The Kindness of Others

      In a time when even the accomplishments of the American Iris Society's prominent leaders and hybridizers from the past are dissolving into the mist and are being lost since they have not been written down or recorded in oral histories, the role of Sir Andrew Aguecheek's lesser folks--the people who were so important on a local level to irises--in shaping the future has been totally overlooked. As I look back on 50 years of AIS membership, I am impressed with the role of the kindness of others, but few of those people are even remembered by their local societies.

      A major hybridizer in his own right, David Hall helped so many other people through the kindness of providing seedlings for others to use.  In the 1930s many thought that really pink irises were impossible, but not David F. Hall of Wilmette, Illinois. Over the years, he did create pinks and became known for his famous flamingo pink lines. Not only did he expand the iris color pallet, but he also was kind enough to allow others to use his seedlings along with his named varieties. From his early work and from his kindness of sharing his breeding work with others, another generation would build—in Illinois both Orville Fay and Nate Rudolph would, justifiably, become famous for their pinks; in Utah Tell Muhlestein had access to Hall's seedling 42-10 and created his wonderful pinks June Meredith, Pink Enchantment, and Pink Fulfillment.

      Today we tend to think of Maynard Knofp's role in hybridizing, but his wife Mary Ellen started the Knopf lines that were later to blossom under Maynard and one of the youngsters of the day that visited the garden was from Santa Cruz—Joe Ghio. When Paul Cook's Whole Cloth was new, rare, and expensive, Mary Ellen gifted Joe with an anther of pollen—note that due to the scarcity it was one anther. He took that home and used it, later introducing Mount Eden--one of the foundation parents of his bicolor lines--and was started down the path that would later result in his Dykes winner Mystique. It was due to the kindness of others.

'Mystique' (Ghio) Williamson image

      In my own case as a young teenager interested in irises, I did not have the money to buy new introductions—mainly offered at that time at the princely sums of $20.00 and $25.00 each. At one of the first Clara B. Rees Iris Society shows that I attended, Dr. Maurice Peel, a former local president and dentist, gave me the stalk of the new and expensive Rippling Waters to take home. I did take it home and when new flowers opened used the pollen on Dawn Crest—undoubtedly an iris that Bernice Roe had given me—and that was the start of my Words of Love line.

'Rippling Waters' (Fay) Williamson image

'Words of Love' (Williamson) Williamson image

      Although events and my memory have misted the past, I strongly suspect that Bess Harbour, one of Hazel and Auda Steward's sisters, gave me Mary McClellen and when I used that first with Whole Cloth and then the resulting seedling to the premier blue plicata of the day, Rococo, I was started down the road to neglecta and bicolor plicatas. My last introduction, Shades of Meaning, traces back to Bess's kindness. Bess was always willing to have me come and visit and talk irises, though that meant my parents had to have errands in that part of town (when San Jose still had a viable downtown) and I was always welcome except when she and her husband, Roy, were listening to baseball games on the radio.

'Rococo' (Schreiner's) Williamson image

'Shades of Meaning' (Williamson) Williamson image

      The little acts of kindness turn out to be like stones dropped into water—they ripple out and have effects over decades.

Double or Just Trouble?

In a previous blog we talked about doubling the chromosome number in Siberians to produce tetraploids. Now I’d like to talk about another kind of doubling - doubling the petal number. When we use “double” as a description of a flower this is actually not very precise. Generally it would mean more than usual number of petals and not a strict doubling of all the flower parts. However, at least three different effects can cause this increase in petal count in Siberians (I'm using "petals" here to include both petals (standards) and sepals (falls)). The resulting flowers look quite different from each other. Probably you could see the same effects in other irises, but we’re into Siberians here. The three routes to “doubling” are:

1. The reproductive parts of the plant (stamens, stylearms, ovary) are converted to petal--like structures (petalloids). Example 1 shows a seedling where this is the predominant effect.
2. Flowers are hose-in-hose where a second (or more) flower grows up inside the first one. This can be seen in example 2 with a second complete flower growing up inside the first. Incidentally, this iris was introduced recently as Double Play.
3. The flower has six falls through the conversion of the normal three standards into falls and with the sexual parts of flower unchanged. Example 4 shows this effect (introduced as Six Love) but we won’t be talking about it further here.

