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)

Preparing Beardless Iris Beds at Dry Creek Garden

by Jeff Bennett

Overview of iris plantings at Dry Creek Garden 

Image (C) 2023 Maxar Technologies | Google Earth

Dry Creek Garden is located in Union City, California and is part of the East Bay Regional Park District. Iris plantings were established for the 2019 American Iris Society National Convention and are maintained by park gardener Jeff Bennett.

In 2021, I decided I wanted to improve our Louisiana iris beds at Dry Creek Garden so that they would hold more moisture and require less physical watering. At the same time, I wanted to try my hand at growing Japanese irises. California is known as a great location for growing bearded irises and of course Pacific Coast native irises and their hybrids, but not so much for the beardless classes (including Louisiana, Siberian, Japanese, and Pseudata hybrids). In this blog post, I will walk you through processes I used to prepare beds in this extremely drought-affected area of the country.

Before preparing beds for new irises, be sure to orders are placed well ahead of planting time to have the greatest choice of varieties. I do this in January and February, when the growers and hybridizers usually update availability and open up their websites for ordering. The irises you order won’t be ship until September, so you have plenty of time to plan and prepare the beds. 

For the new Louisiana iris bed, I dug 10 to 12-inches deep and created a  trench 5 x 30 feet - with the occasional help of Mount Diablo Iris Society or local community volunteers and sometimes other park staff. (Sorry, to readers in every other country in the world. I never quite learned the metric system.) We mounded up all the clay-like, native soil in the pathway next to the bed so it could be returned to the trench later. 

Excavated trench with a mound of removed soil and concrete edging piled to right.
All photos by Jeff Bennett

Next, we lined this trench with weed block to prevent bindweed from coming through very easily. On top of the weed block, we added a layer of 6-mil plastic (is mil metric?). The plastic will prevent the water in the bed from soaking all the way through to China. Once the bed was lined with plastic, we started refilling it with soil in the adjacent mound. We added about four inches of straight compost and then top this with about four inches of the native clay, trying to mix this together as we went. This was followed with another two to three inches of compost and another two to three inches of soil, again mixing it up. Finally, we added a final layer of two to three inches of compost on top. To finish the edges, we used recycled cement from my home patio (which had been removed and hauled here the year before). The cement edging helped conceal plastic from view and gave the bed a finished appearance. Since this area had already housed bearded irises before, I returned the same drip lines onto the top of the bed. The half-inch drip lines have emitters every foot and we planted a Louisiana iris every three feet on each side of the bed using the emitters as a guide. 

Completed and planted Louisiana iris bed.

When I receive any iris orders, I always pot up rhizomes to give them a good start (see my post "Get That Order Planted" from last summer). The bed was completed in January 2022 and potted Louisianas were transplanted from their pots directly into the new bed then. Since they like water and we weren't getting ANY rain, I used a hose to give the bed its first flood soak to settle them in. Now it was their turn to do their work!

Louisiana irises thriving in new bed.

After planting the Louisianas into the new ground bed—alphabetically by name of course—I turned my attention to getting the Japanese irises transplanted into their new water-holding containers. Unlike Louisiana irises, Japanese irises CANNOT dry out. Their roots must remain moist at all times. For them, I decided to use large metal water troughs, typically used for livestock. I got the watering troughs at a local hardware store, but they can also be purchased from farm supply stores. Livestock-watering troughs are galvanized metal and have no drain holes anywhere.

New livestock-watering troughs for Japanese irises.

I first put about three inches of wood chips on the bottom to make a water reservoir below the soil. I then bought a rhododendron soil mixture to provide the acidic pH Japanese irises prefer. I layered this soil with compost to the top of the tubs, about three inches each of rhododendron mix and compost, mixing these together while filling the troughs. Japanese irises like their roots to be wet but the rhizomes need to be above the water table to grow well. To create this effect, I measured down from the top of the tubs five inches and drilled ¼-inch holes in the metal to allow excess water from rain or irrigation to escape. I drilled eight holes in each container, two on each side of the oval-ended tubs. They were now ready to plant. I have nine tubs -  seven for Japanese, one for Pseudatas/Species-X, and the last one for Siberians. For a quicker visual effect, in each tub, I planted seven to eight varieties. Since the irises were growing in pots, I just transplanted them alphabetically to the tubs (rootball and all). It was now February 16, 2022.

