RE: OT: Wanderings of an iris pilgrim, part 1

"Thank you Bill" for the wanderings I read all with rapt attention,and will
be looking forward to the "part II".
Dorothy Hartman,Pentwater,MI Zone 6 where Jessie's Song is also blooming.

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Shear [b*@hsc.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2000 3:15 PM
To: iris-talk@egroups.com
Subject: [iris-talk] OT: Wanderings of an iris pilgrim, part 1


"Call me, Ishmael."
	--Peter de Vries, INTO YOUR TENT I'LL CREEP


Some time has now passed since my return from a journey to the west, and at
last the myriad impressions created are starting to come together into a
coherent picture.  It is one of the overwhelming beauty of irises and the
hospitality and kindness of iris people.

A year or so ago, Jay Hudson invited me to be the speaker at the AIS Region
14 meeting, and I readily agreed.  I'd always wanted to see northern
California, and travelling there would put me close enough to Portland,
Oregon, for a visit to the great commercial iris operations of the
Wilamette Valley.  Over winter, anticipation grew.

Away back in the mid-1950's, when I was just starting to get interested in
irises, I wrote a letter to Robert Schreiner (in a schoolboy scrawl)
suggesting that Schreiner's might want to trial and introduce some if not
all of my seedlings (derived from old diploid varieties).  It would have
been so easy for a busy man to ignore or blow off a presumptuous letter
from a youngster, but Bob Schreiner took the time to write a lengthy reply
explaining why my seedlings might not be something of interest to his
company, and suggesting future avenues for hybridization and culture.
Unfortunately I've long since lost that letter, which was a great source of
encouragement early on.  In any case, for 45 years I've thought of a visit
to Schreiner's as a long-deferred dream that might never come true.  Now it
was within months of happening!

The Region 14 meeting, it turned out, had been scheduled long before but
coincided with peak TB bloom in my own garden, that bloom hastened on by a
week of dry, windy days above 90 degrees (eventually that would continue
for almost 3 rainless weeks).  So just before leaving, I made as many
crosses as I could imagine a use for, gave the beds a final scraping for
rot, and left for San Francisco.

This was the first long trip I've been on where ALL my flights were
substantially delayed or cancelled after I got to the airport.  On the way
out, it was severe thunderstorms in Chicago.  But I made it to SF, and
found John Jones patiently waiting.  For those of you who have never met
John in person and maybe envision him as the stern Listmaster, let me tell
you that a more congenial, laid-back person does not exist.  His company on
my trip was a pleasure from beginning to end--for one thing, he provided an
endless supply of Diet Coke.

John's interesting home and garden are places where one could spend a lot
of time without getting bored.  He has a growing collection of iris
literature, including an original Dykes, and his garden is filled not only
with irises but with other interesting plants.  The irises had nearly all
passed by, though; we'd have to wait for our drive north to see more.

The meeting was held in Ukiah, in inland Mendocino County, the heart of the
Mendocino wine country, among waves of ancient and newly planted vines.
The meeting began with a seedling show featuring Pacific Coast Native
irises and Spurias.  Among the PCNs, some wonderful seedlings were
exhibited by Elena Laborde, new to hybridizing. One of these, 99SGX3, was
the blackest iris I've ever seen, with a great finish and substance and
plenty of ruffling to its broad petals.  The center of the fall was
literally dead black, with no hint of color and a mysterious dull surface.
It's one of the most beautiful irises of any type I have seen in years.
Among the Spurias, I liked SPU 21-91-4, from Anna and David Cadd.  The
exhibited stalk had 4 well placed big ruffled blooms in light yellow with
pale violet veining.  One could also see that the lower branches were
standing out somewhat from the main stalk, presaging a real improvement in
Spuria branching.

The Redwood Iris Society hosted the meeting and as with the Region 4
meeting I attended earlier, this one went off flawlessly, a tribute to hard
work and careful planning.  Kitty Loberg, Terri and Jay Hudson, Collette
Emanuel and many others were prominent among the organizers.  I apologize
for not mentioning everybody by name, but it would be a long list!