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

The first two effects can be created by the same mutation – a master gene that turns on the machinery to produce ovary, styles and stamens loses its activity and the master gene controling petal formation in the same cell comes alive and takes over, so we get lots of extra petal-like structures at the expense of the reproductive parts. The same master gene is also responsible for making sure that only one flower is produced from each terminal flower meristem. When it loses its function this means that more than one meristem can produce flowers, hence the hose-in-hose, multiple flower effect.  The 6- fall trait is caused by a different mutation that acts specifically in controlling production of the standards (petals). These effects can occur together complicating things further in terms of flower structure.

So that’s the basics of how it happens, but why get excited about it? Well, everyone likes variety and mutipetal flowers are very popular in many of the major ornamental groups e.g. Japanese iris, peonies, dahlias, lilacs, roses, petunias, and daffodils. More petals more flower power. Oh, by the way did you spot that the photo in example 3 is a daffodil and not an iris? The control of flower form is similar across most, if not all, flowering plants and the same kinds of mutations occur so that we see these related multipetal effects everywhere.

In addition to the extra fullness, several special effects are possible with multipetals including repeating expression of falls with strong blaze signals as in Kaboom (Bauer-Coble, 2001: Example 5), or alternating layers of color when you have a hose-in-hose structure in a bicolor or amoena iris (color/white/color/white sequence) as shown with the seedlings in examples 6 (not fully open) and 7.  These need further development but the effects already make some novel and rather beautiful flowers.

Example 5

Example 6

Example 7

Mulipetal (double) flowers have long been known but have not always been appreciated. The famous French naturalist Rousseau said in his “Letters on the Elements of Botany” (1787, 2^nd Ed.)   “Whenever you find them double do not meddle with them, they are disfigured; or if you like, dressed in our fashion: nature will no longer be found among them; she refuses to reproduce anything from monsters thus mutilated, for if the more brilliant parts of the flower, namely the corol, be multiplied, it is at the expense of the more essential parts, which disappear under this addition of brilliancy”

Rousseau has hit on a real problem here. At least with the current multipetal Siberians, it would be wonderful if every flower looked the same and was as well organized as the ones in the photos, but sadly, that isn’t so. Every flower on the plant may be different, and some can be less organized in form and quite untidy. Why is this? The probable answer is that there are two copies of the genes for each trait in diploid plants. In the case of multipetal Siberians only one of these two genes is in the mutated state and the other is “normal”, so these two control systems fight it out in each flower – sometimes the mutant form predominates and the flower is almost fully doubled and seems symmetrical; in other cases the normal gene tends to compete better (for unknown reasons) and the flower is less double and quite mixed up in its structure. Only by finding a way to get both these genes in the mutated (inactive) form can one put this battle to rest and expect to get fully double flowers every time. And this is not so easy to do when the reproductive parts of the flower, especially the ovaries, are heavily modified or not present! There is some pollen on the sides of the petalloids at times which is active and allows crosses to be made quite readily with standard Siberians, but, so far, crosses with mutipetals as the pod parents have been unsuccessful – and these plants never seem to produce bee pods either. So should we redouble our efforts to get these potentially perfect (and perfectly sterile) multipetal forms or is it more trouble than it’s worth?

Going Green

      I have never been a great fan of green irises or caught up in the attempt to hybridize them, though I do like green as a color in cymbidium orchids; however, when I became the selector and introducer for the Roe irises, it was an immersion in green. At a later date, Edith Coscarelly turned over to me Bernice Roe's slim stud book—I had been there at the inception of her record keeping since my first summer job was digging orders from her at the garden on Bird Avenue. I was paid minimum wage, given a sandwich at lunch, an afternoon nap, and, best of all, at the end of the season I could take home all the extras that were left over.

Bernice Roe in the Coscarelly Garden c. 1978--Maryott image

      Bernice did a couple of things that were odd. For many years, she kept the names of all varieties at the back row, instead of at the front of the plant. Needless to say with all other gardens in the area labeling from the front, it created some confusion. Her garden tags were redwood stakes marked in liquid embroidery—how is that for a blast from the past and down memory lane? It was that summer that I convinced Bernice to start to keep real records and she did, although she had already been making crosses for many years most likely from the early 1950s.

