Living at the End of the Road and Growing LA Irises

Living at the End of the Road and Growing Louisiana Irises

By Ron Killingsworth

 

I spent most of my life in law enforcement.  After I retired I started my own business in computer repair, satellite TV and appliance repair.  Growing up on a farm, I knew a lot about raising crops but we grew crops to eat or sell, so flowers were not part of the process.  My grandmother, however, always had flowers around her home and in her later years grew many daylilies and even hybridized them.  About 15 years ago my sister, Bobbie Ann, and her husband, Stan, decided to retire from Massachusetts and move back to Louisiana.  She wanted to grow Louisiana Irises.  They purchased 21 acres on historic Caddo Lake in Caddo Parish, Mooringsport, NW Louisiana, and we turned several acres into iris beds.  It was hard work preparing all the beds, digging up thousands of irises from a defunct nursery in Garland, TX, and moving them to LA.  But the first time they all bloomed I became a “flower nut”.

About 13 years ago my wife Sue and I sold our home in a nearby village and built a home on the nursery property.  Living at the end of the road means no cable TV, not fast internet service, electrical service that fails during heavy winds and a long drive for groceries.  Nevertheless, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

Living on a commercial nursery where we grow thousands of Louisiana irises, 450 varieties of daylilies, many fruit trees and lots of wild flowers makes for a bit of heaven right here on earth.  During April I can sit on my front porch and view hundreds of irises and many fruit trees in bloom.

Caddo Lake, a water fowl refuge and natural lake in NW LA. 

I wrote this post to share some of the pictures of this beautiful place.  Caddo Lake is a remarkable result of nature.  The bald cypress trees and Spanish moss are not only hauntingly lovely but they are also amazing because of their ability to live in the water and produce cypress knees.

Caddo Lake in NW Louisiana and NE Texas

Large clump of tetraploid Louisiana irises with Caddo Lake in background

Rock Pond

This area of the property is near the “rock pond”.  These large sand stone rocks are often dug up at various locations around the property, especially when trying to dig a bed for irises.  I tried to dig the large rock in the middle of the pond but could not move it with the backhoe.  So, I just dug out a pond around it.  Stan has now created a new water feature in this area and I’ll have to take a more recent picture this spring.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures from the end of the road. If you are interested in knowing more about Louisiana irises, you can learn more at the Society for Louisiana Irises web site.

2016 Society for Louisiana Irises Convention in Shreveport/Bossier City, Louisiana

By Ron Killingsworth

The annual Society for Louisiana Irises (SLI) convention will be held in Shreveport/Bossier City, Louisiana, from Wednesday, April 20th through Sunday, April 24th, 2016.  Make your reservations now!

The event will be at the Hilton Garden Inn at 2015 Old Minden Road, Bossier City, LA 71111.  Reservations can be made by calling (318) 759-1950.  You can also access their website at Hilton Garden Inn Bossier City, and be sure to use promotion code "SLI".

Attendees will have time to visit many beautiful sites in the Bossier City area. If you are interested, the SLI board meeting will take place on Wednesday from 6 PM to 9 PM in the hospitality suite.  

The garden tours will be on Thursday.  The first stop will be the Newton/Taylor garden located outside of Mooringsport, LA.  Mooringsport is about 15 miles north of Shreveport, which in the NW corner of the state of Louisiana.  The Newton/Taylor property was a family "camp" for many years before Ray Taylor and Eric Newton moved there in 1996.  Ray is a horticulturist and Eric is a landscape architect, so this is a gorgeous gem of a garden.  An acre of gardens includes collections of Japanese Maples, Camellia japonica, sassanquas, many varieties of roses, spring flowering shrubs and perennials including Louisiana irises. You will also see many unusual trees, including palms.  Vast bulb plantings that predate Ray and Eric's tenure bloom profusely in the spring.

The bus will then travel a few miles down the road to Plantation Point Nursery located on historic Caddo Lake.  This is an opportunity to see and photograph about 80,000 Louisiana irises grown in just about every conceivable method.  This is also the location of guest irises and seedlings from various hybridzers.  Bobbie and Stan have built a double gallery old plantation style home facing the lake.  There are several ponds with irises growing around the edges.  Louisiana irises can be found in dug beds, raised beds, among the other landscape plants, in marshes and on the edge of Caddo Lake.  Tours will be conducted of Plantation Gourmet Coffee, located on the grounds, and guests will be able to watch coffee being roasted and sample the results.

'Red Velvet Elvis' growing near the Koi pond where giant storks watch over the fish

'Fringed Gold' in the foreground with Bobbie and Stan's double gallery home in the background

Visitors will also be able to view recent additions such as Stan's Zen Garden, the Moss Steps waterfall, Bobbie's bog garden and Stan's tissue culture lab in "The Gator".

"Hardy" gladiolas and large poppies grow well with Louisiana irises!

Caddo Lake is natural, and many bald cypress trees grow in the lake.  It covers acres from NW Louisiana into NE Texas.

Louisiana irises growing on the edge of historic Caddo Lake with bald cypress trees in the background.

Louisiana irises abound at Plantation Point Nursery.

Thousands of Louisiana irises near the Crawfish Pond at Plantation Point Nursery with Caddo Lake in the background.

Massive planting of Louisiana irises with bald cypress tress and Caddo Lake in the background.

Hundreds of blooms greet visitors to Plantation Point Nursery in Mooringsport, LA.

