2019 AIS National Convention

By Bryce Williamson

On April 23-27, 2019, in the 99^th year of The American Iris Society, Region 14, Northern California, Nevada, and Hawaii, hosted the National Convention at San Ramon, California. In addition to meetings and trainings, the event featured three days of garden tours. This post is a sample what we saw in the gardens.

The four tour buses were split two and two and I ended up at the Horton Iris Garden Thursday morning. The weather had not cooperated with plans since it had been in the 90s, but there was still much to see. I really tried to find a weed in Mary Ann’s garden, but I did not succeed and that is no small accomplishment in a garden spread over acres of rolling landscape. It was here also that we had an early lunch after the bus start time of 7 AM. Special praise is need for the Sierra Foothills Iris Society who had provided a lavish spread of snacks for the attendees, many of us pretending to be dying of thirst and starving after the two-hour trip to the garden.

'Sweet Child of Mine'--Larry Lauer

'Dressed in Black'--Leslie Painter

'Luminager'--Stout 2016

After lunch, we drove through the state capital, Sacramento, to Elk Grove and Fran and Russ Shields’s Frannie’s Iris Garden. There seemed to have been a spirited competition between local iris societies because the Sacramento Iris Society had matched the lavish spread of snacks and cold drinks were especially welcome in the 90-degree heat. Of special interest was the Dykes Medal winner bed, gaving me the chance to renew acquaintance with famous irises some that I had not seen in 50 years.

Black Cherry Sorbet' (MTB)--Harris

'Queen's Circle'--Fred Kerr

'Blue Rhythm'--Whiting, Dykes Medal 1950

Friday attendees experienced the capricious, mercurial nature of Northern California weather when we drove to Sonoma to Rudy Ciuca and Joe Lawrence’s C&L Vineyard and arrived on a cold, foggy morning. With only 22 acres of farmland, Joe and Rudy have lots of irises and lots of grapevines. That morning several us, including yours truly, provided an hour of judges’ training in the guest iris beds. Here we also had lunch and we able to enjoy the quiet of the countryside as the fog burned off and the day warmed.

'Better Than Butter'--Black

'Wingman'--Schreiners

Meininger 1-F (easy to miss the flounces)

In the afternoon, we had free time in the historic town of Sonoma. Famous as the last California Missions, Sonoma was also the site of the declaration of the short-lived California Republic. A small town, Sonoma is famed for its fine wineries, boutique shops, and excellent restaurants.

On the final day of tours, we had yet another 7 AM start, this time to Dry Creek Pioneer Regional Park, Union City. This is part of East Bay Regional Park system and they gave the gardener and park ranger Jeff Bennett permission plant a few irises on a ridge. I am not certain that they understood what they were getting; however, the park district has been amazingly supportive, providing the deer proof fencing for the plot, running a water line to the location, picking up the cost of materials, and, even, providing great signage for the convention. This planting of 800 guest irises and another 1000 named varieties is clearly a labor of love for Jeff Bennett. Local societies Clara B. Rees of San Jose, Sydney B. Mitchell of Oakland, and Mt. Diablo Iris Society all have pitched in to help. As one might expect, growing irises in virgin soil has wonderful results for the plants, though there was a little matter of an accumulation of years of weed seeds.

'Black Lipstick'--Keppel 2016

'What A Beauty' --Joe Ghio

Kelly TAFCS 12-13

The day after the tour by the iris society, the planting was opened to the public and the plan is to continue to add and improve this garden in the next years.

By lunch time, the famed fog had burnt off leaving us with a good view of San Francisco Bay to the west and we were told the famous Hayward earthquake fault was just a couple of hundred feet to the east.

After lunch we braved the weekend traffic and went over the Santa Cruz Mountains to Irene and Jim Cummins’s garden in Scotts Valley. Joe Ghio of Santa Cruz got them interested in irises and their garden is noteworthy for the integration of irises with other plant materials.

'Heat Is On'--Thomas Johnson

'Joy Returns'--Shadlow (rebloomer)

'Graffiti Art'--J. Painter 2016

Arriving back at the hotel, we had time to stop and rest before the evening awards banquet. The American honorary awards and garden awards voted by the judges were already known, so the highlight on the evening was the naming of the winners of the 5 cups from the garden visits.

The President’s Cup for best named variety from a Region 14 hybridizer was won by Rick Tasco of Superstition Iris Garden in Catheys Valley for his iris ‘Autumn Explosion’:

Image by Rick Tasco

The Franklin Cook Cup for best named variety from outside of Region 14 was won by Paul Black’s ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’:

The Ben R.  Hager Cup for best median was also won by Paul Black for IB ‘Black Comedy’. Paul Black’s irises are introduced by MidAmerica Iris Garden, Salem, Oregon:

The Lloyd Zurbrigg-Clarence Maham Seedling Cup went to Hooker Nichols’ 1978; Hooker Nichols' irises can be found at their garden website:

Image by Mikey Lango

Awarded for the first time in honor of Gerald Richardson, that award went to Irene and Jim Cummins for their use of irises in the whole garden:

Image by Mikey Lango

What is in a name? Lophiris - Crested Iris – Part Two

By Maggie Asplet

Finally, I have time to complete the second part of this article relating to crested irises.  Holidays and ill health sometimes get in our way.  I think you will all be the same when I say “it is life’.

