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 Farms, Part 2

By Bryce Williamson

While my first blog on this amazing garden focused on Siberian irises, this time I want to highlight some of the other beardless irises growing in the garden that Chad Harris grows and, in two cases, hybridizes.

Last year, on my first visit to Mt. Pleasant Iris Farms, I drove up Highway 14 and onto Marble Road to the manicured garden, where I parked in the shade by the barn.  Immediately I was drawn to one of the water features of the garden— a lovely pond with naturalized irises. A spring on the north hillside provides the gravity feed to run sprinklers.



 Little did I know at that moment that almost 25 years of hard work has gone into this paradise.

Chad is careful not to plant any water irises that are fertile and might release seeds that would get into the Columbia River Basin ecosystem.



Chad has spent the last 15 years working with Iris laevigata, a native to North East Asia, Russia, and Japan. As the Mt. Pleasant catalogue notes, “A true water iris, Iris laevigata will look its best growing in shallow water or a large pot with a deep reservoir filled with water. It can also thrive in a moist to wet setting such as a rain garden."

“Iris Laevigata will grow from 24 to 36 inches tall with 4 to 6 inch flowers." To date, Chad has introduced the two hybrids pictured below:

'Lakeland Ghost'

'Blue Rivulets' photo by Chad Harris

Recently, Chad has also been growing "Pseudata" seedlings. These are, to quote from the catalogue, “a cross between plants with iris pseudacorus backgrounds and iris ensata (Japanese, Hanashobu). The iris world is very fortunate that Hiroshi Shimizu shared many years of his work; finding a good pod parent ('Gubijin') so all hybridizers could explore the possibilities that this cross may bring to the garden."

Harris pseudata seedling in a clump

Harris 08SPCX D photo by Chad Harris

Harris HPIM9403 photo by Chad Harris

Harris 08SPCX D photo by Chad Harris

Harris 08SPCX F photo by Chad Harris

During the National Convention of The American Iris Society  in which this garden was part of the tour, one other interspecies hybrid attracted much attention. In a huge, husky clump, Jill Copeland’s 'Do the Math' was impressive.



A surprise in the garden was Phillip Ramare's PC-1.  Usually Pacific Coast Natives bloom early, but this nicely colored seedling was still in good bloom.

Chad Harris's introductions can be found at two sources: http://www.mtpleasantiris.com and http://aitken-garden.goodsie.com. Both Mt. Pleasant Iris Farms and Aitken’s Salmon Creek also carry a wide range of other types of beardless irises.

More on Mt. Pleasant Iris Farms to come!

Please respect the copyright on these images by Bryce Williamson and Chad Harris.

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.