Filling livestock troughs with layers of rhododendron soil and compost.

Newly planted beardless irises in livestock troughs.

Everything started growing immediately as it was the season to do so. By early April, the Louisianas were showing good growth and the first flower opened on April 27, less than 100 days after the plant was transplanted into the ground.

Louisiana iris 'Eyes Wide Open' (Heather Pryor, 2016) blooming approximately

100 days after transplanting into the new trenched bed.

The Japanese irises were looking great by early May and the first Japanese bloomed on May 19, just in time for our scheduled Japanese iris judges' training on May 20. 

Japanese iris 'Devi Banri' (Toyokazu Ichie 1989) blooming in May 2022 after being transplanted

into livestock troughs in February.

None of the Siberians bloomed during their first year in the tub, but they put on lots of increase and we are looking forward to them blooming this year. I reiterate that we are growing them the same way as the Japanese irises with wettish roots and rhizomes above a water reservoir. 

This year we created another bed like the Louisiana bed, for the Japanese irises. These will be planted very soon, now that the California storms have passed and we can dig in the soil again. I am adding peat moss to this bed for acidity along with all the compost. We're hoping to grow Japanese irises successfully in our specially-prepared ground beds in this otherwise Mediterranean climate (no natural summer rainfall)!

We had also begun preparing a Japanese iris bed in the same fashion in the heart of the garden down near the creek last fall. Just as we were about to add peat moss to this bed before planting, the atmospheric river of storms hit California starting on December 31, 2022. THANKFULLY, we had not planted the bed yet by transplanting the Japanese irises from their pots into the ground as this area ended up getting flooded and under three feet of water, devastating this part of the garden. Flooding deposited 20-24 inches of silt there and strong winds toppled six mature trees nearby. We are now cleaning up the garden from this storm. In about six months, we hope to re-open the damaged area to the public (~Fall 2023). The damage was bad! Thankfully, the iris area on the hill was not harmed by the flooding. HORRAY!

Siberian/Species Iris Convention 2022

 by Jeff Bennett

A clump of irises at the Siberian/Species Iris Convention in May 2022

Every year, local societies, regions, and national societies have shows, conventions, meetings, and treks. As we found out with Covid, you don’t always know how long it will be to attend the next one. Your local show is the easiest to attend as you can generally drive to it and be home the same day. A regional meeting may require one overnight stay while a national convention will require a flight and at least three nights stay for most attendees. Since I had not been able to attend a national convention yet (due to Covid) and this year I was busy getting my own beds ready for a local regional meeting three weeks after this year’s national convention in New Mexico, I decided to attend the 2022 Siberian/Species Iris Convention. The convention was held May 27-29, 2022 near Seattle, Washington. The King County Iris Society was the host of this event and they did a wonderful job planning years in advance for us to visit three display gardens with guest irises to view and evaluate and vote on.

On our first evening, we had a presentation from Ken Walker on “Iris Species Across the World”. Ken shared his superior knowledge of where species of irises come from with the attendees. His trips to these locations to visit irises in their native habitat were very informative. By showing a map, he was able to show just where certain species were from which in turn helped us understand the requirements we must provide if we are to succeed at growing them here in the USA. Elevation, precipitation, and hi-lo temperatures are all factors to consider. I enjoyed Ken’s ability to explain the growing conditions encountered while on his treks.

Saturday morning we boarded the bus to take us to our first tour location: Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden. This 11-acre garden was established to preserve two gardens that were slated for demolition to expand runways of the airport. Both gardens were physically moved to this new location starting in 1996. Elda Behm’s Paradise Garden was moved to the location in 1999-2000 after a master plan was developed. In 2005, the Seike Japanese Gardens were also moved to this location with the help of the city and many volunteers. The Seike Japanese Gardens and Nursery were also in the airport’s path.

Photographing irises in bloom at Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden 

Rhododendrons in full bloom

Siberian iris 'Silliousness'

The garden is a lush and flowering garden that is free to the public. Ferns, rhododendrons, and lots of irises were in bloom to greet us. The group immediately started taking pictures of the mostly Siberian irises on an overcast day which was perfect for viewing and picture taking. The timing for bloom at this garden was just right in my opinion. The snack table had delicious pastries to pick from while we enjoyed the garden.

