by Ron Killingsworth
When friends visit us during the bloom season for Louisiana
irises, they are usually amazed at the diversity of the color and size of the
flowers on Louisiana irises. After viewing thousands of irises in bloom, they
never fail to ask, “Which is your favorite?”. Discounting my own introductions,
it is hard to pick just one “favorite” Louisiana iris, when there are so many
beautiful ones to choose from.
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'Hush Money' (Mary Dunn 1998)
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So, I will share some of my favorites with you. Maybe not
the most favorite, but in the top ten, would be ‘Hush Money’ (Mary Dunn 98). ‘Hush
Money’ won an honorable mention from the American Iris Society (AIS) in 2002. Registered
as “stands cream with blue cast; falls cream, raised gold line signal” and “height
36”) does not completely describe this iris. It usually has style arms that are
yellow at the top and green toward the bottom of the styles.
It has some ruffling on the falls.
The stands tend to stand up and the falls
tend to have a graceful curving down to them. The foliage is never much taller
than 36” and the flower is always in the right size for foliage that of that
height.
The “blue cast” is very
notable.
It is just a lovely small
flowered iris. And, you have to love the name!
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'Bajazzo' (Mary Dunn 1980)
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Mary Dunn, of California, is no longer with us but she had a
very productive career of hybridizing Louisiana irises.
She registered 128 Louisiana irises and won
the Mary Swords Debaillion Award for ‘Monument’ (Mary Dunn 1977) in 1984.
She also won the Mary Swords Debaillion Medal
(MSDM) for ‘Bajazzo’, ‘Rhett’, ‘Bayou Mystique’ and ‘Extraordinaire’. (By the
way, she also registered ‘Scarlett’ so Rhett would not be lonely.) ‘Bayou
Mystique’ (Mary Dunn 1988) just happens to also be one of my favorites.
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'Splitter Splatter' (D. R. Grieves 2004)
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‘Splitter Splatter’ (D.R. Grieves 2004) is also one of my favorites.
D. R. Grieves is a native of Kalamunda, West Australia, but interestingly, to
my knowledge, was never a member of the Society for Louisiana Irises (SLI).
He probably belongs to some of the Australian
iris organizations. Grieves registered 19 Louisiana irises from 2004 to
present. I have never seen any of his other irises and ‘Splitter Splatter’,
according to SLI records, has never been introduced in the USA. This one would probably be of interest to members of the
Novelty Iris Society
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'Heather Pryor' (John C. Taylor 1993)
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‘Heather Pryor’ (John C. Taylor 1993) is also in my top ten
favorites. Mr. Taylor spent a lot of time describing the iris when he
registered it and the description is dead on.
It is a great garden iris and stands out in a crowd of blossoms.
The pastel colors really make it different
along with the green style arms.
Taylor,
of Sydney, Australia, registered 201 Louisiana irises.
The person Heather Pryor, of Australia, has
also hybridized many beautiful Louisiana irises. With 153 Louisiana irises
registered by 2019, she won the Mary Swords Debaillion Medal in 2004 and 2006
for ‘Peaches in Wine’ (97) and ‘Hot and Spicy’ (95) and her husband, Bernard,
won the MSDM in 2016 for his ‘Blue Mountain Mist’ (2006).
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'Dark Dude' (Ron Betzer 2010)
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‘Dark Dude’ (Ron Betzer 2010) is probably my “darkest”
favorite.
In fact, it is the darkest
Louisiana irises I have grown and/or seen in person.
‘Dark Dude’ won the MSDM in 2019, much
deserved.
Its pod parent is ‘Bout
Midnight’ (Mary Dunn 1988) (there is another Mary Dunn iris!) had been my darkest iris
until Ron produced ‘Dark Dude’.
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| 'Bout Midnight' (Mary Dunn 1988) |
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'Geisha Eyes' (Charles Arny 1987)
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‘Geisha Eyes’ (Charles Arny 1987), an oldie but goodie is
also in my top ten. What an appropriate
name! I was stationed in Okinawa for 18 months and passed through Japan several
times. Can not say I ever looked into a
geisha’s eyes, but this iris has lovely “eyes”. The signal on all petals really
make it stand out and it is a pleasing violet blue that holds the colors over
many days. It won an Honorable Mention
in 1996 and an Award of Merit in 1999 but never progressed into the larger
awards. It is of interest of me that the pod parent ‘Acadian Miss’ (Charles
Arny 1980) is a beautiful white iris with green style arms while the
pollen parent is ‘Valera’ (Charles Arny 1980), registered as apricot buff (and
both of ‘Valera’s parents are redish in
color). You never know what you are
going to get when you cross two irises! Oh, those recessive genes!
Well, we could go on and on but that should be enough to
hold your interest for at least a few minutes. Stay Safe and Stay Home. We will
get over this mess.
