Re: OT: Wanderings of an iris pilgrim, part 3

Bill:  Not since the pre-TV days of mystery installments in the Saturday
Evening Post have I waited so eagerly for the next installment of anything!
Thanks so much for sharing.  We enjoyed it tremendously.

Nancy & Irv Pocklington in the Storefront in IL

Bill Shear wrote:
> 
> When Tom and Ellen Abrego and I arrived at Keith Keppel's, the clouds had
> dissipated and a pretty brisk cold wind was blowing.  Despite the late
> hour, we were welcomed by Keith, who was walking the rows with Paul Black
> and Tom Johnson.  Because time was short, I spent most of it just listening
> and learning and clicking off photos of Keppel, Ghio and Shoop seedlings
> and named varieties.  Again, some extraordinary new irises were on display.
> The various dark bicolors with red and orange beards were stunning.  There
> was a row of pink and yellow bicolor seedlings with gradually intensifying
> color from one end of the row to another, and much more.  I was taking
> pictures so fast that there was not time even to note down the seedling
> numbers of what I was photographing.  Finally time, wind, and rapidly
> dropping temperatures got the best of us and we parted company as I headed
> back to Portland, but not before getting glimpse of the elusive Iris tenuis
> in Keith's home garden.  This old skinhead was suffering from a combination
> of sunburn and windburn--why didn't I wear the hat I brought?
> 
> My last day in the northwest was spent in Vancouver, Washington, just
> across the river from Portland, in Salmon Creek Iris Garden, run by Terry
> and Barbara Aitken.  Another warm welcome from busy iris people, and
> another instance of making every effort to ensure that a visitor saw
> everything.  Here, bloom was a little later than south of Portland, and the
> Intermediates and MTBs, as well as good clumps of PCNs, were the
> outstanding feature.  Terry and Barbara grow orchids as well as irises (I'm
> just starting with these plants myself), so the first half hour or so was
> spent in the greenhouse admiring Terry's Phalenopsis seedlings.  Then into
> the iris plantings where again some striking seedlings made themselves
> evident, many of them new things from Markie Smith.  To me one of the most
> important seedlings of Terry's was a very nice ruffled, medium-sized blue
> with a blue beard which has been going under the garden name of "25 buds."
> And that's no exaggeration!  I counted several stalks that all carried
> between 20 and 27 buds on very sturdy 30" stalks with four branches (the
> lowest 2 rebranched).  The flower itself is very nice and with this kind of
> bloom production and vigor--Wow!  Terry seems undecided about introducing
> it but is using it extensively in his hybridizing.  Certainly if this iris
> proved to be widely adaptable outside the northwest, it would quickly
> become a feature of nearly every garden in the country; it has enormous
> commercial potential.  There were also some startling red and blue bicolors
> from MTB/SDB/TB breeding--put a bright orange beard on one of these, and
> just imagine.  Seeing Terry's Payne Medals casually displayed in a work
> room made me regret not being able to be there for the Japanese bloom, too.
> But I also came away with a new interest in MTBs, with their ineffable
> charm.
> 
> I arrived back at Phil's apartment with enough light to photograph a clump
> of an old historic, possibly 'Amas', growing outside the building, and
> another mysterious historic, a pink with purple shoulders, that I'll have
> to submit to Mike Lowe for naming.
> 
> Flights back to Richmond were more confused than ever, and I finally
> reached home through Atlanta rather than the ever weather-plagued Chicago.
> 
> Of course, the next morning my own scabby garden, suffering from two weeks
> of 90-degree heat and no rain as well as a week of neglect, looked pretty
> discouraging.  The TB bloom was over except for a few remaining buds on
> 'Mesmerizer' (what great stalks on that iris!).  The Louisianas and
> Spurias were under way but obviously not happy about the heat.  As an
> example of how hot weather can push a season, there were no visible buds on
> my selection of Iris sanguinea when I left, and on my return, its bloom was
> over!  But a few days later, temperatures dropped, thunderstorms rolled in
> (we've now had a week of pretty rainy weather) and my spirits brightened
> accordingly.
> 
> It will take more than a week or two to consolidate all that I learned on
> this trip, and above all I must study my more than 400 photos.  It was a
> lifetime's dream come true, that much I already know, and there were no
> disappointments.  On the contrary, everything far exceeded expectations.
> So I'll end my ramblings with thanks again to John Jones, Terri and Jay
> Hudson, the meeting organizers of Region 14, the Schreiner family, Keith
> Keppel, and Barbara and Terry Aitken.  Oh, and thanks to you, too, Phil,
> for a place to crash.  Can I come again next year?
> 
> Bill Shear
> Department of Biology
> Hampden-Sydney College
> Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
> (804)223-6172
> FAX (804)223-6374
> email<bills@mail.hsc.edu>
> 
> Moderating e-lists:
> Coleus at http://www.egroups.com/community/coleus
> Opiliones at http://www.egroups.com/community/opiliones
> Myriapod at http://www.egroups.com/community/myriapod
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Best friends, most artistic, class clown Find 'em here:
> http://click.egroups.com/1/4054/0/_/486170/_/959611211/
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Best friends, most artistic, class clown Find 'em here:
http://click.egroups.com/1/4054/0/_/486170/_/959615729/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index