by Kevin Vaughn
Jean at her 92nd birthday party together with her 3 daughters.
When Jean Witt passed in 2016 it marked the end of a 50 year
correspondence and friendship. Jean put
this then 12 year old in an elite MTB robin that included the likes of Dorothy
Guild (who became another long time pen pal), Mary Louise Dunderman, and Walter
Welch. In those days, MTB pods were few
and far between. The original Williamson plants, excepting Nambe and Widget,
were close to sterile, so that a good crop of seedlings for a year’s effort
might be 20-30. Of those seedlings, fewer might qualify as MTBs because of a
too large stalk or flower. With
encouragement of Jean and the other robin members, I was able to introduce
three of my MTB seedlings that met the class and were improvements on the
existing MTB cultivars of their day. Jean introduced the last two, ‘Real Jazzy’ and
‘Tammy’s Tutu’. ‘Real Jazzy’ still finds
favor in my eyes for its intense coloration and fine form.
For 30 years, I lived and gardened in MS, where bearded
irises were risky and the diploid MTBs hated the lack of cold, but a move to
Oregon 2010 allowed my program to start and it was time to rekindle a
relationship with Jean again. It was
such a pleasure having Jean visit my garden twice during MTB peak and go
through the seedling patch with me. Even
in her 90’s she had very definite opinions on MTBs and where the class needed
to go. She convinced me to save a few
things that were not a perfect fit for the class but that added important
genetic material to the MTB “stew”. Jean
was excited that I was again doing MTBs and gifted a number of seedlings for me
to use in breeding. Among these were
several pastel variegata blends from a lavender plicata seedling that she had
dubbed “Persis”: (‘King Karl’ X ‘Rhages’) crossed with ‘Jazzy Décor’. One of these seedlings, now named ‘Jean Witt’,
was a genetic powerhouse, and the first crop of seedlings from (‘Sun Dream’ X ‘Jean
Witt’) produced an incredible series of seedlings from variegatas, amoenas,
maculosas (yellows splashed with violet), and broken colors. Best yet the X54 series seedlings were all
perfectly formed, in-class flowers with high fertility. I look forward to seeing the first seedlings
from crosses with the X54 seedlings next spring. Many of these had what Jean had described as
the “fall flip”, not quite a ruffle but an undulation of the falls that imparts
a bit of grace. It started with 'Real
Jazzy' and Jean found that addition was better than ruffling in terms of keeping
the MTBs more like their diploid ancestors.
Vaughn Seedling X 54-3 with the "fall flip"
Vaughn seedling X54-1 with the "fall flip"
Clump of Vaughn X 54-3
Vaughn seedling X54-6 (maculosa)
Vaughn seedling X 54-8 (erratic)
When Jean passed, her daughters dug many of the plants from
the garden for me to grow on to see if anything would be introduced or useful
for further breeding. Besides the plant
we had already named ‘Jean Witt’, there were several that commanded attention
at the Region 13/ TBIS meeting this spring.
One that was blooming its head off that first day of tours is a most
unusual dotted plicata with the dotting only in the center of the falls. This has rather nice shape including the fall
flip that Jean liked. Unlike many other
MTB breeders that just crossed MTBs to MTBs, Jean wanted to incorporate the
best of the diploid TBs into the stew.
Such was the case with this seedling. ‘Rhages’ is an all-over dotted
plicata TB and a beautiful pattern. No MTBs existed in this pattern. However,
this dotted seedling was a much daintier and beautiful edition of ‘Rhages’. It doesn’t have pollen but is a sinfully easy
pod parent. It is being registered as ‘Just a Dusting’. Another related seedling that Jean had
nicknamed “Sanded Epaulettes” is a Tea Apron type plicata with the hafts
heavily peppered on a white ground but no markings elsewhere. One that Jean nicknamed “Icie” is a lovely
flower of clear white standards and falls strongly lined and dotted medium
blue-purple. It has lovely form and is
sinfully fertile in both directions. It
is on the shorter side for MTBs, ~18” tall but still manages 7-8 buds/
stalk. Besides these three plicatas,
there were several nice smooth lavender blues, a brown plicata, and a very odd
one she had nicknamed “Yellow Stripe” as it was a pale yellow- cream flower but
with a yellow belly stripe on the falls.
These were also considered but none seemed either a perfect fit for the
class or were the level of advancement in their class/ color that would have
pleased Jean. Several of these have been
used as parents.
