we had tested, year’s sale to make it easier for practiced, and obsessed over all involved. We will have to each little detail, and it really limit the sheer amount of went off without a hitch. rhizomes for sale (at least the Whew! I was pleasantly quantities of each variety) and surprised at the buyers. They make some tweaks to the “got it” and nearly everyone did overall sale process. We will exactly as we had requested with also print an article in the sending their lists, contact Spring 2017 ROOTS about how Outgoing boxes in the kitchen information, and questions in a our wonderful donors can make correct manner at the proper time. our job simpler and faster. It was a bit overwhelming to see nearly 100 Unfortunately, some of the frustrations aren’t orders arrive in the sale email account in the first fixable—there will never be a way to get every few minutes of Round 1, though. Just processing buyer every desired iris. Some people didn’t get the orders from the emails into the spreadsheet took their order processed as fast as they had hoped. over six hours of continuous computer work. As That was the most common of the few complaints soon as that was done, it was time for Round 2, and we received. It was usually a matter of their I did it all over again. There was a problem Internet connection speed or the way their order fed transferring the data from the Round 1 to the Round into the system. A logjam of sorts was created by 2 spreadsheet that nearly caused me a meltdown, so many people pushing the “Send” button at but otherwise, all went smoothly—again, thanks to exactly the same time. All we could do was process Pat for saving the day! It was great seeing buyers orders as they came into the HIPS email account. getting irises in the second round that they missed in This process was still much better than in the the first one. The new system worked wonderfully past, when buyers had no idea what they would be to give more buyers a chance to buy the most getting until it arrived on their doorstep. In in-demand irises. addition, HIPS didn’t have to refund a third of the Cathy and Nancy started packing as soon as payments as we did last year, due to not being able someone paid an invoice. I was busy invoicing and to provide rhizomes that were ordered. This year, tracking payments so they knew which orders were we had only one refund to pay. ready to go out. They spent countless hours filling Fewer than 10 of the 5,000 rhizomes did not orders from the shelves, packing the rhizomes, and store well due to rot or borers and were deemed getting over 200 boxes closed, weighed, labeled, unsellable at packing time. We asked the and to the Post Office for shipping. It was great to purchasers to make other selections if we could not get those rhizomes headed out to new gardens so send what they requested. Cathy and Nancy dug quickly, instead of sitting around for a lengthy time irises from their personal gardens more than once to while all orders got processed. complete an order for someone. Their customer Due to the large volume of rhizomes, after the service was top notch and I can’t thank them main sale we opted to sell grab-bag boxes at a enough for the countless hours they put in helping discounted rate to help move the remaining with the sale. I’m sure there was a big ol’ party rhizomes out, offering them in single sets, clump when the last rhizome left that basement. sets, mixed, TBs, or medians—all still labeled with There are so many people I would like to cultivar names. These were a huge hit and in the thank, starting with our patient spouses. Thanks end, every rhizome was sold. also to all who provided photos, researched ID Overall, the sale was a HUGE success! We questions, and answered endless questions. It made more than $13,400 profit, over twice the would take another page to thank everyone largest sale amount of the past and over triple last individually. The biggest thank-you goes to the year’s profit. What a great thing for HIPS! That donors and the buyers, though. Without you, the said, the three of us were totally exhausted by the sale could never have been the success it was. We end of the process, and had pretty well lost the look forward to another great year in 2017. a
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 40 Fall 2016 Society Business by Cathy Egerer
Meetings: The HIPS Board met in May and Encyclopedia, and we shared those photos. Other September via teleconference. The HIPS Annual photos were placed in the HIPS Gallery. Thank you, Meeting was held at the AIS Convention in New Janet! Jersey in May. Minutes of all three meetings are For updates on Board meetings and activity, online at the HIPS website. please see the Society Business section of the Board Personnel Changes: At the Annual website and the Society Business forum. We’ll do Meeting, we elected two new Regional Directors. our best to post information quickly. a Linda Baumgartner joins us as our new Southwest Regional Director, and Denise Stewart as our new Northwest Regional Director. We extend a warm welcome to you both, and our thanks for your willingness to serve HIPS. Our appreciation and thanks go out to departing board members Winona Stevenson (Southwest RD) and Rita Butler (Northwest RD). We wish you all the best. HIPS also wishes to thank departing International Chair Darlene Cook, who stepped down after many years in that role. As we approach winter, she is heading toward summer in New Zealand, and Darlene, we hope your irises all bloom. The International Chair will remain vacant temporarily as we revamp the position. Last but not least, we welcome Lori Lensch-Marcotte as our new Member Databank Chair. Lori takes over from Brett Barney, whose work the last few years has helped the Databank nearly double in size. Brett, thank you for your hard work and for helping HIPS grow. Members, please send Lori your iris lists so we can keep the ‘Fourth of July’ (Reynolds, 1962) Carlos Ayento photo Databank growing. Her email is
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 41 Fall 2016 The Last Minute
Open That Mind
I don’t like ruffled irises. Just not a ruffles person; don’t like girlie stuff. Therefore, when an iris that came to me as a historic noid opened a little ruffly, I was disappointed. Nonetheless, I dutifully cut a stem and brought it home, photographed it, and posted it on the HIPS forum, where someone was able to identify it almost immediately: ‘Campus Flirt’ (Merle Daling, 1963). Ugh. Don’t like the name, either. I kept looking at it in the vase there on the kitchen table...and looking at it...and looking at it. It isn’t at all the kind of iris I would expect me to like. But I do, very much, as it turns out. The moral for me, at least, is to let go of some strong opinions on matters of taste. Open up that mind. Next thing you know, I’ll be learning to like pink.