To recap in part one we looked at I confusa, Martyn Rix, Chengdu, Queen’s Grace, Question Mark, and Kilkivan.

Today we will continue looking at some of these bigger forms of the crested iris, starting with I. wattii, with tall, tapering and sword like leaves which are heavily ribbed.  It has deep lavender spots like those of I. japonica outlining the haft.  This iris was discovered in 1892 by John Gilbert Baker, in the Himalayas & China area.

I must confess that this iris I don’t have growing at home, as I seem to have a great habit of killing it off.

Photos courtesy of Roger Haworth

Iris ‘Bourne Graceful’ 

Bourne Graceful has a medium size flower which is deep lilac-blue with strong orange-yellow signal surrounded by old gold to dark violet flecks and a violet border around the white signal area. The flowers are borne on distinctive green stems that become darker towards the bottom, but the plant itself has no canes. The long glossy leaves are ribbed and coloured purple at the base.

Registered by Dr J R Ellis in 1975.  It stands tall at 42’ (107cm) and classed an early to mid season for flowering.  I. japonica var. Ledgers X I. japonica var.

Photo courtesy of Huib Selderbeek

Iris ‘Nada’

J.N. Giridlian of California hybridized I. confuse and I. japonica in 1936. The plant grows about 18 “ (45 cm) tall and the flower spike can reach to about 24’ (60 cm)  Although each flower only lasts about two days, the entire spike will remain in bloom for over a month as new flowers open to replace spent blooms. It is very floriferous and each spike will produce about 25-50 flowers.  

I am pleased to say this one I can grow quite successfully and I think it has the sweetest little flowers.

Iris 'Nobody’s Child'

This is the first of three lovely iris hybridised in New Zealand.  In 1993 Isobel Simpson registered iris as SPEC (evansia), growing to 11" (28 cm).  The standards are light lavender blue, edged paler; the falls are pale lavender blue, royal blue at end of crest, olive brown to deep blue spots; sweet-musky fragrance.  Parentage unknown.

Photo courtesy of Huib Selderbeek

Iris ‘Honiana’

Hybridised by Mrs. F. Love in 1984, growing to 22" (56 cm).  Described as mauve with khaki brown markings on falls, white crests, with a sweet fragrance.  This is a cross between Question Mark X I. tectorum.

Photo courtesy of Huib Selderbeek

Iris ‘Revie’s Legacy’

A fairly recent registration (Joy Turner by Ron Goudswaard) in 2010.  Taller than the previous two growing to 59" (150 cm) and is classed early flowering.

The standards are pale lavender-blue, darker edges, near white center; style arms pale lavender; falls are white edged lavender-blue, white overlaid with ochre brown dashes radiating out from crest changing to dark blue dots and blotches toward edge of white area; appears plicata pattern.

It is probably a cross between Question Mark x I. tectorum.

Photo courtesy of Huib Selderbeek

I have not covered any of the smaller iris that belong in this section.  This I will leave for another day.  It won’t be long before we start to see the beautiful flowers of these again as we are heading towards winter (fall) here.

Border Irises

By Kevin Vaughn

I grew up in MA in the AIS of the 60’s. One of the constants of gardens of that era was the use of either Pewee or Paltec to border or face down the TB plantings. 

Paltec

Although they are irises, they looked sort of small and sad bordering the TBs as they were so much less sophisticated than the TBs they surrounded and didn’t make a really effective edging (I still find this the same even with the advancement in MTBs; they look best with themselves not facing down TBs).  Harold Knowlton was one of the first to actually hunt out a solution and so his “delightful runts”, small plants that segregated from his TB breeding, were planted as clumps at the corners and sometimes edging the beds.  Unknowingly, he had created a new class of irises. The proportions of his iris were nearly ideal: flowers under 8 ½” in height plus width with a ratio of 3:1 of height of the stalk/ combine height and width of the flower. The use of these smaller irises at the bed corners was especially effective at lowering the eye towards the corners.  In Harold’s mind, it would be great to have a whole series of these irises and he shared this enthusiasm for the runts and how much more effective they were than Pewee or Paltec in providing an edging for the TB beds.   And with that the Border Bearded class was started.  Other New England hybridizers followed suit, with Miriam Corey’s Little Brother, Lowry’s Two Bits, and Buttrick’s Clarendon Springs used in similar manner in their gardens. 

Buttrick Garden

In the Tuft’s garden in Grafton, the border iris were use in what you might call the “mini-me” effect.  A TB with a certain color or pattern was echoed at the edge of the bed with a BB of the same color, although finding a TB to replicate the exotically colored Jungle Shadows or boldly colored pink and purple bicolor Frenchi was impossible. 