      Until I worked for her, Bernice kept all parentage on stakes—there were no paper records. At first it did not seem like a big deal until her obsession for green and, especially, green amoenas started to give results. In the end, we introduced two good green amoenas, Vernal Falls and Misty Moonscape, and one cream-white with green toned shoulders, Irish Spring—the one that I like best. When it finally came time to register these irises, the garden stakes were missing and Bernice, insisting that sooner or later the stakes would turn up, could only give me a general idea of what she had crossed. She was sure she had used Jean Steven's Pinnacle and only thought she had used Summit. In the mix had gone the green irises of the time—Lyon's Char-Maize , Cool Valley, Singing Pines from Plough, and others varieties. We did know for sure that she had used Piety; possibly DeForrest's tangerine bearded Francis Kent.

     The stakes, of course, never showed up and the exact parents are a mystery as is the ability of the three irises mentioned above to produce F1 tangerine beards in their seedlings. Bernice's green could be tender in cold climates and I suspect that is due to Char-Maize. If nothing more, this muddle is a cautionary tale for all hybridizers to keep good records.

Irish Spring (Roe) Williamson image

Vernal Falls (Roe) Williamson image

      When I came to write about Bernice's green breeding I realized there was also a larger picture that many of the hybridizers in the 1950s made with white x brown crosses, thinking those crosses would produce green. The important Knopf irises go back to white x brown crosses. And the original white x brown crosses are now behind a wide variety of different colors.  Other hybridizers used different approaches to green breeding with good results.  For many years, Neva Sexton always said she wanted to create a goose green flower—to understand what she meant, it is necessary to remember that geese have a front and back end; however, none of Neva's green attempts were every named and sold. Early in his hybridizing career, Joe Ghio produced good green approaches—Meadow Mist and Oasis came to my mind. Other hybridizers would continue to pursue and continue to hybridize for green—Noyd's Pride of Ireland was popular for many years and just recently Schreiner's won an AM on County Cork, a greenish-yellow.

County Cork (Schreiners) Williamson image

IRISES Fall Issue

I understand fairly well that this is not the Kim and Kris after 72-days separation news, but it's an exclusive nonetheless to iris fans who are hungry for iris news. As you can see it's the cover of the latest Bulletin of the American Iris Society, IRISES. It's hot off the presses and heading to your home, and to the e-membership files for viewing. I feel like I'm holding the secret Oscar ballots, or something similar. What a treat.

This issue contains several interesting articles and newsworthy pieces, including lots of and lots of iris pictures taken at the National Convention this year held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada with fairly detailed descriptions of each guest garden; pictures of all Top 15 Irises of the Victoria Convention; Sections News; Youth News; an article written by Hybridizer Marky Smith from Washington, who is asked to name her top eight Intermediate Irises (IBs); and so much more. Two featured pieces also caught my attention and I will write about them in later posts here: "Bloom Season" by Bob Pries, from North Carolina and "The Other Irids: The Peacock Flowers," by Michael Mace from California. I'm told that this issue of IRISES is running a little late, but it's been printed and should reach the first of you next week.

Lastly, IRISES Editor Kelly Norris is a very curious person, and he is looking for a few good men and women to report whatever news they may have encountered in their gardens for Irises section "In Your Backyard." Trying something new in your garden this year? You're faced with a challenge? Too many or too few irises? Discovered something important about irises in your area? Kelly wants to know. Please write him at editor@irises.org. The Winter issue of IRISES is being produced right now and I'm sure Kelly will be happy to hear from you.

To receive a hard copy of IRISES you must be an AIS member or an e-member to read a PDF copy anywhere in the world. For more information on membership with the American Iris Society, please click here.

A little bit of an Iris

                I relish growing things that are uncommon or rare. Of course sometimes it is rare because it is nearly impossible to grow. Other times it is rare because of its size or subtlety and few have taken notice. Of the later type, one that is easy to grow is Iris henryi. One of my favorite irises is this little bit of an iris. It has very narrow grassy foliage and flower size more common in violets. As a matter of fact that would be a good description for it. The violet of the iris world. It even happens to open a pale violet before aging near white. A clump of Iris henryi in flower is just, well, adorable!  Surprisingly, a clump in bloom is very showy. It covers itself in flowers.