Visiting the “Babies”
Those of you who have followed the Pickle Barrel Collection saga are aware that fully half of our irises came to us in 2014 from Patty Del Negro, who, in a sense, rescued her own collection. She ‘Campus Flirt’ (Daling, 1963) Carlos Ayento photo and her husband Mark were retiring and moving to Florida and needed a home for 680 iris cultivars for her irises before the last minute, and I was lucky (see “The Big Dig,” ROOTS, Spring 2015, and “The enough to have friends with space to house them. Big Dig Revisited,” ROOTS, Fall 2015). Now I am making plans for the future of those same Patty had the foresight to make arrangements irises and many more—well in advance of need, I hope. I strongly urge that all HIPS members do the same. The middle of a crisis is no time to start thinking about this. This June, at peak bloom time, Patty and Mark came to visit their irises. It was tremendous fun for all of us, and to my great relief, Patty was pleased with how her “babies” look now out in the big field. It may interest you to know that of all those irises, Patty seemed happiest to see IB ‘Autumn Elf’ (G. P. Brown, 1935), though there were many contenders. Nancy a
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 42 Fall 2016 HIPS CONTACTS
OFFICERS (2-year terms, limit 2) Commercial Sources: Dave Prichard, see Vice President President: Cathy Egerer, PO Box 456, Grand Marais MI 49839; 906-494-2570; [email protected] Cultivar Preservation: W. Douglass Paschall, 87 E Stewart Ave, Lansdowne PA 19050; Vice President: Dave Prichard, 140 Spring Meadows [email protected] Rd, Manchester PA 17345-9488; [email protected] Databank: Lori Lensch-Marcotte, 40 Judson St, Secretary: Linda Bell, 608 Beckwood, Little Rock AR Canton NY 13617; 315-854-0344; 72205; 501-580-0183; [email protected] [email protected]
Treasurer: Judy Keisling, 12119 Missouri Route A, Display Gardens: Kate Brewitt, 120 Glass Drive, Liberty MO 64068-8114; 816-792-1848; Aurora ON L4G 2E8 Canada; 905-841-9676; [email protected] [email protected]
Immediate Past President: Gary White, 701 Old Editor: Nancy McDonald, PO Box 221, Grand Marais Cheney Rd, Lincoln NE 68512; 402-421-6394; MI 49839-0221; 906-494-2697; [email protected] [email protected] Guardian Gardens Administrator: Douglass REGIONAL DIRECTORS (AIS Regions after name) Paschall, see Cultivar Preservation, above. Inquiries: [email protected] Northeast: Dorothy Stiefel (AIS 1, 2, 3, 19), 360 Michigan Hollow Rd, Spencer NY 14883; 607- International: POSITION OPEN; Send inquiries to 589-7465; [email protected] [email protected]
North Central: Delane H. Langton (AIS 6, 8, 9, 11, Honoraries & Awards: Paul Gossett,1047 East 16th 16, 21), 1008 Eagle Ridge Drive, Billings MT 59101; Place, Tulsa OK 74104; 918-853-6204; 406-698-3567; [email protected] [email protected]
Northwest: Denise Stewart (AIS 13,14), 38956 Membership: Judy Eckhoff, 7911 S Yoder Rd, Haven Lacomb Dr, Lebanon OR 97355; 541-259-2343; KS 67543-8114; 620-931-5114; [email protected] [email protected]
Southeast: Shaub Dunkley (AIS 4, 5, 7, 24), Publication Sales: Susan Flow, 16550 Cavanaugh Rd, 91 Boones Farm Rd, Candler NC 28715; 828-670-0071; Keenesburg CO 80643; 720-685-9132; [email protected] [email protected]
South Central: Judy Schneider (AIS 10,17,18, 22), Public Relations: Cathy Egerer, see President 1778 CR 107,Whitesboro TX 76273; 940-594-5557; [email protected] Rhizome Sale US: Judy Schneider, see South Central Regional Director Southwest: Linda Baumgartner (AIS 12, 15, 20, 23), 3080 Sunnybrook Lane, Colorado Springs CO 80904; Rhizome Sale Canada: Barbara Jackson, 719-310-2384; [email protected] 430 Lloyd Crescent, Brandon MB R7A 2G2 Canada; [email protected] CHAIRPEOPLE Variety Identification: Charlie Carver, 360-376-6109; Ad Hoc Slide Preservationist & ROOTS Photo [email protected]. Charlie is also the Editor: Janet Smith, PO Box 1585, Coarsegold CA Chair of the AIS National Collections program. 93614-1585; [email protected] Webmaster: Laetitia Munro, 49 Hilltop Rd, Archives: POSITION OPEN. Send inquiries to Newfoundland NJ 07435; 973-208-8490; [email protected] [email protected] a
ROOTS, Volume 29, Issue 2 43 Fall 2016 IB ‘Drummer Boy’ (Schreiners, 1963) SDB ‘Drambuie’ (A. & D. Willott, 1986)
MDB ‘Pussycat’ (H. Schmelzer, 1967) AB ‘Peshawar’ (Robert Schreiner, 1937)
Iris Portraits by Carlos Ayento