Historical Japanese Irises

by Chad Harris

For the past two years (2015-2016) Mt Pleasant Iris Farm has been very fortunate to be the recipients of many historic Iris ensata (Japanese iris) from their homeland. Most of these plants are "Historic," never have been in the United States nor registered with the American Iris Society. I have been asked not only to register these but also, when the stock increases, to distribute them to the open market for prosperity.

This is the beginning of a photo journal of one of the two beds that will be posted and updated until they bloom.

This bed was planted last summer with 53 irises most no larger than the end of a thumb. Originally 6 were deemed to be lost; however, at today's count it seems that only 2 are not coming up.

At this time half will try to bloom this year. Looking forward to the bloom and the journey!

Just a few weeks later (4/15) and the iris have not only woken from their winter rest but have more than doubled in size. I can hardly wait until the bloom in about two months.

May 21 with the heat setting off an early spring, the plants have doubled and are now waist high with buds starting to show.

June 12 and the maiden bloom of the plants are showing the many colors and different flower forms that can be found with the Japanese iris, Iris ensata.

A more detailed look to the different flower forms, colors, and blooming habits will be presented by Chad Harris at the Society for Japanese Iris Section Program in Des Moines, Iowa at the American Iris Society National Convention May 22-27, 2017 titled “Old There, New Here” a look at historic Japanese irises. For more information about the National, click here to go to the website.

Editor's Note: Most of this blog first appeared on Chad Harris's garden site: Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm. While specializing in water land irises of Asia, there is a good listing of other types of irises too.

Colors, Patterns of Japanese Iris

by Chad Harris

Colors

Japanese iris, Iris ensata besides the varied flower forms has some of the most diverse patterns that blend colors in the iris world.  This being said when there are only three colors at this time available to Iris ensata.  White or Alba, Red-violet, and Blue-violet, however these violet colors come in a full range of pale pastels to dark almost black in tone.

Patterns

‘Flamingo Waltz’

Self Pattern: a solid mono color without any visible markings or other patterns. The color of ‘Flamingo Waltz’ and other so called pinks are just a pastel red-violet. If you would hold a pink rose next to this bloom your eye will see that the color is actually lilac.

‘Embossed’

Halo Pattern: most times easier to see on the flower than to photograph, not very common however when present can be very striking. It is the dark coloring found surrounding the Signal, the bright yellow spot found on all Japanese iris, Iris ensata.

‘Yuzen’

Rimmed Pattern: a flower with a sharp linear line around the petals. This can be a colored rim such as ‘Yuzen’ shown here, or it can be a rim of a lighter coloring than the color of the petals.

‘Sunrise Ridge’

Banded Pattern: similar to the rim only wider with the coloring on the flower petal.

‘Blushing Snowmaiden’

Brushed or Washed Pattern: looks as if the color was lightly brush painted on.

‘Pleasant Sandman’

Sanded Pattern: are very fine dots of color similar to looking at the funnies in the paper with a magnifying glass.

‘Freckled Peacock’

Freckled Pattern: If a flower has large random dots of color is said to be freckled.

‘Dragon Tapestry’

Broken or Splashed Pattern: random streaking of color (well known in Camellias that were also bred in Asia) with no two flowers looking alike.

‘Caprican Butterfly’

Veined Pattern: where the veins are darker than the background color of the fall, this is a public favorite.

‘Koto Harp Strings’

Rayed Pattern: one of my personal favorites, when the veins are lighter in color than the color of the flower petal.

‘Celestial Emperor’

Many of these patterns can be present on a single flower at the same time, with the colors that are available, the combinations can seem endless for the garden. Here ‘Celestial Emperor’ is showing a Halo, Washed, Banded, Rimmed, and the Veined Pattern all together with many shades of red-violet and blue-violet that can be found in the Japanese iris, Iris ensata flower.

A more detailed look to the different flower forms, colors, and blooming habits will be presented by Chad Harris at the Society for Japanese Iris Section Program in Des Moines, Iowa at the American Iris Society National Convention May 22-27, 2017 titled “Old There, New Here” a look at historic Japanese irises. For more information about the National, click here to go to the website.

Editor's Note: Most of this blog first appeared on Chad Harris's garden site: Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm. While specializing in water land irises of Asia, there is a good listing of other types of irises too.

Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm, Part 3

By Bryce Williamson

On the scenic drive up the Columbia River Gorge on the bus at the 2015 AIS National, I read that when Chad Harris and Dale Grams moved to what would become Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm they found the fields covered in old growth Himalayan blackberries ranging from 10 to 15 feet deep.  The next three years were spent clearing the land.