                The foliage is evergreen so there is never a chance of misplacing this diminutive beauty. It flowers in abundance early in the bearded  iris season:  Mid to late April in Kansas City. So far there have been no pests or problems with this iris. It increases rapidly when moved then settles down to concentrate on flowering. At bloom time the older foliage splays neatly to showcase the flowers that are only two to three inches in height .The leaves can reach ten inches but always gracefully arching to appear smaller and in perfect scale. Everything in perfect proportion.

                When I say Iris henryi has grassy foliage, I really mean it. This could be difficult to find in a lawn of bluegrass. It is best suited to the front of the border in a shade garden, but with bright enough light to encourage flowering. It does not seem to require frequent division but I would encourage that you do so in late summer and share it with close friends.

                Iris henryi  is a member of the beardless  Series Chinenses and is from West Central China. It is a close relative of I. odaesanensis, I. speculatrix and a few others. We are thankful to Joe Pye Weed's Garden for propagating and distributing this little rarity. Iris henryi, a marvelous, if tiny, gem of an iris.

Iris Classics: 'Fairy'

The iris 'Fairy' holds a singular distinction - it is the very first iris to be hybridized and introduced in the United States of America. It was created by Amasa Kennicott who lived near Carbondale, Illinois, and was introduced in 1905. Very little is known about this iris, nor the man that brought it to us. We know he loved flowers and was an able plantsman, having learned from his father, Dr. John Kennicott, himself a renowned doctor who had moved to Illinois with his brothers in mid-1800's and prospered supplying plants to settlers from his home at The Grove.


'Fairy' is a lovely iris that has all the charming features one could want. The dainty blooms are held high on tall slender stalks. A clear glistening white in color, they are accented beautifully by the light purple style arms and crests at the heart, and the petals have a pale ghost of this color feathered along the margins. Just a hint of lemon yellow on the tips of the beard filaments adds yet another pleasing note. It is very floriferous, vigorous of growth and hardy everywhere.


While in life he dwelled in the shadow of his famous father, Amasa lives on in iris history as the hybridizer of the first American iris. You can read more about the illustrious Kennicott family and their story on the Illinois frontier in Clarance Mahan's book Classic Irises. 'Fairy' is much loved by collectors and is widely grown in historic iris collections around the US. Perhaps it is one you will add to your garden as a memento of the long and illustrious history of irises in the US.

The disappointments and joys of breeding tetraploid Siberians

Late August and early September is harvest season for Siberian seed pods. After a couple of weeks to dry out, it’s then time to open up all those promising capsules and find out what’s inside. I just finished doing this for the 2011 crop and came away rather disappointed, particularly with the yield of tetraploid seeds.

Breeding tetraploid Siberians can be a test of resolve for several reasons. First, with a few exceptions, they are reluctant to set pods – just less fertile than diploids which generally set seed with abandon. Whereas maybe 70% of diploid crosses end up producing seeds, probably only 20% of tetraploid crosses do so – and that in a good year. Not only that, the tetraploid pods typically contain fewer seeds. Finally, it’s not unusual for these seeds to germinate more slowly and less completely than diploids. So the overall result is much effort for few seedlings. Maybe this relative infertility explains why tetraploid Siberians are not found in the wild – not only would their production be a rare accidental genetic event, but they are less likely to produce seed to compete with diploids in the next generation. For every diploid cross that produces a hundred seedlings you might get only ten from a tetraploid cross. You might think this relative infertility would improve with time as the more fertile tetraploids produce later generations that breed more freely. If so, I’m not sure I have seen it yet.

There are a few tetraploids that are quite fertile: 'Moonlight Fair' and 'Simon Says' show up repeatedly in successful crosses along with a handful of so-far unnamed tet seedlings. Most are more reluctant, but with persistence may yield some seeds, and a final frustrating few just refuse to ever breed. Perhaps the most poignant result is to produce a remarkable new variety and find it is resolutely sterile. Two of the loveliest seedlings we ever produced are 97B1B25 and 97A2B52. Dozens of attempts to get them to be parents have failed utterly and neither were introduced for this (and other) reasons. Because of this differential fertility, after a while, the fertile ones begin to dominate the seedling gene pool in the garden and there is a certain sameness about the new seedlings, so it takes a continual infusion of new genes to maintain the variety that every hybridizer prizes. The main frustration though is that often you can visualize a good cross that should produce new and wonderful things, but you can never get there. Many lines of development are either closed off or peter out prematurely as fertility is lost.

