The Importance of Preservation

by Jeff Bennett

When I began growing irises in about 1991, I ordered from Schreiner's, Cooley’s and Stockton Iris Gardens. Only from catalogs. There was no “online” back then. Imagine that! Back then, not many historic (more than 30 years old) irises were offered. 'Wabash' was often the go-to historic iris you could buy. I didn’t even know there were thousands of other ones with names. I liked 'Wabash' because it was so old! I also bought more recent varieties that were less expensive; paying around $3-4 each.  Within a couple years, I purchased over 200 varieties.  'Jesse’s Song', a tall bearded iris hybridized by Bryce Williamson, had just won the Dykes Medal in 1991. It's now a Historic Iris. 

Tall bearded iris 'Wabash' (Mary Williamson, 1936)

Schreiners' Iris Garden Catalog, 1990

Tall bearded iris 'Jesse's Song' (Bryce Williamson, 1983)

Schreiner's Iris Garden Catalog, 1996

Stockton Iris Gardens' Catalog, 1997

As life continued, other important things like raising a family, running a business, and home improvement projects took priority. The irises existed out back but they were only paid attention during  spring bloom. Then, in 2003, we moved to a bigger house with a smaller yard. I dug a few of each variety and left the rest for the new owner to enjoy. I wonder how many are left there? The rhizomes I brought with us eventually got planted at the new home, but most of the names had been lost. As time elapsed, fewer irises were thriving in the hard soil you get with a newly built home.

Fast forward 10 years to 2013. I started working at a public garden that had previously been private since its establishment in the 1930s. There were irises scattered about the main beds near the cottage. Of course, there were no names attached to them. I thought some of the varieties I used to grow would look great in this garden. I remembered that an iris society (the Mt. Diablo Iris Society) always had a booth at a local street fair and offered many varieties of bare-root rhizomes for sale. I found their booth and bought about thirty varieties for the garden.  I recognized the names of some irises from my past, but most I did not. It had been 20 years. 

Next, I started searching online for more varieties. Yes, the internet existed now, and search engines helped me locate those older varieties. The problem was, I still couldn’t find most of the varieties I had before. All of the sellers I was familiar with were selling the more recent popular introductions. I like the newer things but wanted what I knew I liked before. Irises hybridized during the 1970s and 1980s varieties were hard to find. Why? Everybody wants the newest introductions, and to get them, they have to make room and discard those old ones. The same goes for the sellers. Planting space is valuable, and what doesn’t sell goes to the "heap" to die alongside other unwanted plants.

I joined my local iris society--Mt. Diablo Iris Society in Walnut Creek, California--in 2014. Then I heard about The American Iris Society and their Iris Encyclopedia of all irises ever registered. I was astonished to find thousands and thousands of listed names in alphabetical order. And many of them didn’t even have photos. Even the descriptions were vague, but the names were pretty cool. I wondered what they looked like?  I wrote a bunch of names down as my “LIST.” Now I know they must exist somewhere. Why would “THEY” let them disappear. The search was on.

I joined the American Iris Society in 2018 I believe, and then I discovered the Historic Iris Preservation Society (HIPS). Just by fate, I met two of its members (movers and shakers) at Dry Creek Garden, where I work. Dry Creek was one of the host gardens for the 2019 American Iris Society Convention in San Ramon, California. Nancy McDonald and Cathy Egerer both introduced themselves to me as HIPS members. They thanked me for having a separate Historic Iris Collection of about 200+ varieties that were blooming well for the Convention. I then also joined HIPS!

The HIPS publication Roots is sent to its members several times each year

Now back to my 1980s irises. I realize that yesterday's irises were like old toys. When gardeners grow tired of them, they want new ones. Fluffy, Las Vegas showgirl-style irises. Some believe nobody wants old irises. I do! They are important. They document breakthroughs in form, color, and size. The first amoenas, first luminatas, first glaciatas, etc., are the parents of what we have today. You shouldn’t just throw your parents out.

Thousands have been lost to time. Do you have 'Brown Betty', 'Grace Mohr', 'Tobacco Road', 'Avalon', 'Easter Candle', 'Bronze Brocade', 'High Heels', 'Xanadu', 'Zulu Warrior', 'Pin Up Girl', or 'Head Hunter'? Most likely, you have never even heard of these. 'Tobacco Road' is believed extinct and 'Grace Mohr' may also have been lost. We don’t know the exact populations of historic varieties but we have an idea of some of them. There are ways you can help. Take an inventory of all your iris varieties. If they are from 1994 or earlier, they are now historic. 