The next tour spot was the Bellevue Botanical Garden. It is in the city of Bellevue, Washington. The gardens were opened to the public in 1992. Starting out with 7.5 acres, the garden now encompasses 53 acres and has a visitor center. It also offers classes, webinars, and lectures. The garden itself is very similar to Highline SeaTac Garden in the types of plants on display: hostas, rhododendrons, grasses, dogwoods, and everything that loves the moisture that the Pacific Northwest provides from above. Everything is in meticulously manicured beds along meandering pathways that are very accessible to all abilities for viewing. Again we saw lots of irises in bloom in the public beds and the guest beds. Some of the guest irises had to be protected with wire barriers from rabbits that were nibbling on the shorter foliage of some irises. There was even a sale area with a good sampling of plants to purchase on the honor system. Varieties of Japanese and pseudata irises were offered for sale. Of course, I purchased some, like candy for a kid. Definitely, a place to visit when in the Seattle area.

Iris laevigata 'Variegata'

Siberian iris 'Juniper Leigh'

We returned to our hotel, plants in hand, to rest and refresh until dinner. By the way, the food provided for our dinners was top-notch. Great flavor and choices to please everyone. Carol Warner was our speaker this evening. She is the owner and hybridizer at Draycott Gardens in Maryland. She was able to share pictures of her gardens and how to use beardless irises in them. Her matter-of-fact presentation of her years of experience designing and planting pleasing displays of mixed plantings was inspirational. One thing that stood out for me was how great an iris 'Caesar’s Brother' is. 'Caesar’s Brother' is a Siberian iris that is over 90 years old. It has withstood the test of time and can be grown almost anywhere. I will vouch for that as it grows well in my California garden, ncreasing and flowering every year even though we don’t get long cold periods that Siberians like.

Convention irises with multiple bloom stalks

Convention attendees during judges' training conducted by Carol Warner

Siberians in bud

Sunday morning we boarded buses again for our final tour spot to Cascadia Iris Gardens in Lake Stevens, Washington. Patrick and Margaret Spence have been growing irises at this location since 2012. Situated on over five acres with approximately three acres for their plantings of irises, peonies, lilacs and almost any unusual plant Patrick can sneak in the driveway. His passion for plants was clearly evident during the tour he gave of his garden plantings. He knows the history of every plant there and is truly a connoisseur of all things green. As things would have it, we had a little bit of rain here, but not enough to fluster these visitors. Beautifully grown Siberians and species irises were just about a week away from full bloom. The clumps of 20-30 stalks were just waiting for a sunny day to come forth. In a normal year, they would have been in full bloom; but as we know, this was not a normal year for weather. Cooler and wetter than normal conditions slowed things down just a bit. Nevertheless, we had a beautiful display of healthy irises to appreciate.

Siberian iris 'Summer Sky'

Iris species cross seedling SP13-1-1

Patrick Spence (center) conducting a tour

Iris clumps at Cascadia Iris Gardens

Carol Warner gave a judges' training on Siberian irises. I definitely learned some tips in this training. So much so that I wanted to go back to the previous gardens to look at more details, now that I know.

The convention ended that evening with another great dinner and a “redistribution”. Since a raffle is considered gambling in the state of Washington, the way to “earn” irises is to redistribute them to those that want them. I REALLY enjoyed the redistribution as those that were there can tell you why. An auction of irises was also held and many bidders were vying for many species and cultivars of hard to find irises.

The convention ended that night, but a special invitation went out to attendees to visit two open gardens. Debby Cole graciously opened her garden for viewing. It’s amazing how many Pacific Coast irises you can grow in limited space. Debby does a wonderful job in her hillside plantings.

Debby Cole's Yard

Iris clump in a garden bed

 Pacific Coast iris in bloom

Bob Seaman's Leonine Iris Gardens was also an open garden on this day. This property is filled to the edge with mainly Pacific Coast irises. Due to the cooler spring temperatures, the PCIs were blooming very well still. I’ve never seen so many varieties of PCIs in bloom in one place. Definitely, a place to visit during bloom season in May when the gardens are open for viewing.

Leonine Iris Gardens

A stone garden path with labeled irises

Pacific Coast iris 'Escalona'

Overview of Leonine Iris Gardens

So all in all, go to a convention, regional meeting, or a show and see different types of irises in bloom. Especially in a climate very different from your own. You will then understand what they are supposed to look like when well-grown. You also meet some wonderful people that share your love of irises and realize how much passion is put into creating new irises for us. Looking forward to spring and the next convention.

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