The Sun Sets on Rainbows: Part III...the Show is On!

by Jeff Bennett

Jeff in the garden at Dry Creek

In previous blog posts (Dec 2020, Jan 2021, May 2021, Oct 2021, I've been sharing information about the Dry Creek Garden ) and events leading up to the 2019 American Iris Society national convention (Part I, Part II). In this post, I will continue sharing memories of "The Sun Sets on Rainbows." 

It’s now two weeks out to displaying the iris planting at the Dry Creek Garden for the first time. All the years of preparation and planning have been leading up to one important day, April 27, 2019. Only our volunteers knew what was growing on the hill in Union City, California. As final touches were made at Dry Creek, few were present to see what was happening. The convention began on Monday and most people were busy completing convention tasks at the hotel in San Ramon and in other host gardens. We got rain up to the week before the convention, and then a heatwave arrived on Tuesday. We wondered what 91-degree temperatures would do. Were miserably hot temperatures in store for us? It was at this time that I realized that a fantastic showing was on the way!

Bearded irises in full bloom in the Dry Creek Garden 

On Wednesday, I entered some flowers from Dry Creek in the convention iris show. While there, the convention chair, Shirley Trio, asked me how the bloom was. Not wanting to give anything away, I just said it was “ok.” There were lots of happy iris people walking around at the show. I was like the fly on the wall, observing the acquaintances chatting and happy to be together at an iris convention. I really didn’t know anybody except the locals, but a few famous people were pointed out to me. National conventions often attract the "Who’s Who?" of irisdom. 

For the next few days, I was back at the garden while convention attendees went on their tours of the other guest gardens. With 737 guest irises there were a lot of stickers to put on iris labels to indicate which convention awards each iris was eligible for. Stars... lots of stars: red, green, gold, silver, etc. But finally, it was done! The day before the garden tour at Dry Creek, out came the tables, chairs, tents, restrooms, and banners. You’d think someone was getting married. As I left Friday evening, just hours before visitors arrived, I just stood and looked at what we did. All for one day: April 27, 2019.

Convention attendees observing irises and comparing notes

When morning came, questions popped into my head. Will the buses be able to get into the parking lot? All four of them? I realized there was no need to worry about that now. Before I knew it, two busloads of people disembarked and were headed our way. Each traveled up the dirt road to the irises on the hill. They were met by volunteers from Mt. Diablo, Sydney B. Mitchell, and Clara B. Rees Iris

Societies, along with hot coffee, morning snacks, and the like.

John Pesek of the Clara B. Rees Iris Society (on right) greets members of the Toth family of Pickrell, Nebraska (left)

Enthusiastic garden visitors meandering in all directions to admire plants in bloom

Pathways made it easy to get close and appreciate each of the hundreds of irises in bloom

Convention attendees poured in and spread out like warm syrup, stopping along the way to snap photos, stare and smile. Everything was in bloom! The tall bearded, border bearded, species crosses, intermediate bearded, miniature tall bearded, arilbred, spuria, Louisiana, and Siberian irises, and (of course) the poppies. California poppies were front and center. Irisarians from all over the United States and Canada were joined by six people from China and two from Mexico City, and all got to see California poppies in all their glory among the iris beds and beyond. And ... the weather was perfect!

Native California poppies and flags waving gently under perfect blue skies

A musical ensemble consisting of a harpist, viola and bass played for visitors to enjoy, including the general public. They too had been waiting for us to open. Just after noon, the other two buses arrived to have their lunch before seeing the garden as they had just come from the beautiful Cummins garden in Scotts Valley near the coast. After they arrived and mingled with the first two buses, the first buses loaded up and went to the Cummins garden.

Convention attendees enjoyed delights for their eyes, ears AND stomachs!

It was a wonderful day that I will never forget! So many heartfelt compliments. Our pathways were very wide, so those with mobility issues could actually get close to any clump they wanted and take their own picture. They asked what kind of fertilizer we were using to get such big plants and flowers. "None" was my answer. No sprays for leaf spot either. Just great California Sun that Sets On Rainbows!

John Jones conducting an in-garden judges training session

Jeff discussing irises in the garden with volunteers, hybridizers, and guests.

As the last visitors left to get on the buses, I drew a breath of relief. My job was done: have lots of flowers blooming on the day they visit!

Please come visit Dry Creek Garden some spring in Union City, California. A beautiful iris display awaits you just up that hill. 

