STARTING OVER

by Dawn Mumford

Part of the Mumford Iris Patch

I wrote a blog for this AIS blogspot September 26th, 2016 by using my right index finger on my Kindle Fire tablet. I used only one finger because both my arms were broken and I had a sling on each arm. I sat at the table and braced my right arm on the table and did the hunt and peck method because my right index finger was the only one strong enough to push on the keys.  This is the link if you want to read it.  A New Perspective.  A few blogs later I wrote my last blog until today.  It was written July 3rd, 2017.  Please read that if you want the whole story.  Here is the link, A Fond Farewell to Tall Bearded Irises.

I feel the need to update you on the things that happened after that last blog.  Our property and home that my husband and I built were put on the real estate market.  They sold in 2017.  With both my arms broken I needed to go somewhere to heal .  We stayed three weeks at one sons house with his family.  Neal and I then moved to a Senior Living cottage.  The kitchen staff brought three meals a day to our apartment.  That was necessary because of the arm slings and Neal's Alzheimer's disease.  Three months later we moved to another city where another son had purchased a home but wasn't going to move into it for another six months.  Then on his arrival we went back to the Senior Living Cottage.

It was now near Christmas time in 2017.  We celebrated as a family knowing that this would be Neal's last Christmas with us.  On Christmas Eve we celebrated the birth and life of Christ.  We took family pictures, had a wonderful dinner, and reenacted the nativity with the grandchildren acting out the parts of shepherds, angels, wise men, Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus played by the youngest great grand baby. Neal's eyes reflected that fact that he was fully conscious for the first time in months.  He felt the love of his children, grandchildren, and one great grandchild surrounding him.  It was on Christmas Eve 4 hours after the family picture was taken that Neal passed away.  It actually was a peaceful season for that to happen. It was bitter sweet.  I had been his caregiver for seven years and he and I were both tired.

Wise men, baby Jesus, and shepherd boy

Now I was a widow after having been married for 49 years.  My dream home and property had been sold.  My irises were no more.  The hardest part of the irises is that the couple that bought our property didn't tell me until too late that their plans were to disc under all the irises.  (I can hear the collective groan as you are reading this)  It was, by then, too late in the year to move them.  We were expecting a hard frost any day.

This was the home and property that I had to sell. 

Willard Bay is the body of water to the west.  It was in northern Utah.  The boundaries of the 5.5 acres are in red and the dormant iris patch is in green.

I am still living in the senior living cottage while my son and I remodel a home next door to his home.  It has room for just a super small number of iris when I am ready to start over.  I plan on moving there some time in the next 6 months.  

That is the update and now it is time to discuss irises.  I plan on talking about my favorite yellow irises.  Yellow in the garden is beautiful.  Your eye is drawn to the yellows.  It is a happy , sunny color.   

It is easy to track the yellows with your eyes in your garden.

Creamy soft yellows can be calming.  Some yellows can overpower like an old iris I had that was called Dazzling Gold.

'Dazzling Gold' D. C. Anderson, 1977, Historic, may be obsolete 

This irises' color is so intense that it can effectively block other blooms from being seen.  It can be used in small quantities and perhaps used in a small somewhat shady area or perhaps subdued by other bold plants around it.  It is beautiful however.

'Gold  Trimmings' Schreiner's, 1973, Historic

This one is very old but I find it warm and calming.  It has a large, graceful bloom.  

'Salzburg Echo' Schreiner's, 2009, heavy substance

This is probably my favorite yellow and I got it by mistake.  I had ordered a group of Dykes Medal winners and got this instead of 'Splashacata'.  The well known vendor I got it from corrected their mistake and said I could keep this one.  I love the heavy substance, which means the petals of the standards and falls are thick.  It is believed that the heavier substance allows the bloom to last longer.  It withstands the wind and rain better.  The form is lovely.  

'Expose' Joseph Ghio, 2003, Honorable Mention 2006, Award of Merit 2008

This iris is unique.  We had over 600 different irises but while walking in the iris patch I never had to look at a list or map or marker to identify this iris.  This iris is interesting and fun in the garden.