'Just a Dusting'
Just a Dusting (clump)
"Sanded Eppaulettes"
Jean had been working with red MTBs for some time and her
Redrock Princess has been a most popular introduction of hers, garnering an AM
and being widely used as a parent for MTBs.
Included in the plants dug by Jean’s daughters were ones designated Witt
Red #1-3. These have the unlikely
pedigree of ‘Little White Tiger’ X ‘Wawona’ (an unintroduced rusty red)
but ‘Little White Tiger’ was chosen for
its form (the fall flip) as well as its nearly perfect MTB proportions even
though it was not red. #2 and #3 were
both blooming on the weekend of the tour. Both are pretty much the same size
and rust reds with sort of yellow infusions and had the same size and
proportion as Little White Tiger with lots of buds on both. We have chosen #3 of these to be named
“Resplendent Redhead” that Jean wanted to use for a deceased granddaughter who
had red hair and this one has the color from the orange side, much like human
red hair. When Witt red #1 bloomed I
stood before the flower just shocked. It was REALLY red. Jean had found malvidin in some of the variegatas,
the same pigment that makes LA iris red, and this flower had that color of
I. fulva in the falls. I danced a little jig right on the spot (well
I am Irish after all!). Then I took the ruler out to measure the stalk. Right
at 28” in a year when stalks were often shorter than normal and this seedling
was blooming from smallish rhizomes. Jean
would kill me if I introduced a MTB of hers that was too tall! The good news is
that it is easily fertile, setting pods on ‘Austin’ and several seedlings of
mine and setting seed from pollen of ‘Austin’ and ‘Bold Imp’. After Jean made such progress on red color I
hope that I can get one in those colors with the requisite shorter stalk. This shade of red is not only a break for the
MTBs but for all bearded irises so it needs to be used with abandon!
"Resplendent Redhead"
Witt Red #1, incredible red coloration, reddest I have seen in bearded iris
Jean passed before she could plant her last seed crop so I
also planted these. Of course we were
all hoping for a breakthrough there but only two seedlings of consequence
bloomed, both from a bee pod on “Icie”.
One is most interesting flower sort of a gray color with standards edged
yellow and falls more lavender, a new color pattern. A plicata sib that was like a more intense
version of “Icie” was also saved.
Grey/ lavender with yellow rim on standard from "Icie"
Besides inheriting the plants and seed, 10 huge boxes of
correspondence and notebooks arrived that included the MTB robin letters all
the way back to 1952. This was a fascinating read over last winter and shows
just how frustrating the MTB class was at their beginnings and what these
workers had overcome to bring us to our present state of MTBs. Jean had quickly found that crossing the
original Williamson MTBs with each other just repeated the patterns of the
originals. Even early on, Jean used a
number of diploid TBs and BBs such as ‘La Neige’, ‘Mrs. Andrist’, ‘Extempore’, ‘Meadowlark’,
and ‘Rhages’ as well as the species I.
variegata var. reginae and I.astrachanica
in crosses with MTBs. Not all of
these crosses were successful in generating MTBs but they served as parents for
further seedlings that did.
From the
correspondence it was clear that Jean was a great “instigator” of trying to
interest others in the cause of breeding iris, as she shipped seeds and plants
to people all over the world. When I
came across letters between Bee Warburton and Jean in the late 70’s, I had a
great chuckle. Bee wrote “I think the
hosta people have kidnapped our Kevin” with Jean responding “and how do we get him back?” Both Bee and Jean were involved in “finding
jobs for good candidates” and in general encouraging new people to take up the
cause. I hope that both Jean and Bee are
pleased that I took up the MTB cause again.
One of the highlights of the 2018 season for me was being
visited by all three of Jean's daughters and sharing the excitement of working
through Jean’s seedlings for possible introduction. Jean obviously had some good genes herself as
her daughters and grandchildren were all just great people and I felt an almost
immediate kinship with them. I am happy
that several of the seedlings that her daughters rescued will be sent onto
Terry and Barbara Aitken for introduction.
Aitken’s Salmon Creek had introduced a number of MTBs for Jean and will
handle these last introductions for her too.
So thank you Jean for spending a lifetime working with MTBs,
introducing unique diploids and species into the genetic stew, and creating a
line of highly fertile plants that the rest of us are the beneficiary. Job well done!