I mentioned 20% success “in a good year”. What does that mean? Well, the chances of getting seed to set is clearly temperature-dependent. In my experience there is no point in making tetraploid crosses when the daytime temperatures rise into the higher 80s, as they often do. Diploids too are less likely to set seed then, but not to the extent of tetraploids. Even in a cooler year like this year, many pods develop but contain few, if any, seeds – I call these false pods. Strangely, this year virtually every cross made in the later part of this season, whether diploid or tetraploid, gave mainly these false pods. I have no idea why, but that’s the reason I’m not entirely happy. As if that were not enough, there is yet another challenge with breeding tetraploids – it is harder to get recessive traits to reveal themselves. This arise from the fact that tetraploids have four sets of chromosomes not just two, and therefore have four copies of each gene. For a recessive trait to show up in the progeny, all four genes for that trait have to be in the recessive form, not just the two as with diploids. In the end it is roughly four times as difficult to bring out any hidden recessive trait (red or white/yellow colors for example). So, you would need many more seedlings to get the same expression of recessives as with diploids, and for the reasons above, you actually get many fewer in most cases. This again makes certain breeding strategies involving the subsequent recovery of recessive traits in later generations much more difficult.


So, there’s a quite obvious question, if breeding tetraploids is so much more difficult and frustrating than diploids, why bother? Partly because of the challenge and sheer stubbornness, but more significantly because when things do go right you can get some wonderful flowers. By no means everyone prefers tetraploids and they certainly haven’t displaced diploids from the Society for Siberian Irises' Favorite Fifteen list, but they are appreciated by many (seven of the top fifteen vote-getters are tetraploids in the most recent 2011 Siberian popularity poll).

Large flowers, strong ruffling, vibrant colors, and even new patterns show up, generally with excellent vigor. Here for examples are four recent tetraploid seedlings still under number showing further development of the plicata pattern that first appeared with 'Emily Anne,' and a couple of others in which the ruffling and form are superb. This is what makes it all worthwhile.

What Are They...Median Iris?

I am sitting here transfixed...by my window watching it rain--well actually pour down. This might not seem to be such an unusual thing, unless you know that we have had only .6 of an inch of rain since September 2010. Well, what am I doing sitting here…I’m going out to run in the rain! Will be back to work on this blog when it stops raining.

It is now 24 hours later and here I am; very happily back to my computer. My iris just got 1.44 inches of rain, all since I began working on this blog! Now I am watching out my window as a skinny red robin pecks at a peach that fell from my tree and a beautiful Baltimore oriole is eating off my hummingbird feeder and being buzzed by three hummers. I could be content to just watch it all, but I must begin this blog. It will be about my newest love in iris and I must tell you I am not an expert on them…the median iris. I planted my first medians four years ago, and I will tell you my progress at the end of this blog if you stick around to read it.  

Who's First In Line?

Median Iris –What are they? They are a group of bearded iris that are shorter than the tall bearded (TB) iris and taller than the miniature dwarf bearded (MDB). They bloom after the MDBs and mostly before the TB iris. They extend the iris bloom season with regal form, remarkable colors and patterns. Median iris are smaller and compact compared to the tall bearded iris. They make perfect plants for borders or in the front of your flower beds, and make ideal additions in rock gardens. Medians tolerate wide varieties of conditions being much more cold tolerant, withstanding strong winds, and strong rain downpours. When the Median Iris Society organized in 1948, five new classes of bearded irises (MDB, SDB, IB, MTB and BB) were added to the already popular TB iris class.

(click on images for a larger view)

The result of this effort was having four distinct bloom seasons starting with the miniature dwarf iris season, followed a little later by the standard dwarf iris season, and then later came the intermediate bearded iris season and finally the border (BB), miniature tall (MTB) and TB season.

Median iris come in four different classes.

1.   The crossing of I. pumila with the tall bearded (TB) iris resulted in what is known as the standard dwarf bearded iris (SDB) type. The SDBs are 8–15” in height with blooms that are 2-4” in width. The SDBs bloom after the miniature dwarf bearded iris and slightly into the intermediate iris bloom season. They have thick attractive mounds of sword-like green leaves that grow throughout most of the season. The SDBs have an enormous variety of colors and patterns and that combined with a great vigor and ease of growth make them a wonderful edition to all gardens.