A sign with painted irises is ready to welcome you to the Meyers Cottage and Dry Creek Garden

All photos courtesy of local photographer Cali Godley

The Sun Sets on Rainbows at Dry Creek: Part II

 By Jeff Bennett

In a previous post, I described planting guest irises at the Dry Creek Garden in Union City, California for the 2019 American Iris Society (AIS) National Convention and installation of the fence enclosure in late 2017. By early 2018, the winter rains brought the winter weeds. This area—having never been cultivated before—had a seed bank to die for . . .literally.

Weeds (mostly grasses) started to sprout during November and December of 2017, but they were too small to start pulling. By mid-January of 2018 they were tall enough to work with. Unfortunately, I soon discovered it took me about 8 hours to weed just one bed and the garden had 25 guest beds that all needed this attention at the same time. I reached out to the local iris societies for help.

Volunteers from the Mount Diablo and Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Societies started coming on a bi-weekly basis to get weeds under control. Needless to say, this was a daunting task. Irises were competing with weeds for light and nutrients, making a rocky start to their first growing season. Little by little, our efforts revealed irises growing in the beds and gave them room to breathe and expand.

Weeds at the Dry Creek Garden

Meanwhile, weather was warming. Irrigation lines were connected and fine-tuned to provide water as our long dry spell started. In California, rain stops falling in mid-May and often doesn’t start up again until late October or November or even later. I continued to trap gophers all summer and planned the next stage of improvements to the maze of pathways.

The planting site was plagued by Convolvuls arvensis, a horrible wild morning glory, better known as field bindweed. This herbaceous perennial has roots that go down more than 12 inches and cannot be removed completely by pulling. But, we pulled anyway to help control it. In pathways, however, we tried different materials to suppress growth: paper, cardboard and woven fabric. Of course, all three options cost money, so I decided to do three pathways with fabric. We laid it out, used ground staples to hold it in place and put a layer of compost on top to hide it. It looked fantastic afterwards. Unfortunately, the ever-persistent bindweed would come up through that staple hole: and we learned not to use fabric staples.

Woven fabric before and after adding compost

The next (and cheaper) experiment was cardboard and paper. I found a company in Colorado selling 3x500-foot rolls of recycled paper as weed block for organic gardening. They cost $99 each, but only last one growing season. The paper was bio-degradable and worked temporarily for our purpose. This was used for the remaining pathways and compost was spread evenly on top. We used over 90 yards of compost to complete the task and finished in March, 2019.

Biodegradable paper and compost installed in pathways between iris beds.

In the meantime, another winter rainy season sprouted another round of weeds to be pulled. We reached out to the societies for help again in pulling weeds among the now larger clumps and now about 37 beds. A larger task indeed, four months before the convention. I reached out to Clara B. Rees Iris Society for additional help. They wholeheartedly stepped up and joined the project. It was great to have three societies working together for a common goal. We all got to meet new people that shared our love of growing irises. 

Volunteers from three different iris societies helped reduce weed pressure at the Dry Creek Garden

 Along with continuous weeding, signage needed to be determined and placed. Since everything was new, we had no existing permanent signage for each iris. Just those little plastic tags that break or blow away. Planting lists are essential, especially when others are helping and might put a tag back in the wrong place. At this point we had about 1,200 irises in the ground and ALL of them needed a sign. I wanted something unique and easy to read. I did a mock-up of a sign, showed it to a few people, and ran with it. I used wide mouth canning jar lids purchased in bulk. I spray painted them different colors for the different classes of iris. White was for tall bearded, yellow for intermediate bearded, etc. I even did them for the beardless irises too. Then I started handwriting each one with the required details: Iris name, hybridizer’s name, year and type or seedling. Then I rigged up 36” irrigation flags and taped the signs on with extreme-hold tape. Amazing, the tape really held up well.

Iris labels made from metal, wide-mouth canning jar lids.

It was now April, 2019, and the national convention was only four weeks away. Placing the signs, coordinating table and chair rentals, tents, music, restrooms, and maintenance weeding kept me focused during the crunch time. It was also a very wet spring which was great for the irises and their growth. Excitement and hope were building. Would they be at peak bloom on time? Would there be some bad wind or hail event to ruin things? Would we be ready? All these things crossed my mind daily as we got closer . . .and closer.

Stay tuned . . . for the next installment.

Orange California poppies blooming among bearded irises.

2019 AIS National Convention

By Bryce Williamson

On April 23-27, 2019, in the 99^th year of The American Iris Society, Region 14, Northern California, Nevada, and Hawaii, hosted the National Convention at San Ramon, California. In addition to meetings and trainings, the event featured three days of garden tours. This post is a sample what we saw in the gardens.

