APPRAISING SOME OF THE NEWER IRISES 



A Silhouette of What's New and Noteworthy as Seen Through the Expert 

 Eyes of the Secretary of the American Iris Society at the Annual Exhibition 



\HE recent exhibition held in conjunction with the third 

 Annual Meeting of The American Iris Society at the New 

 York Botanical Garden on May 27th provided a quite un- 

 usual opportunity for noting the recent developments in 

 Iris culture. It will be remembered that the organization 

 meeting of the Iris society was held January 31st, 1920, at The Garden. 

 Since that date the membership has increased to some six hundred and 

 fifty, and the Test Garden of Bearded Varieties initiated two years ago 

 now contains a good thousand different forms contributed by members, 

 both in this country and abroad. With such a collection at hand, 

 the exhibition, though fine, had a close rival as an attraction to 

 visitors. 



Owing to the abnormal season, the scheduled date was advanced 

 one week and many exhibitors found it impossible to attend, but on 

 the other hand it enabled Washington and Boston growers to compete, 

 in fact, T. F. Donahue won the amateur sweepstake despite this handi- 

 cap of distance. Among the commercial growers John Lewis Childs, 

 Inc., was by far the biggest exhibitor, although there were noteworthy va- 

 rieties in the exhibits of John Scheepers Co., and Cedar Hill Nurseries; 

 and Mrs. Frances Cleveland and Miss Sturtevant showed seedlings to ad- 

 vantage. A vase of Mariposa, an orientalis seedling introduced last 

 year by Mrs. Cleveland, was charming, just a few stalks and leaves 

 rising from a simple holder set on a dull green, wavy-edged plate; and 

 I was glad that Mrs. Robert C. Hill, the judge, should have honored so 

 simple and yet so satisfying a bouquet. The winning vase staged 

 by Mrs. James Montague was equally suggestive of garden combi- 

 nations; Queen of May and Her Majesty for Iris, with Purple Beech, 

 Nepeta Mussini, and dull blue Columbines all pleasantly arranged in 

 a dull greeny-blue pot. It is not often that flowers arranged for indoor 

 decoration can be so happily grown together. 



THE lasting interest, however, lies not so much in the exhibitors as 

 in the flowers exhibited and the showing of many novelties gives 

 me an opportunity to speak in detail of recent progress toward better 

 Irises. Inasmuch as Lent A. Williamson (Wmsn., 1918) has been given 

 the highest score (9.6) in the recent symposium published by the Society, 

 it deserves first recognition and yet as shown it was not typical. I 

 have been interested to hear from Mr. Bliss, the English breeder, that 

 Lent A. Williamson, his own Dominion, and Valkyrie (Sturtevant) 

 possessed very similar fine qualities that suggested similar parentage. 

 The first named is well known and possesses height and a richly colored 

 lavender and pansy-violet flower; while Dominion with its brilliant 

 prune-purple, and Valkyrie, light drab and dark maroon are still rare. 

 All have that intensity and sheen found only as an accompaniment to 

 exceptional substance, a quality that is becoming more indispensable 

 among the newer Irises. Off-hand one would expect that it would 

 not be apparent in the lighter tones, but the old dalmatica, Princess 

 Beatrice, has the same reflecting texture and lasting quality of bloom. 

 Others of the Dominion race have been introduced within the last 

 few years, and we can look forward to many more in the future. That 

 the coloring of this type will be in the deep purples, both red and blue, 

 is sure; that it will give yellows is improbable, though not an impos- 

 sibility-. 



Quite clearly these trace back more or less directly to cypriana, or 

 trojana, and the new Ambassadeur (Vilmorin, 1920) shows similar 

 parentage. It has not quite the intensity in its bronzen tones nor 

 quite the substance, but it has far greater height, wider branching, 

 and, in appearance at least, larger flowers. Whereas Lent A. William- 

 son is a blue-purple dulled with yellow, Ambassadeur is a red-purple 

 lighted by yellow, and among these four top-notch varieties Valkyrie is 

 the only one of distinctly novel color which might perhaps be ex- 

 plained by the fact that its sombre richness needs size to prove at- 

 tracting. 



