WHAT IRISES ARE BEST WORTH GROWING? 
JOHN C. WISTER 
President American Iris Society 
Editors’ Note: When a flower is in its season of bloom is patently the time for the amateur gardener to make selections for his own collection; it is so much 
better to form opinions and place orders from the growing plant than from the printed catalogue descriptions. With this thought in mind The Garden Magazine 
asked Mr. Wister to make a concise presentation of the American Iris Society Symposium on varieties, so that our readers may benefit through having available just 
at the season of bloom this essence of experiment and the rating of the varieties. The Iris, like many other plants, is best divided and propagated immediately 
after flowering; and in his own garden the amateur can be busy with dividing and propagating and with shifting around varieties where necessary any time from now 
on through the summer. 
^MJ^HIS question has been asked by gardeners for many 
Y ears - It h as been answered many times by persons 
competent to speak authoritatively about Iris, but 
each answer has been only a personal opinion. Tastes 
differ, and certain varieties do better in one locality than they 
do in another; so that any individual selection must always 
be taken “with a grain of salt.” 
Fortunately it is no longer necessary to rely upon the opinion 
of any one individual for an answer to the question. The recent 
Symposium of The American Iris Society (May 1922) was 
compiled from the votes of jurors in different sections of the 
country. It is easy enough to pick flaws in the votes given in 
individual cases, but I believe that a thorough study of this 
Symposium will convince any fair minded person that it is the 
most valuable guide in the maze of choosing varieties of Iris 
that has yet been published. 
For the genera! public the list of desirable varieties as given in 
the Symposium can well be shortened by omitting high priced 
and little tested novelties, as well as weak-growing or shy¬ 
blooming sorts. This would cut out such things as Dominion, 
Avalon, Black Prince, Caterina, Mile. Schwartz and many 
other gorgeous things that in spite of their great beauty ought 
not, in my opinion, be recommended to the average gardener 
in the colder sections of the country. It seems wiser also to 
omit reference to varieties so new that they received the votes 
of only a few jurors, and to ignore low-rating varieties. These 
deletions 1 have carried out for the present purpose and so we are 
left with a list which may be recommended without reservation. 
The number of votes given in the American Iris Society’s 
Symposium (See the Society’s Bulletin No 5) is given in paren¬ 
thesis following the name, no variety receiving less than 3 votes 
being included. The “ rating” as accorded by the Society, based 
on the vote, appears in order from highest down. 
The symposium as published gives the detailed votes of the 
jurors and deserves long study from all persons interested in Iris. 
Omissions from the Symposium in selecting the above list are 
made on my own individual responsibility without consulting 
VARIETIES INTRODUCED SINCE 101 
Rating Name 
9.6 Lent A. Williamson 
(19) 
9.4 Ambassadeur (i i) 
Ballerine (5) 
9.3 Souvenir de Mme. 
Gaudichau (18) 
9.0 Queen Caterina (14) 
8.8 B. Y. Morrison (17) 
Shekinah (14) 
8.6 Afterglow (20) 
8.5 Dream (12) 
Medrano (9) 
Merlin (10) 
Sweet Lavender (9 
8.4 W. J. Fryer (7) 
8.3 ..Anne Leslie (17) 
Dimity (10) 
Mme. Cheri (8) 
Rating 
Name 
Seminole (8) 
Sindjkhat (13) 
8.1 
Dora l.ongdon (13) 
Kathryn Fryer (7) 
Sherbert (11) 
Virginia Moore (10) 
7-9 
Barton Harrington f6) 
Mrs. Fryer (8) 
7.8 
Swatara (7) 
7-5 
Fryer’s Glorv (4) 
Syphax (7) 
Zua (18) 
Intermediate Bearded 
8.0 Empress (8) 
Royal (5) 
Rating Name 
7.5- 7.9 Dorothea (18) 
Ingebord (18) 
Prince Victor (8) 
7.0-7.4 Diamond (5) 
Dolphin (6) 
Fritjof (15) 
Halfdan ( 17) 
John Foster (6) 
Walhalla (19) 
Dwarf Bearded 
8.4 Coerulea (12) 
7.5- 8.0 Eclipse (3) 
Statellae (9) 
7.0-7.4 Chamaeiris (9) 
Josephine (4) 
Schneekuppe (14) 
the other jurors and are therefore subject to the same criticism 
about which I complained at the beginning of this article. Cali¬ 
fornia gardeners should at once restore to this list Caterina, 
Junonia, Mesopotamia and others which I have arbitrarily 
omitted. 
For those desiring a shorter list to choose from, the following 
is submitted:— 
50 VERY GOOD LATE TALL BEARDED IRIS 
Afterglow 
Minnehaha 
Ambigu 
Mithras 
Arnols 
Nibelungen 
Nuee d’Orage 
Aurea 
Brionense 
Oriflamme 
B. Y. Morrison 
Othello 
Caprice 
Pallida Dalmatica 
Crusader 
Parc de Neuilly 
Dalmarius 
Perfection 
Dawn 
Pocahontas 
Dejazet 
Prosper Laugier 
Fairy 
Quaker Lady 
Flavescens 
Queen Caterina 
Gajus 
Rhein Nixe 
Her Majesty 
Shekinah 
Flebe 
Shrewsbury 
Iris King 
Thorbeck 
Isoline 
Trojana Superba 
Jacquesiana 
Victorine 
j uniata 
La Neige 
Viola 
Wyomissing 
Lady Foster . 