2.   Then there are the crosses of SDBs with TBs (or TBs with species iris) that grow into the intermediate bearded iris (IB). The IBs are 16-27” tall with flowers that are 3½-5 wide. The IBs fit both in size and bloom time between the SDBs and the TBs. They are very hardy growers, dependable bloomers, disease resistant and can withstand high winds, sudden freezes, and other unexpected weather changes. They come in the full range of colors and combinations as the TBs.

3.   Next we have the miniature tall bearded (MTB) iris that are 16-25 inches in height with very slender dainty stalks and nicely branched stalks with flowers whose combined width and height is not more than 6” total. They started as diploid runts of iris that first appeared in TB gardens. Then hybridizers used I. aphylla's, a family of shorter tetraploid species bearded irises that increase branching and have smaller flowers than TB’s. They started by crossing I. aphylla with selected BB and short TB until they developed a tetraploid MTB that met the same requirements as the diploid MTB. The MTBs have a very pleasant fragrance that is essential in this lovely iris also aptly named the table iris. The flowers are less ruffled and more tailored than the TBs. The boom season is later the IBs and about the same as border bearded (BB) and TB. This class is ideal for floral arrangements. MTBs are the best branched of the medians, and fit nicely in the garden.

4.  The class of medians known as border bearded (BB) started as small versions of TB iris that did not overpower other plants in an ornamental bed, and did not blow over in high winds, and worked well in flower bed borders. Over the years since BB became a class, hybridizers have made great strides in the improving the vigor, consistency of height, flower proportion, colors and color patterns. Bloomstalks of BB should be 16" to 27.5", the width of the flowers should not exceed 5”, the height of the flower should not exceed 8.5"and they should bloom along with the tall beardeds. BB iris look like and bloom like the TB iris but their size are smaller and properly balanced for its smaller size with erect fans that do not obscure the blooms.

I am Debbie Strauss, a newbee in the median iris world. I am a member of The American Iris Society and just became the director in charge of the silent auction at the National Conventions. I am a Median Iris Society member and their new fundraising chair. I live in far West Texas in a desert-like environment. TB iris do wonderful here, especially if you stress them out before planting the new rhizomes (if you purchased them from anywhere except West Texas). Four years ago our local iris society hosted a fall regional convention for Texas; I was the iris auction chair. I wrote to every hybridizer I could and sent them a little money and asked for iris for our regional auction. I was not particular about what they sent and I received many many iris. Hmmm…lots of medians…their colors and patterns were too tempting, so I bid on and won many of them…I planted them and the first year they all did well and multiplied and at least half of them bloomed. Then the second year…I can’t even describe how delighted I was when the SDBs were lovely large clumps and bloomed beautifully. If you look at the photos below, you will see why my first plantings of median iris made me a big fan of the wonderful median iris classes.

The pictures below are from two year clumps! They are growing in my West Texas soil that is a very alkaline sandy mix. They are planted along side my hot driveway, with a large stinky hedge behind them. We get very little rain, only a few winter days below freezing, and rarely have below zero temperatures. We have wind with spring gusts from 30 – 60 mph nearly every day. To make it really bad; we had 68 days this summer of over 100-degrees and until last week only .6 inch of rain since last September. So for any iris to grow and prosper here…takes a miracle…well a very good hardy plant anyway. 

Even though the TB irises are the most popular iris among the AIS membership, I believe it might be because conventions and shows are scheduled around the bloom season of the TB iris. Perhaps like me, many people have not given the medians a chance. Even though only one border bearded iris, 'Brown Lasso' and one Intermediate Bearded iris, 'Starwoman,' have been awarded the AIS’s highest award, the Dykes Medal, I think those numbers will increase. Here are pictures of these two wonderful median Dykes winners.

Brown Lasso

I am predicting with all the stellar work of the median iris hybridizers median iris popularity will increase leaps and bounds in the near future. If you have not yet planted a median iris or two, take a leap of faith, look through the many colors, patterns, sizes, and bloom times and get started. Oh, by the way… I took "Best of Show" two years with a median iris! They thought they scheduled the show for TB bloom!

What is color?

