LA Irises in Northwest Louisiana

Louisiana (LA) irises are blooming two weeks early in Northwest LA.  I headed out with my camera this morning and took a few pictures to share with you.

'Cedar Bayou' by K. Strawn (1993)

'Cedar Bayou' has a good LA name and is a very pretty violet-blue LA iris.  Interestingly it came from a cross of 'Acadian Miss' (C. Arny, 1980) and 'Easter Tide' (C. Arny, 1979).  'Acadian Miss' is a nice white iris and 'Easter Tide' is a bi-color, yellow and lavender, so you never know what you will get when you cross two irises.

'Bayou Tiger' by K. Strawn (1993)

'Bayou Tiger' also has a great LA name and is a favorite among the LSU fan.  The LSU tigers use the colors purple and gold and this iris is very close to those colors. 'Bayou Tiger' won an honorable mention in 2001.

'Wine and Dine' by J. C. Taylor (1989)

J. C. Taylor grows LA irises in Australia.  He has hybridized (crossed) many LA irises and has given iris lovers some real beauties.

'Gertie Butler' by Charles Arny (1989)

'Gertie Butler' has a beautiful spray pattern on the falls.  Another great LA iris with this spray pattern but in a darker color is 'C'est Si Bon' by JC Taylor (1983).  I'll post a picture of 'C'est Si Bon' when it blooms.

'Enviable' by M.D. Faith (2002)

M. D. Faith lives in Searcy, AR, near Little Rock, and grows many tall bearded and LA irises.  He has hybridized many irises and the iris he named for his good friend, who got M.D. interested in hybridizing, 'My Friend Dick' won the Mary Swords DeBaillon Medal (highest award given to LA irises) (although I guess they could win the Dykes Medal).

'Seminole Sunrise' by Harry Wolford (2004)

Harry Wolford is the president of the Society for Louisiana Irises and lives in Palm Bay, FL.  Harry used to grow and hybridize tall bearded irises when he lived in Ohio.  He retired and moved to FL and his tall bearded irises did not like the heat, so he started growing and hybridizing LA irises.  He likes to name his irises "Seminole" for some reason!

'Creole Can Can' by Marvin Grainger (1956)

Marvin Grainger from south LA found a natural hybrid double growing in the marshes of south LA.  He used this double to produce several other LA iris doubles.  'Starlite Starbrite' is one of my favorite doubles and is white. It always wins an award when entered in a show.

I'll post some more LA iris pictures as they bloom. Unless I get too busy!

Hybridizing Louisiana (LA) Irises

Hybridizing Louisiana (LA) irises, or any iris, is great fun and can produce an iris that you can name and introduce.  Hybridizing is simply taking the pollen from one iris (the pollen parent) and applying the pollen to another iris (the pod parent).  There is really nothing very technical about it and anyone can "hybridize" with just a little instruction.

Seedling by Ron Betzer of Lafayette, LA

When you cross one iris with another the "pod parent" will set the seeds.  In LA irises this can produce from 20 to 80 seeds.  The seed pod is harvested after it has ripened and the seeds are carefully removed from the pod.  I usually soak the seeds in water a few days and then plant them immediately.  The "seedlings" (plants obtained from planting seeds) will usually germinate starting in about November.  The seedlings will grow through the fall, the next year, and bloom the third year.

Seedling by Ron Killingsworth

This is one of my seedlings from a cross I made between 'Jeri' by N. Bertinot (1984) and 'Night Thunder' by R. Morgan (2000). The seedling I will discuss is the one in the center.  The seedling to the right is a different seedling from the same "cross".  'Jeri' is a very dark iris and 'Night Thunder' is also very dark, almost black.  'Night Thunder' has a beautiful gold steeple signal (the color markings on LA iris where the beard is located on Tall Bearded irises) and I wanted to try to produce a 'Jeri' with the signal from 'Night Thunder'.  Most of the seedlings were very similar to 'Jeri' or to 'Night Thunder' but this cross of two dark irises produced the above reddish iris.  It does have the 'Night Thunder' signal.  But from this cross I also had some blue seedlings. 'Night Thunder' won the Mary Swords DeBallion Medal, present by the Society for LA Irises but selected by the American Iris Society judges.  This medal is the highest award within the LA iris species (i.hexagonae).

Seedling by Ron Killingsworth

This blueish seedling came from the same cross.  It is not an outstanding seedling but look at the bud count!  You can enlarge the picture by clicking on it.  Count the number of current and spent buds.

Seedling by Ron Killingsworth

This seedling came from a cross between 'Night Thunder' and 'C'est Si Bon' by J. C. Taylor (1983).  'C'est Si Bon' has a white spray pattern around the signal and I wanted to produce more irises with the pattern.  This seedling is actually darker than the picture.  I have a hard time getting nice pictures with a digital camera when the iris is really dark or dark purple.

If you are interested in trying your hand at "hybridizing" there are many books available that discuss the subject and you can also obtain information from the Society for Louisiana Iris.  Just click on the button for "hybridizing".

Read up, become an "expert" and then get out there and dob some pollen! If you are interested in crossing irises of different species, take a look at the web site for The Species Iris Group of North America.  The folks in that organization will cross anything!

The irises beckon so off I go to take more pictures.

Irises at Aitken's: Part Five - Seedlings

For the final installment in our virtual trip thru the iris rows at Aitken's Salmon Creek Garden I'll leave you with a set of photos of various seedlings growing for trial or increase before introduction. They were all so beautiful it would be hard to pick a favorite. I love the charm of these MTBs with their small dainty flowers on slender stems. It is amazing to see what the hybridizers are doing with the color and pattern range in this once limited class. Sorry, I have no information about them other than their seedling number as listed on the tags.












Thanks for reading along this week as I shared my visit to the garden of Terry and Barbara Aitken. Many thanks to them for their hospitality and kind encouragement. I'll be heading back there again to enjoy even more blooms. I think I'd like to visit in the summer when the Japanese and psudacorus bloom as they have acquired a large collection of Hiroshi Shimizu's 'eye-shadow' psuedatas (a species cross).

There is always something beautiful to see at the Aitken's Salmon Creek Garden. Be sure to plan to stop and visit when you are in the area at iris time. You won't be disappointed.