Saturday was a garden visiting day.  First on our list was Jean Near's
garden, in Redwood Valley.  After spending a few fun moments watching
George Waters terrorizing sheep, we went on to the garden, terraced into a
hillside and filled with lovely irises and companion plants, among which I
thought Scilla peruviana the most exciting (it also grows for me in
Virginia, but not nearly so well).  I can't comment in an articulated way
on varieties we saw there, at least not until the 13 rolls of film I
eventually shot came back.  The overall impression of Jean's garden was of
one made by a person with a great love for plants and the energy to
meticulously care for them.  The iris were very well grown indeed.

The Loberg garden is a family effort by Kitty, Bruce, Marc and Alissa (only
the second person of that name I've ever met!).  Here we saw a typical
suburban lot garden, crowded not only with irises but with violas,
geraniums, California poppies and a host of other compatible plants.  Again
perfection of culture was on display and the crowded plantings had people
reeling crazily along the paths trying to see it all.  A great deal of iris
beauty crowded into a small area.  I was grateful for the shady benches on
the green lawn, too.

A longer drive with the prospect of lunch at the end led to Dede and Ron
Ledford's garden, which reminded this Easterner, at least at the entrance,
of Tony Avent's fabulous Juniper Level Botanical Garden (the display garden
for his famous nursery, Plant Delights).  The front section featured
Spurias and TBs on a berm with Anchusa, foxglove, and other plants too
numerous to mention.  I call this garden a "California Cottage Garden,"
with every bit of space occupied by a wide variety of plants (did I mention
seeing Orthosanthus chimboracensis for the first time?  I've killed it
twice here in Virginia).  Lots more film gone!

Nostalgia and links to the past keynoted Leah Middleton's garden, on the
family ranch under ancient shade trees along a swift-running creek.  The
iris seemed not to mind the shade and bloomed beautifully.  Among the other
plants, Nectarscordum siculum caught many eyes with pendulous bell-shaped
blooms of pink and green dangling from yard-high stalks.  This was a garden
with time behind it.  A few of us wandered along half-overgrown paths to
see the remains of a once-larger garden kept by Leah's grandmother, Leila
Romer.  The ruins of an old lath house still had remnants of the plants
that had grown there, and from the shade garden Arum italicum had colonized
the woods.  Leah certainly has room to expand as she renovates this great
old garden.

After my talk that night, there was a drawing for a batik iris quilt from
Bali, donated by the Hudsons.  I was pressed into drawing the winning
ticket, which turned out to be John's.  No, the fix was not in! The dinner
and hospitality that night couldn't have been better.

Sunday morning all headed out over the mountains to the Menocino Coast at
Ft. Bragg.  Iris douglansiana was spotted in the woods as we came down the
west side of the range.  On the way into Ft. Bragg, we stopped at Mae
Lauer's place in the redwoods.  This garden was one I would have made, had
I lived in the right place at the right time.  Many, many exotic
rhododendrons lined the approaches and the winding paths.  Mae's garden
blended with the surrounding wild area (made even wilder by the snags of
mighty redwoods devastated by hurricane-force winds) and the native flowers
growing there.  Not many irises in bloom but the rhodies more than made up
for it, together with a red-flowering Clintonia from the woods and the
prospects of bloom on Mae's huge collection of lillies.  Here I ran out of
film for the first time.

On through the charming little coastal town of Ft. Bragg and lunch at the
Company Store, to the Iris Gallery of Jay and Terri Hudson.  Bought more
film. This is a commercial iris nursery complete with a small store for
iris items and a wonderful display garden.  TBs were at their peak; a mass
planting of 'Jesse's Song' greeted us at the entrance.  Some PCNs were
still going on and there were Siberians and species, too.  From one corner
of the display garden, a broad path leads through a magnificent redwood
forest with ferns and wildflowers.  Just a few feet inside this haven, all
was quiet.  The Hudsons extended their hospitality to John and I for
overnight, and to a larger group for an uproarious dinner.

The next morning, more work at the Iris Gallery and then off to San
Francisco again to catch my plane to Portland.

Gotta go now to pick up Justin at school, so I'll continue tomorrow--you'll
know when you see that title to just hit "delete!"

Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills@mail.hsc.edu>

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