The four tour buses were split two and two and I ended up at the Horton Iris Garden Thursday morning. The weather had not cooperated with plans since it had been in the 90s, but there was still much to see. I really tried to find a weed in Mary Ann’s garden, but I did not succeed and that is no small accomplishment in a garden spread over acres of rolling landscape. It was here also that we had an early lunch after the bus start time of 7 AM. Special praise is need for the Sierra Foothills Iris Society who had provided a lavish spread of snacks for the attendees, many of us pretending to be dying of thirst and starving after the two-hour trip to the garden.

'Sweet Child of Mine'--Larry Lauer

'Dressed in Black'--Leslie Painter

'Luminager'--Stout 2016

After lunch, we drove through the state capital, Sacramento, to Elk Grove and Fran and Russ Shields’s Frannie’s Iris Garden. There seemed to have been a spirited competition between local iris societies because the Sacramento Iris Society had matched the lavish spread of snacks and cold drinks were especially welcome in the 90-degree heat. Of special interest was the Dykes Medal winner bed, gaving me the chance to renew acquaintance with famous irises some that I had not seen in 50 years.

Black Cherry Sorbet' (MTB)--Harris

'Queen's Circle'--Fred Kerr

'Blue Rhythm'--Whiting, Dykes Medal 1950

Friday attendees experienced the capricious, mercurial nature of Northern California weather when we drove to Sonoma to Rudy Ciuca and Joe Lawrence’s C&L Vineyard and arrived on a cold, foggy morning. With only 22 acres of farmland, Joe and Rudy have lots of irises and lots of grapevines. That morning several us, including yours truly, provided an hour of judges’ training in the guest iris beds. Here we also had lunch and we able to enjoy the quiet of the countryside as the fog burned off and the day warmed.

'Better Than Butter'--Black

'Wingman'--Schreiners

Meininger 1-F (easy to miss the flounces)

In the afternoon, we had free time in the historic town of Sonoma. Famous as the last California Missions, Sonoma was also the site of the declaration of the short-lived California Republic. A small town, Sonoma is famed for its fine wineries, boutique shops, and excellent restaurants.

On the final day of tours, we had yet another 7 AM start, this time to Dry Creek Pioneer Regional Park, Union City. This is part of East Bay Regional Park system and they gave the gardener and park ranger Jeff Bennett permission plant a few irises on a ridge. I am not certain that they understood what they were getting; however, the park district has been amazingly supportive, providing the deer proof fencing for the plot, running a water line to the location, picking up the cost of materials, and, even, providing great signage for the convention. This planting of 800 guest irises and another 1000 named varieties is clearly a labor of love for Jeff Bennett. Local societies Clara B. Rees of San Jose, Sydney B. Mitchell of Oakland, and Mt. Diablo Iris Society all have pitched in to help. As one might expect, growing irises in virgin soil has wonderful results for the plants, though there was a little matter of an accumulation of years of weed seeds.

'Black Lipstick'--Keppel 2016

'What A Beauty' --Joe Ghio

Kelly TAFCS 12-13

The day after the tour by the iris society, the planting was opened to the public and the plan is to continue to add and improve this garden in the next years.

By lunch time, the famed fog had burnt off leaving us with a good view of San Francisco Bay to the west and we were told the famous Hayward earthquake fault was just a couple of hundred feet to the east.

After lunch we braved the weekend traffic and went over the Santa Cruz Mountains to Irene and Jim Cummins’s garden in Scotts Valley. Joe Ghio of Santa Cruz got them interested in irises and their garden is noteworthy for the integration of irises with other plant materials.

'Heat Is On'--Thomas Johnson

'Joy Returns'--Shadlow (rebloomer)

'Graffiti Art'--J. Painter 2016

Arriving back at the hotel, we had time to stop and rest before the evening awards banquet. The American honorary awards and garden awards voted by the judges were already known, so the highlight on the evening was the naming of the winners of the 5 cups from the garden visits.

The President’s Cup for best named variety from a Region 14 hybridizer was won by Rick Tasco of Superstition Iris Garden in Catheys Valley for his iris ‘Autumn Explosion’:

Image by Rick Tasco

The Franklin Cook Cup for best named variety from outside of Region 14 was won by Paul Black’s ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’:

The Ben R.  Hager Cup for best median was also won by Paul Black for IB ‘Black Comedy’. Paul Black’s irises are introduced by MidAmerica Iris Garden, Salem, Oregon:

The Lloyd Zurbrigg-Clarence Maham Seedling Cup went to Hooker Nichols’ 1978; Hooker Nichols' irises can be found at their garden website:

Image by Mikey Lango

Awarded for the first time in honor of Gerald Richardson, that award went to Irene and Jim Cummins for their use of irises in the whole garden:

Image by Mikey Lango