Tall bearded iris 'Cinnabar' (E. B. Williamson, 1928)

Border bearded iris 'Gay Hussar' (E. B. Williamson, 1925)

Once you have your list, join HIPS at www.historiciris.org. Register yourself and your collection in the member databank. It’s very easy to enter your varieties. Even if you think your iris is too common, enter it. It may be common only in your area due to being shared over the fence with friends, etc.

Let’s make old irises less rare!

Arilbred iris 'Oyez' (Clarance White, 1938)

News from Amasya

By Sylvain Ruaud

Between the cities of Batumi - in Georgia - in the east, and Sinope in the west, along the Black Sea, stands a coastal strip where the Cappadocia plateau slopes towards the sea. This is now Turkey, but in antiquity, it was a region colonized by the Greeks who founded there several prosperous cities, either by the sea, like the current Trabzon (Trebizonde, in the old days), Sinop ( Sinope for the Greeks), or, above all, Samsun (Amisos), either higher in the foothills of Cappadocia, and Amasya (Amaseia in ancient Greek). Amasya is located in the deep valley of the Yesilirmak river, which wiggles in the region before joining the Black Sea. In antiquity this river was called Iris! Here is a name well predestined for a river which crosses the region where our current tetraploid irises originate.

'Mrs. George Darwin'

'Mrs. Horace Darwin'

Although the city of Amasya was destined to find a prominent place in the small world of irises, it was not until the end of the 19th century and the work of Sir Michael Foster, physiologist and professor at Cambridge, and famous collector of irises that the area became important. He had started iris growing by taking an interest in the oncoclyclus irises, then also in the iris spurias with which he launched into interspecific hybridizations. He also undertook the hybridization of what was then called the Germanica irises and obtained two varieties which remained famous: 'Mrs. George Darwin 'and' Mrs. Horace Darwin 'whom he named as a token of friendship with two of his neighbors. About these varieties we read this in The World of Irises: “They were whites and the first had a touch of gold in the throat that made it stand out from any other. It also had the virtue of being very late and was at its best when most of the other varieties had finished blooming. But fine as these varieties were, Foster agreed with those who said that further improvement of the bearded irises was impossible, or at least improbable, unless new species with new characteristics could be found to use as parents”.

'Lord of June'

But where to find these new species? Foster had heard of iris with huge flowers (for the time) that were found in Asia Minor. He therefore got in touch with missionaries who then went to these regions not only for religious reasons, but also scientific purposes. It was frequently that people of church took advantage of their mission to locate plants, and many of the plants which are today frequent in our gardens come from specimens brought back by missionaries. Michael Foster's emissaries sent him irises, good, mediocre, and uninteresting; but among the good ones there were some who revolutionized the world of bearded irises. Especially a species discovered in the north of Anatolia, in the region of Amasya and baptized for this reason 'Amas'. In fact there were in Great Britain several arrivals of these exceptional irises but none has been precisely described and distributed so that it is not known exactly which is at the origin of what. The varieties that we attribute to the iris 'Amas' may come from another plant, which by the way was perhaps of the same species! The fact remains that the fame of these Anatolian irises returned to 'Amas' and, as a result, to the city of Amasya.

'Amas'

Foster made many seedlings from his 'cluster', but it was not until his death in 1907 that these were brought to the market, among with other hybrids of the same origin obtained by Foster's friend George Yeld. These new plants include 'Caterina', 'Crusader' or 'Kashmir White', from the production of Foster and 'Halo' or 'Neptune' from that of Yeld. All these novelties were not masterpieces and they turned out to be fragile, often affected by rot and not very rustic. In addition, almost all of these varieties were blue-lavender or purple. They were nevertheless successful because of their exceptional dimensions and the hopes placed in them for a renewal of bearded irises.

'Kashmir White'

It took persistence and patience to believe in this revival because it did not appear overnight! The hybridizers tore their hair out when they noticed that the crosses made between these Amasya irises and European irises did not give much: almost no seeds or plants, large, certainly, but sterile and without other qualities remarkable. It was only in the long run, after many unsuccessful attempts, that they obtained hybrids that were both fertile and beautiful. No one knew why. A botanist by the name of Strassburger had observed in 1882 the presence of chromosomes in plants, but this discovery had not aroused any interest. It was only around forty years later that the first chromosome counts revealed the reason why the Anatolian irises, and their rare fertile hybrids, were larger and more beautiful: they had four pairs of chromosomes at the place of the two pairs which characterized the ancient irises.

