236 
The Garden Magazine, June, 1921 
THE POND AT WELLESLEY FARMS 
This little Massachusetts roadside pond offers a congenial natural 
setting for Miss Sturtevant’s experimental work with Iris 
Mr. B. Y. Morrison has made the little suburb outside of 
Washington, where he lives, a veritable Iris paradise. Neigh- 
bor after neighbor has been inspired to plant Iris, and a few of 
them have even combined with him to plant Iris instead of 
grass in the strip between the sidewalk and. the curb for a 
distance of several hundred feet on one of the streets. Yearly 
Iris Shows have been held under the auspices of the Town 
Improvement Society, at which he has offered plants of the 
newer varieties as prizes. It is a striking illustration of what 
one energetic man can do in a community. Mr. Morrison’s 
w'ritings have made him well known in garden circles, but few 
of his many friends know of the work in breeding which, 
inspired by the success of Miss Sturtevant, he has been carrying 
on. He has only a few varieties, but these are the very finest, 
and breeding among them has been going on now for several 
years. 
In the last three years the American who has sent the most 
varieties into the trade is W. E. Fryer of Mantorville, Min- 
nesota. Mr. Fryer tested more than five 
hundred named varieties in his severe 
climate, and finding many of them below 
his expectations, he set about raising 
seedlings, of which he has named forty 
or fifty. One of his newest varieties, 
“Magnificent,” secured an Honorable 
Mention at the Minneapolis Iris Show 
last year. 
Bobbink & Atkins of Rutherford, N. 
J ., also have raised a number of seedlings, 
notably one variety — Wanaque. 
Mr. E. B. Williamson, a banker of 
Bluffton. Indiana, who divides his spare 
time between collecting dragon flies and 
hybridizing Iris, has introduced only a 
few varieties, but of such high quality as 
to make him immediately famous. His 
garden is smaller than Miss Sturtevant’s 
or Mr. Morrison’s; in fact it is nothing 
but a small town back yard, probably not 
fifty feet square, but there is not a blade 
of grass or a plant of any kind except 
Iris, grown in straight rows in raised beds 
with wooden sides, and narrow paths be- 
tween. Finding this garden not big enough, his Iris began to 
overflow into the back yards of neighbors; so that now all over 
Bluffton behind or between houses one comes upon Iris planted 
and cared for by him. 
Mr. Williamson has grown many thousands of seedlings. 
Some years ago he was particularly struck with the fine 
blooms of one of the Asiatic species in his garden and set about 
using it for breeding, crossing with it nearly every other variety 
there, and making more than 500 distinct crosses in two 
different years. Of them all only one produced a pod of seed, 
and from this seed grew the Iris, Lent A. Williamson, intro- 
duced in 1918 and springing, as it bloomed in the gardens of other 
Iris enthusiasts, into sudden fame. Unlike most plants which 
start at a high price and become cheaper every year, this 
variety has steadily risen in value until to-day it is hard to get a 
plant of it even at four or five times the original figure. It has 
often been compared to Alcazar and although not exactly 
the same color, it is close enough to entirely replace it, being 
IN FRONT OF MR. MORRISON’S HOUSE 
Openhandedly sharing his delight in Iris, Mr. B. Y. Morrison 
has edged the public walk with this favorite flower, inspiring 
his neighbors to do likewise until the little suburb (Takoma 
Park, Md.) has become “a veritable Iris paradise” 
DR. KENT’S BACKYARD, NEWARK, N. J. 
Ceaseless demands upon his time, for he is a 
physician as well as an Iris enthusiast, have not 
prevented Dr. George Kent from raising a num- 
ber of very pretty seedlings in his tiny backyard 