Visitors will also find hundreds of Louisiana irises separated by color.  Lunch will be served on the patio of the "Big House".  Visitors will be treated to an authentic "Cajun" catered lunch and entertained by a Cajun music band.

On Friday, April 22nd, the bus will depart from the hotel for the R.W. Norton Art Gallery and Gardens in Shreveport, LA.  Established in 1947 by the R. W. Norton Foundation, the gallery and gardens are on 47 acres in south Shreveport.  Visitors will see flowing streams, an extensive xeriscaped experimental garden, a large ginger collection, a collection of camellias and over 60 varieties of maple trees.  Of course there is a large planting of Louisiana irises in one of the gardens.

R.W. Norton Art Gallery and Gardens offers plenty of "water features".

Of course you will find plenty of art and sculptures at the gallery.

Visitors will see many different types of flowers, trees and plantings.

Convention guests will then load up on the bus for a two hour trip through the farms and forest of central Louisiana as we head for our destination of The Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve near Saline, LA.  Briarwood, as it is mostly known by locals, is the birthplace and home of Caroline Dormon, a world renowned naturalist, author, artist and the first woman to be hired by the US Forestry Service.  

Enjoy the view at the big pond at Briarwood.

Visiting the home of Caroline Dormon is like traveling back in time. The Briarwood Nature Preserve has certainly accomplished its mission of keeping the preserve the way it was when she lived in this tranquil place.  Dr. Dormon collected many Louisiana irises from the wild in south Louisiana and moved them to her gardens at Briarwood.  One really wet spot called the "bog garden" contains many of the original plantings by Dr. Dormon.

Briarwood, as a nature preserve, has many places for water fowl.

 The "Reidhimer Pond" has recently undergone much work and is the home for wood ducks and other wildlife.

Mountain Laurel in many colors can be found along with hundreds of native azaleas.

Convention guests will be treated to state-wide famous BBQ in the guest center.  Many trails are available for walking and "people movers" are ready to transport those who are unable to walk the trails.  Wildflowers abound in their natural settings.

Louisiana irises growing in the bog garden at Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve.

The second "log cabin" built by Caroline Dormon at Briarwood houses many of her various collections.

There will be an American Iris Society approved iris show at the hotel on Saturday, April 23rd, consisting of beautiful Louisiana irises.  The schedule of events and a registration form can be downloaded from the website of the Society for Louisiana Irises.

Make your reservations now to attend this wonderful convention and have a chance to visit the Shreveport area as well as Bossier City and the surrounding area, known as "Louisiana's Other Side".

Louisiana Irises Found Growing Wild in NW Louisiana

by Ron Killingsworth

Ron Killingsworth standing in a clump of irises growing at the edge of Cross Lake just north of Shreveport, LA

Of course Louisiana irises grow wild in the wilds of Louisiana!  Especially in south Louisiana: in fact, they grow in the ditches down south.  Not many grow wild in the northwestern part of the state, though.

Several years ago a dear friend who lived in north Shreveport, LA, very near Cross Lake, called to tell me she had found some Louisiana irises growing in the wild in the backwaters of Cross Lake.  Cross Lake is a man-made lake that supplies the water for the city of Shreveport.  Sue and I put on our boots and joined our friend Lin Millar and we went deep into the woods behind her home into an area of overflow for the lake.  It appears to have been an old home site at one time.

We found many Louisiana irises blooming in the marshy lowlands.  Most of them appeared to be species irises as the blooms were not as large or well developed as most hybrid Louisiana irises.  We found many different colors but none of us are scientists so we were not able to determine if they are species or if so, which ones.

All of these irises were growing in areas that were either still standing in water or that would have been in water when the lake was higher.  Almost all of them were growing in very shaded areas that would have given them very little sunshine.  This probably explains why most of them had few blooms per bloom stalk.

We carefully collected samples of each of the irises we found and took them back to Lin's garden and to our gardens in Mooringsport, LA.  I now grow them in a large bed labeled "Cross Lake Irises".  They are doing fine in their new location.  Lin visited the area a couple of years later and the whole area had been clear cut and plowed up as though someone was getting ready to build a home there.  

When collecting irises growing in the wild we must certainly be careful to leave more than we take.  In this case, it is certainly a good thing we collected some of each as they are now gone!

Some of our readers may be able to classify these irises from the pictures but it is beyond my ability.  I know that these pictures prove that Louisiana irises are pretty hardy and will grow in undergrowth, bushes and without full sunlight.

This was an exceptionally beautiful specimen with a great color.

The above picture shows an area in which the irises were growing well although they were quite removed from the lake edge.  These were receiving more sunlight than most we found.

This is another area that was at least 50 feet from the lake edge and thick with weeds and grass.

These irises were growing in the water at the lake's edge.  (Lin's dog, part Labrador, really enjoyed the "field trip".)  

More irises growing in the lake's edge in an area that is very swampy and a perfect place for snake watching.

This was found very close nearby so it appears the area once had a home.  There were many people growing Louisiana irises in their gardens in the Shreveport area in the 40's and 50's, so I believe these irises were either planted in the area or escaped from other gardens around Cross Lake.  They may even be from seeds from irises grown in gardens around the lake.  We used to cut off all the seed pods from our thousands of Louisiana irises and throw them into Caddo Lake hoping they would take root on the side of the lake.

Do you know of a spot where irises grow wild?  Perhaps a nearby cemetery, or an old abandoned farmstead?  

If you would like to learn more about Louisiana irises you can visit the Society for Louisiana Irises, and more about all species of irises is available at the website of  The American Iris Society.