To fully explain this phenomenon, I have found nothing more perfect than a text written by Ben Hager, the well-known hybridizer, published in the first part of a book of artistic photographs of iris, "L'Iris” from Dutchman Josh Westrich. Here is this explanation:

“All living organisms, plants and animals, are made up of cells. All cells have a common basic structure and each has a nucleus. In only one of its infinitesimal entities are numerous chromosomes grouped together, the number of which varies according to organisms. Chromosomes carry a genetic map that controls the development and characters of the new organism after fertilization. The egg cell produces new cells that are identical in every way and intended to form a completely rejuvenated structure. At the moment when the reproductive cells or gametes are formed in the flower, the number of chromosomes is divided into two equal batches but with, often, a mixing of the characters carried by the chromosomes. Male and female cells from the same parent (self-fertilization) or from different parents, will give egg cells with a different genetic heritage and will produce different plants. (...) "

“Nature prefers simplicity. Individuals resulting from the fusion of two reduced batches of chromosomes are called diploids. But accidents happen: if, during the formation of gametes, the cells do not correctly reduce the number of chromosomes, the egg contains four sets of chromosomes instead of two. Such cells are called tetraploids; because of the accident to which they are due, they have everything in duplicate. "

Why did the first crosses between the irises of Amasya and the “old ones”, originating from our countries, give only disappointing plants? It was that we had mixed tetraploid plants, the "new", with diploid plants, the "old". Hence the production of triploid plants (one batch of chromosomes from the diploid parent and two batches of chromosomes from the tetraploid parent), which are almost always sterile. And if later crosses proved to be superb and fertile, it was because they were, always accidentally, tetraploid, due to an unreduced gamete in a diploid parent. But no one was aware of this in the 1890s at the time of the attempts of Foster and his followers.

Fortunately, the accident described above has occurred often enough for the tetraploidy of the Amasya iris to settle down in a stable fashion and for the varieties obtained from the 1920s to be all tetraploid and to combine the qualities of the iris from Anatolia and those of European hybrids, giving birth to the irises that we know today.

This is why we owe so much to the plants harvested by the missionaries evangelizing the confines of the Ottoman Empire. This is why the region of Amasya and the banks of the Iris river (what a coincidence!) Can be considered as a cradle of modern iridophilia.

Photo Essay: Historic varieties from 1931

By Mike Unser

A selection of varieties I have grown that were introduced in 1931. The 1930s saw many changes in tall bearded irises, including the first good, tall yellows, hardy tall whites and blues, and fun new blends. European hybridizers were still dominating the new advances, but American hybridizers were catching up fast and giving them competition.

The World of Irises is the official blog of The American Iris Society. The American Iris Society exists to promote all types of irises. If you wish to comment on a post, you can do so at the end of the page and the author or the editors will reply. If you wish to learn more about The American Iris Society, follow the link.

Photo Essay: Historic Varieties from 1926

By Mike Unser

A selection of irises I have grown that were introduced in the year 1926. In the United States Grace Sturtevant and Bertrand Farr were working in the east, EB Williamson and the Sass Brothers in the mid-west, and Mohr and Mitchell in California. England's own Arthur Bliss was thrilling European gardeners, as were Vilmorin, Millet et Fils and Cayeux in France and G&K in Germany. The new tetraploids from the decade before had unleashed much potential and possibility, and hybridizers were putting them to good use.

The World of Irises is the official blog of The American Iris Society. Now in its 99^th year, The American Iris Society exists to promote all types of irises. If you wish to comment on a post, you can do so at the end of the page and the author or the editors will reply. If you wish to learn more about The American Iris Society, follow the link.

An Iris by Any Other Name

by Tom Waters

'Catchy Name' (Seligmann, 1983)

One of the things you may notice about serious iris enthusiasts (sometimes known as “irisarians”), as opposed to gardeners who casually grow a few, is an obsession with names. We go around earnestly correcting the names of irises people share on line or in person, sometimes even to the point of calling out minor spelling errors.

What is this about? Surely the flower’s loveliness and welcome presence in our gardens doesn’t depend on its name. Why is it so important to some of us enthusiasts?

It’s one of those things that most of us get very much indoctrinated about, early on in the learning process, as the iris hobby becomes more and more serious. It’s been part of iris culture for generations.

At one time, you see, names were in a state of chaos. The same plant would be passed around under any number of different names, and similar plants were sold or shared under the same name. Names would be casually translated from one language to another, with no one quite sure if they were meant to refer to the same plant or not. One of the first goals of the American Iris Society in the 1920s was to try to straighten out the confusion, by carefully documenting names from old magazine articles and catalogs and compiling a checklist. The American Iris Society is the international registration authority for all irises except those that grow from bulbs (like Dutch Iris and reticulatas). Ideally, every name is registered with the AIS along with a careful description before the iris it belongs to is sold or shared.