Frenchi

Jungle Shadows

They were unique in all irises.  In Lynn Markham’s garden the BBs were used to face down the TBs but she also had a kidney shaped bed of just BBs. I loved it as the BBs were allowed to form clumps and were not overshadowed by their bigger brothers.  Here I saw Myrtle Wolff’s classic BBs Debbie Ann and Timmie Too, Melba Hamblen’s Tulare, and Marilyn Scheaff’s Little Lynn for the first time.  All would be in my garden subsequently.  In my garden, Miss Ruffles and Botany Bay were planted as large clumps at the corners of the TB bed and a number of others were grown to face down the TBs including Harold Knowlton’s Cricket and Pearl Cup.

Tulare

The TBs of that era weren’t the “fat ladies” that we have now so that even without trying to produce BBs smaller segregants fell out of crosses for TBs and many of these early BBs had fine proportion.  Seedlings from Rippling Waters, Lipstick, many of the Hall pinks and dark plicatas, Black Forest, reds, and Golden Flash gave lots of BB seedlings in exquisite proportions.  A few people, like Myrtle Wolff, actually pulled out the large seedlings, selecting especially for the runts.  Bennett Jones, Maybelle Wright, and Lynn Markham made crosses on purpose for BBs and gave us a string of great plants that were good-growing irises that stayed in class.

It is unfortunate that these lofty ideals and great beginnings were somehow lost in a flood of weak plants with oversize flowers that overgrew the class when over-fertilized.  Because of these poor growers with over-size flowers, the BB class suffered from a poor public perception, despite the number of ones that were fine plants.

Fortunately, the ideal of vigorous, well-proportioned plants suitable to edge TB beds and where TBs would look out of place because of their size, still lives on today.  Although there are certainly BBs that fall out of straight TB crosses, the Dykes Medalist Brown Lasso, being an outstanding example, a better approach has come from making deliberate crosses for these irises.  So hybridizers of late have used a three pronged approach:

• Cross BBs with other BBs or smallish TBs
• Cross BBs with the very vigorous IBs
• Incorporate 48 chromosome species such as I aphylla or I.reichenbachii into the breeding lines to produce more well-proportioned, better-branched stalks.

All of these approaches have netted iris that are not only good garden plants but also reliably in class irises.  This last spring, clumps of East Hampton and Venus Blush, planted on the corners of a TB bed and larger clumps of My Cher of Happiness, First in Line, Mermaid’s Dream, and Dance Gypsy effectively edged a large TB planting.  A narrow bed was planted solidly to BBs and was one of my favorites in my garden, it was like “Honey I shrunk the TBs!”.  So, if you have been disappointed by some of the BBs of the past, please give these new BBs a try.  They are outstanding plants and serve a vital purpose in the garden.

The Heralds of Spring

By Virginia Spoon

After a long cold winter, nothing invigorates my spirit like going out to the garden and seeing the spring bloom of the irises. The tiny miniature dwarfs are the earliest of the bearded irises to bloom.  I love the early bulbous irises that bloom even earlier such as danfordiae and reticulata, however, the tiny bearded dwarfs are my favorites.

 Miniature dwarf irises blooming in early April. Photo--Ginny Spoon

We have a large collection of miniature dwarfs and it is sometimes hard to find a place to put them so they won't get over shadowed by the larger irises. We put one large planting on a bank and when they are blooming  in March and April they cover it with a carpet of color. 

           Miniature dwarf iris planting at Winterberry.  Photo--Ginny Spoon

Shorter than the standard dwarf bearded irises (8-16 inches), the miniatures top out at 8" tall. They are tiny and to be enjoyed to the fullest, they should be planted either in a rock garden setting or a raised area. They bloom early too, so you may want to plant them close to your house so you won't miss any of the bloom.

                     Miniature dwarf iris 'African Wine'.  Photo--Ginny Spoon

"Pixie Flirt' is a vigorous grower and it can grow into a marvelous clump in just a few years.

                                             'Pixie Flirt'  Photo--Ginny Spoon

Winter Aconite,  Snowdrops, small narcissus such as 'Tete- a- Tete' make good companion plants for the miniature dwarfs.

                                      Winter Aconite  Photo--Ginny Spoon

The bulbous iris reticulata is a good companion plant, and they bloom even earlier than the dwarf irises, sometimes even in the snow. 

                                                   Iris reticulata  Photo--Ginny Spoon

 ' Atroviolacea'   Photo-- Ginny Spoon

The miniature dwarf 'Atroviolacea' is usually the first bearded iris to bloom for us, sometimes even in the March snow.

                        

                            Miniature daffodils 'Tete-a-Tete'  Photo -- Ginny Spoon

        'Early Sunshine' usually follows second behind the bloom of 'Atroviolacea'. 

                                          'Early Sunshine'  Photo--Ginny Spoon

                                               'Kayla's Song' Photo--Carol Coleman

We were excited that our 'Kayla's Song' received the Caparne Welch Medal in 2018.

We are members of the Dwarf Iris Society and if you would like to join us contact our membership chair:  Rose Kinnard (RKinnard@minesmo.org