By
Bryce Williamson
The
saga of visiting iris gardens in Oregon and Washington continues. When I arrived at Kevin Vaughn’s, we made the executive decision
to both go to see Larry and Marcy Lauer in Independence, basically just a hop
and a skip away from Kevin’s. I needed directions, of course, since I
had always approached their garden along the river.
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| 'King of the Road' |
Larry
and Marcy lived in Wilton, California for many years and there they met Jim
McWhirter and Larry starting hybridizing. On his retirement from the United
States Post Office, they headed north and ended up with an acre in
Independence 10 miles south-east of Salem.
The town is charming with many of the turn of the 20th
Century buildings being renovated. It has become a bedroom community for Salem
as gentrification in Salem has forced many people to live miles from the Oregon
capital. From my first visit to this garden to my last, the changes in the town
are striking—where there was open space around the garden, new housing is
almost to the property line. You will see the change in the next picture taken last year and the image below it taken the year before.
Larry
has had many awarding winning irises, but his most widely grown iris is the
Dykes winning ‘Stairway to Heaven’. More recently, Larry has become increasing
interested in reblooming irises and is focusing his current projects on that
area. Larry has also been working a line for red amoenas, an interest of Kevin
too, so they had much to talk about.
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| Larry Lauer with Kevin Vaughn in the seedling patch |
In
the last several years, I have greatly admired Larry’s ‘King of the Road’, but
it seems to have slipped through the cracks of the American Iris Society
awards. A warm, satisfying color combination, it also attracted the attention
of Schreiner’s and they have it listed in their catalog. I had to look for it
for two years to find plants to buy, but it is now happily growing in my garden.
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| The image is from two years ago before the two story homes went up next door. |
Another
Lauer introduction that is happily growing here is ‘Blinded by the Light’, a
very bright and very early orange. Oddly orange colored tall bearded irises
don’t seem to be in fashion these days.
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| 'Blinded by the Light' |
While I visiting mainly to see Larry's seedling and introductions, he grows many new irises and some of them that impressed me included the following three.
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| 'Dark Storm'--Rick Tasco |
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| 'Ocean Liner'--Keith Keppel |
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| 'Jungle Mist'--Paul Black |
The last iris looks quite green in the garden and when I had a commercial
nursery, I always found "green" irises sold well and were in high demand.
Among Larry's introductions and seedlings, I took pictures
of the following; the first two remind me of Gaulter colors and patterns.
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| Lauer B-10-31 |
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| Lauer B-44-1 |
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| Lauer B-76-31 |
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| Lauer E-53-2 |
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| Lauer F-17-4 |
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| 'Higher Ground'---Lauer 2019 |
After a too short visit to the garden, it was back on the road again. I needed a good nights sleep since I had caught an early flight from San Jose to Portland and I knew tomorrow with visits to Schreiner's and Mid America would be a long day.
