I appreciate your interest, Sean..
Greg McCullough and I worked hard at finding them in Tennessee, where they are better documented, and I imagine he still keeps his eyes open around Valentine's Day, but I could not get very far in North Carolina. I'm associated with the garden hsitory folks there, but the garden club ladies, who should have been interested, were not much so, and that was a most unfortunate dead end. I do expect were they out in plain view or in a notable garden Nancy Goodwin would have found them years ago and we'd have heard about it.
Elizabeth Lawrence wrote that the last person she knew who grew the persicas was Vivian Grapes of Big Springs, Nebraska, who, as it turns out, got hers from Tennessee. I found the Grapes family and the heir to the land said he rememberd the garden, and the iris, but after Vivian's death it was plowed under. I wrote an article on Vivian and her sister Hazel--sisters who married brothers, for the Dwarf newsletter. They were big in the world of dwarf irises. Vivian also worked with hostas.
It's an odd and very magical little story, really--- the whole story of the plant is, right from the Renaissance get go--but there are photos of the plants from the Tennessee strain--which was thought to have originated in VA--, blooming in B. Y. Morrison's garden, and they have been vetted.
Cordially,
AMW
-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Zera <zera@umich.edu>
To: iris-species <iris-species@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tue, Dec 4, 2012 1:13 pm
Subject: Re: [iris-species] Iris persica
Makes sense to me - it would be well-drained, and the temperature somewhat moderated. I wish you luck in finding them if they're still out there.
Sean Z
On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 12:47 PM,
<C*@aol.com> wrote:
As I said, they were passed around to alimited de4gree in the tobacco lands of the Upper South. I will also say that there is some indication that they liked to live in established gardens situation on heights above a body of running water.
AMW