Iris pallida variegata, sometimes grown under the incorrect name "Zebra"

Without this care, the names become practically meaningless, and one cannot reliably purchase a particular cultivar or discuss its qualities with other growers.

This is especially important because so many irises resemble others, at least at first glance. Casual gardeners may be inclined to think that all pink irises are the same, or that the one they just bought from a garden center is “the same iris” grandma grew years ago, because they are both purple.

Any time an iris is sold or shared under an incorrect name, it makes headaches for those further down the line who want to know which iris they actually have.

Irises whose names are unknown are these days often called “noids” (for “no ID”). The term is cute and memorable, but alas it’s too close to the name of a well-known hybridizer of some decades past, Luella Noyd, so I prefer to avoid it. I’ve also seen them spoken of as UFOs (unidentified flowering objects).

 

The Internet has taken the problem of identifying irises to a whole new level. It has made it 100 times easier to get information on any subject, but 10,000 easier to get bad information on any subject, it seems. Every day, people post photos of irises asking for the name, and often just accept the first answer someone throws out. That can be worse than having no answer at all!

Very few irises are so distinctive that they can be unambiguously identified at a glance from a single photo. The only way to check a tentative identification is to acquire the true plant from a reliable source and grow it alongside your own. They should be identical in detail.

BB 'Oops' (Craig, 2003)

So what is a “reliable source”? The “big box” stores are notorious in selling mislabeled irises. Local garden centers are better, but still make quite a few mistakes. Iris sellers on Ebay are all over the map in terms of reliability. Your best bet is to stick to sellers who specialize in irises. Even that is not foolproof. A few years ago, I ordered the iris ‘Orange Crush’ from an iris grower with impeccable credentials. When it bloomed, it was not even the right color! I wrote to him and inquired about it. It turns out he grows his plants in alphabetical order, and the one I got was the previous one in the alphabet. Its name? ‘Oops’. That gave us a chuckle.

Some name confusions have been going on for so long that it can be quite difficult to sort them out. When I started growing irises in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in the 1970s, a number of local growers had a historic iris ‘Mme. Chereau’. We all loved it, not least because it had been around since 1844! It turned out the plant we were all growing was actually an even older cultivar, ‘Swerti’. But because we had all seen it in each others’ gardens, we “knew” it was ‘Mme. Chereau’.  A photo of the impostor even made it into the American Iris Society book, The World of Irises, showing how difficult it can be to be sure of identifications, even on the best authority.

'Mme. Chereau' (Lemon, 1844)
photo: Mike Starhill

'Swerti'

Aware of this long-standing confusion, I resolved a couple years ago to grow these two irises in my garden and familiarize myself with their differences. Ironically, the ‘Mme. Chereau’ I acquired to make the comparison turned out to be – you guessed it! – ‘Swerti’.

A word of caution: The on-line Iris Encyclopedia, although hosted by the American Iris Society, is (like Wikipedia) maintained by users, and is not authoritative. The entries for some irises have incorrect photos.

For older irises, the Historic Iris Preservation Society is the best source of identification expertise. HIPS is home to experts who have made identification of older cultivars into a passion, delving into the subject with persistence and dedication, unearthing old photographs, documents, and descriptions. There are some confusions so old and entrenched, however, that even the experts can hold different views. Some irises have had whole articles and book chapters written about them, as researchers struggle to sort out their identity.

But you don’t have to be an expert to help with the problem of misidentified irises. Anyone can help by following one simple rule: don’t pass an iris around unless you are sure it is correctly named. If it came to you without a name, this will often mean growing the real thing side by side with your orphan. Even passing an iris on saying that you don’t know its name is not a good idea. Inevitably, someone down the line will be growing it and decide they “know” what it is anyway!

A second bit of advice: Don’t become indignant or defensive when someone tells you your iris is misidentified. It’s not a criticism, it’s a gift of better information than you had before! A thank-you is the appropriate response.

unidentified yellow TB

Some growers just destroy anything they are not sure of. That’s one way solve the problem, but sometimes an unidentified iris just pleads with you to give it a home. When we moved into our present house, there were some irises growing on the property. They turned out to be a yellow tall bearded, apparently of mid-twentieth-century vintage. They outperform almost everything else I grow, with tall stalks, clear color, and a long period of bloom. It’s hard to say good-bye to one of the best irises you have! I suspect this iris is the classic variety ‘Ola Kala’, but I will not share it under that name until such time as it passes the side-by-side test.