SP: Spage Age Terminology
From: Sharon McAllister <73372.1745@compuserve.com>
Message text written by Mike Sutton:
>
A space age iris is an iris that has appendages, either horns, spoons or
flounces, extending from the beards. I was under the impression that the
term "space age iris" came from the time in history when iris with horns
were introduced. Did that make sense? The 50's and 60's were called the
space age which is when horned and spooned iris made it to commerce. .<
Lloyd Austin introduced the first horned iris, UNICORN, in 1954 and is
generally credited with coining the term. It may or may not have
originally been his idea, but he certainly popularized it. He started
using the term "horned" with the UNICORN series. Through selective
breeding, the horns grew larger and not necessarily pointed -- so he added
the terms "spooned" and "plumed". Then some appendages enlarged to the
point of being "flounced". In 1961, he introduced FLOUNCED PREMIERE -- an
appropriate name for the first of its kind -- and in that catalog announced
the "Dawn of the Spage Age in Iris".
"For several years now my special seedbeds containing the many thousands of
descendants of my horned race have been yielding up unbelievable treasures
-- seedlings so far advanced in floral embellishments that they surely
belong to the Age of Space. These newest beauties, with the horns
transformed to diverse petal-like decorative features, constitute my new
race of FLOUNCED IRIS, presented to you in lifelike natural color on this
page & on the front cover. These & my related SPOONED IRIS are the truly
modern Iris, with developing wings to carry them to untold heights of
popular acclaim..."
Featured prominently on the back cover:
WINGED IRIS
FOR THE AGE OF SPACE
This is, indeed, the Age of Space
And all things must conform;
The people, planets, even plants
Must range beyond the norm--
So Rainbow Garden's debutants
Zoom like a missile storm.
To keep the pace of modern times,
The iris world needs wings;
This era copes with flying stars.
Strange as these fission things
Are changes in the form of flow'rs
That hybrizing brings.
The pattern, like an atom, burst
With iris Unicorn;
Spoons, fringes, flounces, plumes add grace
Evolving through the HORN . . .
Like rocket thrusts, for each new race
Celestial wings are born.
-- George Nicholas Rees
Sharon McAllister
73372.1745@compuserve.com
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