Not long ago I read the article "In Quest of Pink," written by Steve Poole and published in IRISES, the Bulletin of the American Iris Society. It described in a comprehensive way the search for the very best pink irises. The piece brought up several questions like, "what is pink?" "How intense of a pink iris do I like? Do I really have a real pink iris? And, most importantly the following question: What is color?


While, researching for this post I came across an infinite number of websites dedicated to COLOR. Some were very scientific while others assumed a lighter, more fun approach to the subject. I will try to expose both.

'Coffee Trader' (Barry Blyth, R. 2004)

For example, the website Color Vision & Art explains that "we perceive color just as we perceive taste. When we eat, our taste buds sense four attributes: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Similarly, when we look at a scene, our visual nerves register color in terms of the attributes of color: the amount of green-or-red; the amount of blue-or-yellow; and the brightness." (To see how colors are registered in terms of the attributes of color, go to the website and point at the painting by Renoir.)

Yet another website, DevX, calls it this way: "Color is the byproduct of the spectrum of light, as it is reflected or absorbed, as received by the human eye and processed by the human brain."

Being non-artistic and also color-challenged, my impressions of color have always been based in my association colors with everyday-life items. Green as in plants, brown like the earth, sky blue, yellow as the sun, orange as in the fruit, pink like baby stuff, black and white. Any deviation from these colors have always represented a challenge.

'Timescape' (Ben Hager, R. 1989)

A colleague of mine told me, "when deciding your garden color scheme, choose from a three-color palette. If you do that, you can't go wrong and you'll have a sure winning design" I said, "I can't do that, I like all colors."

And yet, another friend said to me, "my partner is crazy, he wants to make a white and green garden only -- no other colors." And, I totally agreed with the crazy part.


19th century physiologist Karl Ewald Konstantin Hering (August 5, 1834 – January 26, 1918) devised the first theory of color vision. Hering  believed that the visual system worked based on a system of color opponency. He said that there were six primary colors, coupled in three pairs: red–green, yellow–blue and white–black. So far so good, I can understand this and follow the meaning correctly.


So, beyond the scientific understanding of color, what makes us chose different colors for our garden? Is it understanding of color combinations? Is it the appreciation of how color affects our mood? Is it having or not having coffee in the morning?

Dykes Medal Winner 'Dauntless' (Clarence Phillips Connell, R. 1929) 

Border Bearded iris 'Ensign' (Eric Tankesley-Clarke, R. 1992)

I remember reading the first few descriptions of iris colors and how they were so tough for me to follow, and thinking, "what do they mean?" Here are a few examples:

"The standards are light purple paling to yellow tan rim and the falls are white ground, purple luminata wash. The beards are yellow with rust hair tips.

Standards lilac mauve; falls smooth coffee-rose, slightly lighter area at tangerine orange beard.

Standards rusty mahogany; style arms brass; falls bright violet, mahogany edges, brass shoulders; beards gold.

S. fluted golden yellow; F. deep orchid violet, sharp brown rim on edge; yellow orange beard at base, turning into fuzzy violet horn.

Standards white; falls chartreuse, radiating white ray pattern over 3/4 of petal; beards white, hairs faintly tipped tangerine; pronounced sweet fragrance."

Am I the only to be challenged by these descriptions? I don't have a tip for you on how to best read these, I am merely exposing my shortcoming. Over time though, I learned to read these descriptions S-L-O-W-L-Y, one word at the time - visualize that; then one full complete sentence, and visualize that; and then the entire paragraph. "Standards are...;" then, "Falls are...;" and, "Beards are..." OK, now I can visualize the entire flower. Do you have a tip for reading iris color descriptions and connecting to the visual image of it?

Spuria iris 'White Heron' (Milliken 1948)

In any case, I do love a variety of color in the garden, so while In the midst of color research, I found some fun tools. Did you know that there's such color names as: 

• Acapulco
• Magic Mint
• Blue Romance
• Everglade
• Powder Ash

And, these just in the green hue? These are many other colors waiting to be found In the website Name that Color. Chirag Mehta created a tool to show us how to locate color names such as the ones above. Hope you like playing with it as much as I did.

Back in the Garden

Days are getting shorter. I am very aware of daytime because it affects me in so many ways. Sun light has set the direction of my day since I was a kid. Bright opened eyes at sunrise. Feeling sleepy even at sunset. I've never been a night owl. So, when I have less and less time for the evening walk with the pooches I know summer is ending, which in itself is not bad.