Lent A. Williamson 
Dwarf Be^ 
Lohengrin 
Lord of June 
Citrea 
Loreley 
Coerulea 
Ma Mie 
Schneekuppe 
Mandraliscae 
Socrates 
Mary Garden 
Standard 
Intermediate and 
Germanica 
Florentina 
Germanica Major 
Helge 
1ngeborg 
Kochii 
Prince Victor 
Royal 
Add to these at least the follow¬ 
ing Tall Bearded novelties intro¬ 
duced before 1920, as soon as 
available 
Bianca 
Corrida 
Cretonne 
Dimity 
Marsh Marigold 
Perry’s Favorite 
Souv. de Mme. Gaudichau 
Sweet Lavender 
Syphax 
Tom Tit 
(Varieties of 1920 and later not 
considered.) 
SELECTION OF STANDARD VARIETIES 
BEARDLESS IRIS 
Rating 
Name 
Rating 
Name 
Rating. Name 
9-5 
Princess Beatrice (9) 
Jacquesiana (23) 
Viola (10) 
Lord of June (20) 
Nine Wells (15) 
7-4 
Aurea (22) 
8 9 
Alcazar (23) 
Sarpedon (10) 
Dr. Bernice (21) 
8.8 
Pallida dalmatica (21) 
Violacea Grandiflora 
Germanica major (5) 
8.7 
Crusader (19) 
(15) 
Hiawatha (12) 
Opera (15) 
7-9 
Albert Victor (21) 
Lewis Trowbridge 
8.6 
Edouard Michel (21) 
Iris King (23) 
(12) 
Isoline (23) 
Loreley (23) 
Mme. Chereau (21) 
8.5 
Lady Foster (17) 
Parisiana (19) 
Purple King (17) 
8.4 
Anna Farr (17) 
7.8 
Arnols (20) 
Queen of May (22) 
Kashmir White (12) 
Dawn (14) 
7-3 
Albicans (9) 
Monsignor (22) 
Eldorado (22) 
Her Majesty (23) 
Quaker Lady (22) 
Jeanne d’Arc (19) 
Mandraliscae (17) 
Rhein Nixe (22) 
Kochi (22) 
Nibelungen f2o) 
Troost (8) 
Mary Garden (18) 
Windham (18) 
8.3 
Ambigue (n) 
Minnehaha (13) 
7.2 
Princess Victoria 
Archeveque (22) 
Odoratissima (8) 
Louise (20) 
Corrida (10) 
Oriflamme (21) 
Wyomissing (21) 
Dejazet (11) 
Perfection (22) 
7-1 
Celeste (21) 
La Neige (17) 
William Marshall (3) 
Cordelia (18) 
Mercedes (8) 
7 - 7 - 
Pocahontas (12) 
Germanica alba (9) 
Montezuma (12) 
7.6 
Florentina (23) 
Innocenza (21) 
Prosper Laugier (22) 
Mrs. Alan Gray (22) 
Petit Vitry (6) 
White Knight (17) 
Nuee d’Orage (19) 
7.0 
Flavescens (23) 
8.2 
Delicatissima (13) 
Princess Roval (7) 
6.5-6.9 
Brionense (10) 
Lohengrin (23) 
Sherwin-Wright (22) 
Gagus (19) 
8.1 
Juanita (22) 
Thelma Perry (5) 
Gertrude (10) 
Ma Mie (20) 
7-5 
Atlas (5) 
Lord Grey (16) 
Neptune (8) 
Caprice (17) 
Mary Minnanelle (9) 
Parc de Neuilly (19) 
Dalmarius (20) 
Mrs. H Darwin (68), 
Stamboul (12) 
Fro (18) 
(22) 
Trojana (13) 
JV&thras (15) 
Mrs Neubronner (16) 
8.0 
Col. Dandelot (12) 
Pauline (15) 
Othello (20) 
Dalila (16) 
Queen Alexandra (22) 
Rose Unique (20) 
Fairy (22) 
Shrewsbury (10) 
Thorbecke (20)! 
In choosing Beardless Iris we have no Symposium to use as a 
basis, but the task is not as difficult because (with the excep¬ 
tion of the Japanese Iris) there are not so many varieties. 
In the Sibirica groups the average gardener can select from 
Distinction, Emperor, Lactea, Orientalis, Perry’s Blue and 
Snow Queen. In the Spuria group Lilacina, Aurea, Monspur, 
and Ochroleuca are representative and sufficient. 
The varieties of Japanese Iris (I. Kaempferi) are endless in 
number and hopelessly mixed. Until the confusion in nomen¬ 
clature is straightened out it will be wiser for the gardener to 
order plants by color rather than by name. In many nurseries 
stocks of the choicer varieties are very scarce this year. 
Representatives of the other groups of Beardless Iris are to be 
found, apparently, in only a few American nurseries, and this is 
true also of Bulbous Iris. 
May I take the occasion to say that during the last few years 
The Garden Magazine has published many articles about the 
Iris, and has greatly helped the Iris Society in making the Iris 
more popular; and we hope it will continue to urge the good 
qualities of this lovely flower. 
243 
