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| 'Bayou Tiger' |
I just threw this picture in there to get your attention! If you are a LSU fan, you really want this iris in your garden.
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| 'Coushatta' |
Usually when I take pictures during the “bloom season” in NW
Louisiana, I take pictures of individual blossoms in each of our many iris
beds. The main reason is to positively identify
the cultivar in that bed, in other words, to make sure the bloom matches the
name. I wound up taking more than 300 pictures
this bloom season and usually take as many, or more, each season. Once I finish verifying the beds with the
pictures, I do not know what to do with the pictures. Thus, I have a hard disc drive full of pictures
taken from the bloom season of 2003 to 2020.
I doubt my children will be interested in these pictures, yet I hesitate
to just toss them out. I guess I am a “hoarder”
of pictures. Anyone who looks in my outside
storage shed would quickly know that pictures are not the only thing I tend to
hoard. I do not have a garage or it would be full of junk also.
This clump of
‘Coushatta’ (Farron Campbell 1998) (above) is always one of my favorites. Registered as
“lavender” it really is a nice pastel color.
There is a town of Coushatta, LA, and I do not know if Farron named this
iris for that town in central LA or for the Coushatta Tribe (Koasati). The
Koasati tribe is now located in Allen and Jefferson Davis Parishes, LA.
See http://www.koasatiheritage.org/ for
more information about this native American Tribe. My parents once lived near
the town of Coushatta.
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| 'Flareout' |
‘Flareout’ (Marvin
Granger 1988) is one of Marvin’s cartwheel style irises and this shows a nice
clump of ‘Flareout’. There is, I am
told, a difference between a “cartwheel style” and a “double” but the
explanation never stuck in my mind for some reason.
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| 'Kristi G' |
This clump of ‘Kristi G’ (Joe Mertzweiller 1985) is always a
beauty to behold. ‘Kristi G’ grows like a weed for me and I have it scattered
all over the property.
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| 'Marie Caillet' |
This large clump of
‘Marie Caillet’ (Sidney Conger 1963) is in a raised bed that is very old. It once held a lot of Mary Swords Debaillion Medal winners, but has fallen into neglect recently. Marie Caillet was a
charter member of the Society for Louisiana Irises and held many positions in
the society over the years.
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| Iris View |
This is a view of dug
beds close to the crawfish pond (where we raise 'mudbugs') with Historic Caddo Lake and bald cypress trees in the
far background.
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| View of massive planting of Louisiana irises |
This is a nice view
taken beside the “Catfish Pond” where Stanley raises and feeds some very large
catfish. You can see Caddo Lake and the
bald cypress trees in the background. This is a massive planting of mostly
“Professor” fill in the blank. (Joe Mertzweiller converted many LA irises from
diploid to tetraploid and named the results for his professor friends. So, 10 tetraploid LA irises have names
starting with “Professor”.)
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| Another view of Louisiana irises in bloom |
This is another view of lots of Louisiana irises, in dug beds, on the back side of the crawfish pond. A mixture of nice colors.
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| Rejected seedlings |
Although this picture is not of a “clump”, over the years I
have raised many seedlings that were not worthy of registration. I always plant them around the edge of this
small pond (crawfish pond) (“tank” for you "Texicans" and others in the “west”)
and this gives a nice view of those rejected irises. Each year I find at least two or three of
them that makes me wonder why I “rejected” them! They are planted on the bank
of this pond and the water level is controlled by a drain and by pumping water
from Caddo Lake into the pond during the summer.
To join the Society for Louisiana irises, email me at Society.for.Louisiana.Irises@gmail.com.