Today no sign of the overgrowth is present and instead, we were greeted with long rows of well grown irises, expanses of manicured lawn, and perennial borders.  Yes, peak bloom for bearded irises had passed, but after peak bloom the weather had turned cool to cold and damp to wet so there were many irises still in good bloom.  In fact, I found the three days of the tour to be the best days I have ever spent taking images since the overcast weather reduced shadows and helped create good quality images.

There were a number of tall bearded irises that I saw and liked in this garden over the last two years.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I will curb my verbosity and let the pictures do the talking.

Lynda Miller's Miniature Tall Bearded, 'Moose Tracks', was attracting attention in the guest beds.  My thanks to Kelly Norris for permission to use his copyrighted image.

Moose Tracks would go on and win the Hager Cup at the Awards Banquet on the last night of the convention.

I don't know whether to be happy or sad that I live so far away from Mt. Pleasant Iris Farms. There is so much to see from very early in the spring through June that if I lived closer, I would be making a pest of myself and visiting the garden every ten days.  On the bucket lists for the future is a trip up to Washington to see the Japanese irises in bloom.  Chad wrote that next year the Japanese irises will be blooming on 2 and 3 year clumps and the results should be spectacular.

Chad Harris's introductions can be found at two sources: http://www.mtpleasantiris.com and http://aitken-garden.goodsie.com. 

Images in this blog are copyrighted and cannot be reproduced without permission of the copyright holders Bryce Williamson and Kelly Norris.

Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm, Part 1

Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm:  Part 1
By Bryce Williamson

The last two years on trips to view irises in Oregon and Washington, I have had the opportunity to visit the wonderful garden of Chad Harris and Dale Grams in Washougal, Washington.  Located in the National Scenic Columbia River Gorge, the present garden was started 22 years ago when Dale and Chad retired and moved into the area.

Driving up Highway 14 , the road dwindles from 4 lanes to two, and just past Washougal, the Mt. Pleasant Iris Garden suddenly appears on the north side of the road with rows of irises descending down the south slope from the house towards the road and the Columbia River.  What now appears to be so organic and natural was actually carefully planned by Chad and Dale: strategic plantings of native Douglas Fir trees have been used to break the easterly winter winds and now shelter the house, the iris plantings, and the sweeping expanse of specimen trees and shrubs.  Since there is such a variety of irises—everything from Medians through Japanese, I am dividing these posts on Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm into several parts to better showcase the different types of irises.

For the last two years, Chad has not had much room for seedlings since the garden contained one of the master plantings for the 2015 American Iris Society National Conventions held in May.  Chad’s iris hybridizing has three foci—working with his award winning line of I. ensata (Japanese irises), I. laevigata, and most recently I. pseudata.

For the sake of making things simple, I have combined images from both the 2014 and 2015 visits to Mt. Pleasant and, in this post, will focus on Siberians.   

Since I have not visited many iris gardens in the last 10 years, the breakthroughs in Siberian iris colors has been a revelation. Gone are the days (50 years ago!) when the colors were white, lavender, blue, or violet. Today’s hybrids have a wide range of interesting and delightful color variations.  The hybrids of Hollingsworth and Schafer–Sacks are leading the exploration of new colors and patterns, and others are adding quality varieties as well in the expansion of colors and forms.  Pictured below is a close up of Bob Bauer and John Coble's Concord Crush, a variety with six to nine falls.

'Butterscotch Fizz' by Marty Schafer and Jan Sacks 2013

'How Audacious' by Robert Hollingworth 2009

"How Audacious" 

'Paprikash'

'Tranquility Base'

'Swans in Flight' by Robert Hollingworth

'Neptune's Gold'

'Honey Chic' (Image by Kelly Norris)

'Carnivalito' Image by Kelly Norris

As a retired English teacher, I drenched the page in red ink when a student veered from the main topic.  I am guilty here of doing that very thing, and the following images show the new colors of the Siberians from places other than Mt. Pleasant.  I will return to the lovely Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm with more pictures in the next post.  For now, take a look at these lovely color breaks in Siberians by Brock Heilman that illustrate the new color directions in Siberians.  Brock, a talented photographer, also sells photos, and his work can be found at Brock Heilman Photography.  

'Cape Cod Boys'

'Black Joker'

'Cherry Fling'

'Cinnamon Sugar'

'Cream of Tomato'

'Fancy Me This'

'Head Start'

'Lucky Locket'

'My Little Sunshine'

'Sweeter Still'

Chad Harris's introductions can be found at two sources: Mt. Pleasant's Iris Farm  and Aitken's Salmon Creek . Both carry a wide variety of irises including Siberians.

Images copyrighted.