'Golden Panther' Richard Tasco,  2000,  Honorable Mention 2002, Award of Merit 
2004, Presidents Cup at 2004 AIS convention,  Wister Cup in 2006, Dykes Medal in 2009

Beautiful in every way.  This iris looks different in different lights.  Highly recommended by me.  

'That's All Folks' William Maryott, Joseph Ghio, 2004, Honorable Mention 2007, Award of Merit 2009, Wister Medal 2011, American Dykes Medal 2013

Just perfect!  Whenever an iris wins the Dykes Medal you know it is a good one.  It is healthy, strong, disease resistant, able to grow in multiple climates around the country and many other criteria.  Only one iris per year wins the Dykes Medal and it is the top award of the American Iris Society.  Irises are eligible as a Dykes Medal candidate for three years following winning a classification medal.  Only AIS accredited judges may vote for the award. 

'Tiger Honey' Brad Kasperek, 1993, broken color 

This is still one of my favorite broken color irises.  This iris has nice form and colors.

Notice all yellow's catch your eye in the photograph above.  

'Golden Legacy' Gerald Richardson,  2013

This iris is one that I only had for a couple years before I moved.  It spaced itself nicely on the stem.  It is a little more muted in color than I usually go for.  Nice form.

'Sky Hooks' M. Osborne, 1979, Historic, Space Ager because it has horns on the end of the beard

This was one of the first irises I bought back in the 1980's.  I liked the hooks on the end of the beard.  Again a nice form too.  

When I first decided to write on yellow irises, I thought I didn't have very many.  I had 16 other yellow iris with nice pictures that I could have added.  I mostly looked in the photographs taken in the last few years.  It has been a pleasure to think and write about irises again.  I hope in the future to write about my favorite oranges and reds.  What are your favorite yellows?

Collage created for this blog as an extra

American Iris Society News

The American Iris Society Registrars are pleased to announce that the Iris Register (Irisregister.com) has been updated to include the 2018 Registrations and Introductions. It also contains the names currently entered into the 2019 database as registered or reserved.

AIS eMembers now have access to the AIS Summer issue of Irises and also the prior 6 issues of the Bulletin. Those issues are now available for reading online in a new format that does not require Adobe Flash.

The 69th regular issue of the AIS News & Notes is now live.

A special note:  With the launch of the new AIS Website (www.irises.org), some of the links in previous issues of News & Notes will no longer work.  All the ones in this issue point to the proper locations. In particular, use the Symposium Ballot links in this issue, not the earlier ones.

Additionally, any personal bookmarks you may have created into the old AIS website will no longer work. You should navigate through the new home page to establish new bookmarks to your favorite locations.

Location, Location, Location

By Bryce Williamson

Although I have been growing irises for over 55 years, I learn something new every iris season, or a lesson from the past is reinforced. In the last few years it is the term “location, location, location” and my discovery that it not only applies to real estate but also to gardening.

'Lavender Moonbeams'--Rick Tasco image

Two years ago, I decided to add three I. unguicularis, sometimes called the Algerian iris, to the garden, but my acquiring the plants coincided with my breaking six ribs and having to find a spot for the gardeners to plant them while I healed. The location was not ideal—my first lesson was that I should have found a location where I walk every day, not in a bed where I can go days without looking at the plants. The second thing I learned, and it is a recommendation for other gardeners who might like to grow these winter flowering irises, was find ‘Lavender Moonbeams’ because it flowered well.

Last year I made the decision to move the irises from the backyard into the front yard. No irises have grown there in seven or eight years and I expected them to do well in this new location. I had learned my lesson from the past and fertilized more heavily and add organic matter to the soil. That we did by moving 7 yards of potting soil mix into an area 600 square feet and a fifty pound bag of 15-15-15 was also spread over the area; however, I tend to over plant and as a result, I ran out of room and needed to plant my arilbreds in a different bed by the walk.

