HIST: The Lost Lovely Loetitia

From: hipsource@aol.com

Greetings.

We all have lists of irises we would like to add to our collections, and so 
does HIPS, the Historic Iris Preservation Society. Those of us who work for 
HIPS and communicate often among ourselves come to realize that some lost 
irises we have independently encountered in the literature are of great 
interest to us collectively. The reasons for this vary, but in some cases it 
is simply because the descriptions we read are compelling that we wish to 
know the iris and see its great beauty. One of these is SOUV. DE LOETITIA 
MICHAUD (Millet, 1923), perhaps the most mysterious of the lost lovely 
ladies. I thought perhaps if I told you about her, you might keep an eye out 
for her this bloom season, most especially if you are in the warmer parts of 
the country, including North Carolina, where Elizabeth Lawrence, in her book 
"A Southern Garden," observed that Loetitia showed first bloom between April 
23 and May 11.

She is listed in the 1939 Checklist thus: SOUV. DE LOETITIA MICHAUD. 
TB-M-B1L. Millet, 1923 (Ricardi X CORRIDA). Thus she is a midseason Tall 
Bearded, a light 'blue' self, and she is, through her mother, was a form of 
I. mesopotamica, presumed to be somewhat tender. 

Millet himself described her as "...of quite outstanding merit. Of great 
vigor, the strong stems grow above four feet bearing enormous flowers of a 
firm texture; the standards are lobelia blue, washing off toward the edge to 
pale blue; the falls are of the same tone beautifully veined yellow on the 
white ground of the haft.  A grand flower." 

AIS Bulletin 12 amplifies this with " Verbena to light hyssop violet; stalk 
well branched, growth vigorous; to 4 feet. Details: Petals veined in effect; 
standards arched; falls flaring, reticulated olive ocher; foliage short and 
broad...Corrida in color but of enormous size."

J. Marion Shull described her in his book RAINBOW FRAGMENTS thus:
"Excellence in size, height and color. Color verbena to light hyssop violet 
of good quality. Form excellent, flaring, well proportioned. Standards 
arched, falls flaring, substance good. Size very large. Haft reticulated 
olive ocher. Beard light yellow. Fragrance faint. Spathes green with upper 
third scarious. Foliage stiff and broad, glaucous. Growth vigorous, bloom 
free. One of the largest and generally quite a favorite." Note there is no 
indication of purple staining on the foliage bases.  

And in the 1929 catalog of Quality Gardens in Freeport, Illinois, Mrs. 
Pattison, who was known as very much a class act when it came to picking 
irises, said: "The strong stems grow about four feet high bearing enormous 
flowers of a fine texture. A lobelia blue shading toward the edge to pale 
blue. F. the same color beautifully veined yellow on the white ground of the 
haft. R. W. Wallace, the eminent English Iris authority, says of this: 'We 
consider this to be one of the finest of the recent French introductions.' 
This is one of the scarcest and most sought after Irises in this list. Mr. 
Percy Murrell has rated this at 94 [of 100 possible points]. We strongly 
recommend this to our customers as there is no more beautiful iris in the 
world than this." A photograph labeled The Incomparable Souvenir de Loetitia 
Michaud is reproduced at 2/3 actual size, indicating that the size of the 
bloom is probably at least 6" long. She looks to have a fine dense beard, not 
a wispy one nor a straggly one.

Now, what about those pesky color descriptions? Well, we know that the AIS 
Bulletin and the Rainbow Fragments are keyed to the Ridgway chart. Looking at 
'"verbena violet" and "light hyssop violet" on this chart we see soft medium 
bluish lavenders reminiscent of Mary Frances, maybe a bit lighter. Verbena is 
the lighter tone of the two. Olive ochre is a nice mellow gold. About like 
French's mustard but a bit darker, a tad greener and considerably less 
strident. White, of course, is white.

So there you have the 'incomparable' SOUV. DE LOETITIA MICHAUD, one of our 
lost Grand Dames. Big, beautiful, branched and thus unlikely to be mistaken 
for a pallida, and, unfortunately, not very hardy in some areas. We 
desperately hope she survives, and we hope you will keep an eye out for her 
this spring as you make your way around the older neighborhoods in your part 
of the world. Shout loudly, please, if you think you might have found her! 

Anner Whitehead
Commercial Source Chairman
Historic Iris Preservation Society,AIS
HIPSource@aol.com 

 




  



  

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