Fall is the season I really enjoy. Most of all because it's the season I can start seeing irises come back to life, and can also spend more time outdoors. In the middle of summer, about a month a go or so, I started cleaning dry leaves off the tall beardeds, and trimming Spurias one to two inches off the ground.   Only recently I started to gradually give iris some water after not watering all summer. I do this for two reasons: first of all it's Southern California and water is expensive and in short supply with watering restrictions currently in existence; secondly, I have found that irises love their rest off water during the hot summer months. They like to gently bake under the sun, so no need to water tall bearded or Spurias here.

[Looking forward to 'GRAPETIZER' (Thomas Johnson, R. 2009). Will be planted in the next few days]

Change is in the air and irises are saying, "I wonder if I'll be blooming in the Spring." And this, will consist in most cases in food and water availability. Our summer, unlike the rest of the country has been a rather cool one, and even though we are three weeks away from fall, change is already in the air. So, my fall senses are telling me, "its time." It's time to start planning the spring garden.

[Two Spurias, properly shipped in wet material, are also waiting to be planted: 'REMEMBERING VIC,' and 'BLUE BUNTING.']

I start planning my spring garden with a map, a garden map. Do you keep a map of your garden? I started keeping one after I planted the one hundredth rhizome, and believe you me, I have referred to it many times over the years now that I have over three hundred. Garden maps are useful for different reasons. Sometimes, labels get stolen (yes, they do steel plant tags in this city) or get destroyed by people, or simply by dogs when their owners are not paying attention. Sometimes, if you are like me, you may like to refer to a particular iris in the middle of the night, so if you have a garden map, you don't have to run out in your jamas in the middle of the night. Whatever the case, garden maps are a second source of information for my garden, and I normally try to keep the map updated as I plant new rhizomes in the fall. I think I'm up to ten pages detailing my garden.

Garden Map 1

Garden Map 2

Garden Map 3 

Unlike my garden design, which is really abundant but complicated, and more geared towards an iris fanatic or collector, what do you think of the garden design below? It is so different, so uncluttered; pleasant due to its simplicity and because it was designed for our four-legged friends.

I hope you're enjoying your time back in the garden, as I am. W2Z5Q93J97S7

Late Summer Clean-up in the PNW

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It's been weeks of digging and dividing the overgrown iris beds in my garden and those areas are finally done and looking great. Unfortunately those areas that didn't need digging are looking pretty ratty from lack of attention. Altho rains stayed late into July this year, it's been weeks since they've had a good deep drink and the intense summer sun is taking its toll on the leaves that had grown during the cool, rainy days of spring. Above you can see how nice the clump looked in the early summer. While it is quickly dying back, smaller, tougher leaves will fill out once the autumn rains return to fuel additional growth before winter. Just look at this mess:


While folks in most parts of the country see their irises grow all summer long, mine will slow down unless I keep them watered, which I rarely do. Hopefully your iris beds aren't in nearly such a state. But if you are new to growing irises, have been too busy to get to the garden, and don't know what to do now, this is what late summer clean up looks like in my Pacific Northwest garden.

The first step is to remove all the dead brown leaves so we can see where the good green leaves are. I leave any green alone, but I do trim back the browning ends so most fans end up cut back when done. Here's the finished clump:


I had planted several rhizomes here and they've really increased the past two years. I have a new variety I want to tuck into this bed so I need to take part of this clump out to make room. My handy potato fork makes quick work of loosening the dirt and wheedling the rhizomes up out of the ground. You can see the original rhizome I planted and how it grew and branched over the years:


With a few snips of the clippers I have a small bunch of rhizomes to share with friends. Be sure to note the name on the fan. The old mother rhizomes without fans get tossed.


The next step is to amend the soil with some fresh compost and a little lime (we have very acidic soil), plant the new variety, and give the whole area a nice deep drink to settle it in and get new growth going. They'll have at least 8 weeks to root in before the first frosts arrive. This is important, as heaving from frost may damage the rhizomes and can leave it susceptible to rot in the spring. A little more clean-up in spring to remove fall's leaves and we're ready again for blooms.


Pictured: 'Calcutta', Kleinsorge 1938.