Another result of progress breeding has been in the clear yellow 

 selfs. Among the old varieties only Aurea, Foster's Yellow, and 

 Sherwin-Wright show complete absence of venation on the falls in all 

 conditions of climate and weather, but these are all low, not over 

 thirty inches at the best, and when we consider the wealth of lavender 

 selfs we appreciate the dearth of similar yellows. This year I have 

 compared yellows galore — Empire (Sturt.); Virginia Moore (Shull); 

 Soledad (Mohr); Mrs. Neubronner, Loie Fuller, (Vaughn); Sunshine 



(Yeld); Topaz (Bliss); Shekinah (Sturt.) — and of them all only two 

 show no traces of the venation which is a sure proof of their variegata 

 origin. Soledad is a trojana seedling without trojana height and this 

 year at least bloomed but shortly after the pale yellow intermediates 

 and revealed their characteristic texture. Shekinah, however, clearly 

 shows its pallida origin, grows a good three feet, and is of a very clear 

 though not intense tone. As an "insider" I might add that there are 

 others of varying shades on the way. At the exhibit Miss Sturtevant 

 was awarded Honorable Mention on two yellows; one a pale pallida 

 with faint veining at the haft; the other, Gold Imperial, of deeper tone 

 and with the glisten that we find in Caterina. It is surprising to note 

 the difference in the effect of a hue on a pallida and a cypriana, the 

 first seems to absorb light, the second to reflect it and give greater in- 

 tensity to the color. 



Among the lavender selfs and bicolors we have already es- 

 tablished a new standard by the introduction of cypriana, mesopotam- 

 ica, and trojana blood. Mile. Schwarts (Denis); Delicatissima (Millet); 

 Ann Page (Hort); Caterina (Foster); and Queen Caterina and Mother 

 of Pearl (Sturt.) are all in the delicate tints of blue- and pink-lavender. 

 That they are all lovely cannot be gainsaid, but they sound much of a 

 muchness to those that do not know them intimately. Crusader and 

 Lady Foster are still among the finest of the lavender bicolors, but are 

 proving rather poor growers in our Eastern gardens and when we con- 

 sider the rival claims of Lord of June and Neptune, Halo, Emir, Sar- 

 pedon and many more we are frankly at a loss. Miss Sturtevant's 

 Jennett Dean, though very pale, is rather of the Halo type and re- 

 ceived an Honorable Mention. 



Among the pinks Dream and Wild Rose (both Sturtevant seedlings) 

 are proving popular, and personally I found much of charm in Pink 

 Pearl (Cleveland). Harriet Presby might be classed with these, but is 

 really deeper in tone, almost as deep as Pauline (Farr), but its unusual 

 height and rampant growth merits the award. Visually we perceive 

 a great difference between these and the claret of Edouard Michel, but 

 in the chart colors there is a close relationship; and insensibly we blend 

 into vivid red-purple bicolors things like Seminole (Farr), which re- 

 ceived an Honorable Mention in 1920 at Philadelphia, and Morning 

 Splendour (Shull), which is even richer and most worthy the Honorable 

 Mention it received this year. Mr. Shull, by the way, brought a 

 number of seedlings from Washington, and his Nimbus, a rich, dull 

 Lent A. Williamson seedling, is worthy of note even though as exhibited 

 it did not receive an award. That Mr. Farr and these other exhibitors 

 from a distance could have shown such splendid blooms in the pink of 

 condition was a constant surprise. 



There is a wealth of new plicatas, chiefly originated by M. Denis 

 and Mr. Bliss. The former's are apt to be veined and of blended tones, 

 flowers of Mary Garden (Farr) type, whereas the latter's are practi- 

 cally all marked with blue. Mme. Chobaut, the standards flushed 

 with a clear bronze, is very fascinating, and Whim, a seedling of Mrs. 

 Mc Kinney's has the same clarity of unusual color, though in away it 

 resembles the more lavender tints of Mercedes. The blended laven- 

 ders frankly do not appeal to me, but among the Bliss seedlings variously 

 marked on white it is hard to choose. Hilda is deep at the throat, 

 Dimity delicate throughout, Camelot a bit bluer, and Princess Toto 

 rather like Hilda; these are only a few, all good if not fine, but I find it 

 difficult to carry their differences in mind from year to year. 



With all this talk of novelties, the variegata class alone shows no 

 conspicuous additions, in fact until the breeders have succeeded in 

 adding trojana height and branching or cypriana size and form I look 

 for few really worthwhile yellow bicolors. 



THIS report is made a vehicle for a talk on varieties, but must end 

 with at least a brief mention of the Annual Meeting. As the 

 President, Mr. John C. Wister, was in attendance at the International 

 Iris Conferences abroad, Vice-President William A. Peterson of Chicago 

 presided. With the change that brought in W. E. Saunders of London, 

 Ontario, as a Regional Vice-President, the 1921 officers were unani- 

 mously reelected. That members had contributed between six and 

 seven hundred dollars for special expenditures was most promising 

 and that a second Bulletin was to be published this year proved ex- 

 cellent news. The dues are $3.00. 



Wellesley Farms, Mass., r. s. sturtevant. Secretary 



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