Re: OT:Allan Ensminger's Varigay Garden

Arnold,
    Thank you for your very nice report on the Region 21 Convention.  Speaking for the Lincoln Iris Society, I am glad that everything went smoothly and the weather cooperated.  We tried to continue the standard set by longtime members of the Lincoln Iris Society.  There were 65 people registered for the convention and we thank all of the Region 21 members and guests from outside the region who attended and made the convention a success.  It was really great to have the likes of Allan Ensminger, Mike Moller and Abe Feuerstein giving judges training in Allan's garden.
    As for the future of the Ensminger garden,  it's true that they are selling the property (where they have lived for 50 years) and moving to a retirement home.  Allan, however, is continuing his hybridizing and is still making crosses this year.  He will select seedlings that he wants to continue growing and plans to move those to another site where he can watch them and make further selections.  So, while Allan and Gladys are moving, they are not yet giving up Varigay Gardens - only relocating it to another site.  I would expect, though, that this move will also involve a significant reduction in the numbers of irises that he grows in future years.
    Allan is an amazing person - he will actually be 87 yrs old next month - and still has fields of irises that he's evaluating and making selections from (as well as all the record keeping associated with it).  As you mentioned, he is known for his variegated irises, but also has some other wonderful cultivars to his credit.  I think its fair to say that Allan Ensminger was responsible for creating and defining the variegated irises as we know them today.  Of course, others have taken up the variegated cause, but most of those on the market began with (or have in their parentage) crosses using some of Allan's introductions or seedlings.  For example, if you look at the parentage of many of Brad Kasparek's variegated irises, you will find irises such as Maria Tormena, Batik, or others that Allan hybridized.  All this, and Allan has two irises in contention for the Dykes Medal this year, Blue-Eyed Blonde and the beautiful Sonja's Selah, which is in full bloom in my garden now.  And I consider it a great privilege to be able to go to Allan's garden this coming Thursday morning to walk his fields with him while he makes some of his crosses.

Gary White   in Lincoln, NE
President of the Lincoln Iris Society
 

Arnold Koekkoek wrote:

      Sorry, I hit the wrong button and this got sent before I finished, at least I think it did.  Anyway, I've just continued it now, so you may have read this first part.  Sorry for being such a computer klutz!    Thought some of you might be interested in a brief report on the Reg. 21 spring con-vention that was held this past Sat. and Sun in and around Lincoln, NE.   For a change, it seems, the bloom season co-incided perfectly with the appointed dates, so those in attendance got to see an abundance of iris in every garden.  SDBs were largely gone, tho in a couple gardens we still saw a few, but there were lots of IBs, TBs in full glory, and many Siberians already out as well.  Wonderful!  To add to the enjoyment, some of the gardens were large enough to include a lot of other beautiful landscaping, so there were many perennial beds, shady areas in woods, some splendid clematis in full bloom, and some really imaginative and carefully planned use of landscaping possibilities.  Among the highlights were some local hybridizers' seedling beds or plantings of their registered varieties.  One that drew lots of attention, including from the men who did the judges' training on Sunday, was Gene Kalkwarf's EMERALD SKIES, (Gene lives in Emerald, NE) which is a huge ruffled light sky blue.  We saw it in Gene's garden as well as a number of others, blooming to perfection in each place.    The highlight of the convention was the several hours spent in Varigay Garden of Allan Ensminger, on the edge of Lincoln.  Most of you know the name, as well as some of the introductions, of this man, who's gotten the nickname of "The Wizard of Odds", for his work with variegated iris.  HERE BEGINS THE CONTINUATION.   You may well have things like BATIK,  MORNING SHOW, AZ AP, BLUE EYED BLONDE, SONJA'S SELAH, to name just a few of Allan's things.  Anyway, in the next few months Varigay Gardens will be gone for good, as the property has been sold to a bus line, and the Ensmingers will move.  He is near, if not already, 90, and Gladys is in frail health.  I'm not sure what he will keep, but the huge seedling beds will be no more, so this was the last hurrah for the regional visitors.  We got to see all his seedlings, at different stages of selection, as well as beds of already introduced things mostly Allan's but not all.  In this garden for about 3 hours on Sunday morning and early afternoon we had judges' training as well, led by Abe Feuerstein, Michael Moller and Allan himself.  In three groups we spent time with each one in a different part of the garden, each dealing with a different subject, and at one point we took time for sack lunch in the yard.   It was a marvelous finale to a great regional meeting.    Great flowers, great JT, great people, great weather (sunny and warm lst day; rain storm at night,  partly cloudy and cool on Sunday) for being out in gardens.  Shouldn't close without mentioning that at Saturday night's banquet Allan was presented with his Award of Merit for VAVOOM, a great yellow bitone SDB that we saw in every garden still blooming this late in the SDB season.k*@mtcnet.net 
k*@mtcnet.net 
 
 
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index