I had Reynaldo hand dig the bed with a bag of potting soil, but as the arilbreds grew and then bloomed, they bloomed poorly. My lesson was that they needed more fertilizer and one bag of potting soil for even that small area was not enough. I’ve also learned that my tendency to want to replant 4 rhizomes of a variety needs to be curbed—I may have to settle for 3 rhizomes! I will have to watch myself or the 1200 square foot area we are preparing in the backyard will not be enough.

I have always thought that where I bought plants and bulbs determined the quality of the product. A couple of years ago, I decided to add some reticulates to the garden and, for once, I got the location right—along the front of the sidewalk where I walk at least 6 times ago. I picked up a cheap bag of Iris reticulata ‘Harmony’ from Costco and went to the most expensive and best of Silicon Valley’s remaining nurseries—the dwindling number of plant nurseries here is another story—for other colors and into the ground they went. I’m on the second year and ‘Harmony’ has bloomed well, though I learned that I should have planted the bulbs more closely together, and it is thriving, but the more expensive plants have grown and only thrown up a couple of flowers. There does not seem to be a tight connection between price and quality of the bulbs.

Sometimes I get the location right by mistake. Every few years, I scrounge the nurseries for Dutch iris, buying a dozen of each variety that I can find. They do well the first years, but fail to naturalize for a variety of reason. The amazing exception is ‘Sky Wing’, a soft lavender-blue that loves it location and flowers every year. It is planted at the edge of the water line for the sprinkler and I thought that location would be a kiss of death, but it likes it there. A large rock anchors that corner of the rose bed and that may help with Sky Wing. (Note that there is a Siberian called Sky Wings too).

With more than fifty springs under my belt for growing irises, each year I learn something new.

The World of Irises is the official blog of The American Iris Society. Now in its 99^th year, The American Iris Society exists to promote all types of irises. If you wish to comment on a post, you can do so at the end of the page and the author or the editors will reply. If you wish to learn more about The American Iris Society, follow the link.

IRISES: The Bulletin of the AIS - Summer 2019 Edition

By Andi Rivarola 

A warm welcome to those who are seeing IRISES, the Bulletin of The American Iris Society for the first time. If you are a member of The American Iris Society I hope you enjoy this new issue.

The Summer issue of the AIS Bulletin will be available online soon, accessible via the Emembers section of the AIS website. The print copy has been mailed via the U.S. Post Office. On the cover, a beautiful iris 'Autumn Explosion' by Rick Tasco, winner of the President's Cup at the AIS 2019 National Convention held in San Ramon, California.

Note: to access this area of the website you must have a current AIS Emembership. (AIS Emembership is separate from the normal AIS membership.) Please see the Electronic Membership Information area of the AIS website for more details.

In this issue...

Don't miss all of the San Ramon, California Convention information such as the convention award winners, on pages 2 and 3. 

On page 10, Neil Houghton remind us that, "required images with iris registrations," and he lays out the way to do it. 

Also on page 10, the French Iris Society you will find the invitation to hybridizers to submit their creations for the 2021 Franciris International Iris Competition to be held in Paris, France. (More detailed information Franciris 2021 continues on page 11).
Next, on page 12 Las Cruces, New Mexico wants your irises for the 2021 National Convention to be held there. 

The AIS Photo Contest is back for 2019, and you may read all the rules and information about how to enter, on page 13.

Pages 14 and 15 contain Section Happenings, and there you may read about the different AIS Sections, such as the Reblooming Iris Society, the Historic Iris Preservation Society (HIPS), the Aril Society International, and others. 

International Iris News are on pages 16 through 18. 

Youth views on pages 19 through 23.

The AIS 2019 Convention Review is on pages 24 all the way to 48, with lots of reading to do and beautiful pictures to see. 

Neil Houghton tells us all about tip #5 on his series about iris photography, on page 49.

Lastly, a touching article, "Rise Like a Phoenix," about Anita Moran's personal experiences with her family who lived in Paradise, California on pages 51 — 54. 

Not a member of The American Iris Society? Please see our website for information about becoming one: http://irises.org/

There's a lot more to see and read in this edition of IRISES, either in digital or print formats.

Happy Gardening!