GREETINGS FOR 1938 
ATMOTHFR CTTA/fA/fFP Another spring is here and another summer is pushing 
AiNUirttK 5UMM11K ^ioig^tly out of the way. My faith that the iris is 
the only perennial perfectly adapted to this climate is rapidly being strengthened 
for if we have winter on April ninth and summer on April tenth, the iris goes 
on growing and blooming serenely. Soon people will be coming here to see the 
iris bloom and I shall be going about other places to see the iris bloom and we 
shall all be rewarded for our efforts for the irises give promise of superb bloom 
though some other flowers and shrubs are looking bewildered and dejected. 
SPRING EXPLOSION there cannot- be a sympathetic relation between 
climate and international politics, and yet this has been 
a spring of peculiar violence. March was warm and humid so that the dwarf 
irises bloomed a week ahead of schedule. Then came a blizzard in early April 
that ruined lilacs and most all other spring flowering shrubs. Quickly the eighty 
degree weather returned making iris blooms spring up like popcorn. 
The heat is bad for tulip bloom but has made this the most flowery April 
I have known as there are dwarf, intermediate and midseason irises all in bloom 
at once. The last blooms of Cyanea, Graminea and Autumn Queen are linger¬ 
ing. In full bloom are Eleanor Roosevelt, Olive White, Southland, Golden 
Cataract, Doxa, Germanica Major, Kochi, Florentina Alba, Zua, Claret Gem 
and Crysoro. A predominance of yellow to make the red tulips very gay. 
Showing a bloom or two to each planting clock are Desert Gold, Grizette, 
Autumn King, Challenger, Moonlight, Michelline Chairraire, Louis Bel, Thais, 
King Midas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Georgia, Cozette, El Capitan, Mme. 
Cecile Bouscant, Snowbound, Alcazar, Clara Noyes, Mrs. E. Harding, Zada (!), 
Benbow, Ballerine, Andrew Jackson, Allan Hoyt, Graymist, Dolly Madison, 
George J. Tribolet, Lohengrin, Julia Marlowe, Naomi, Oriflamme, Le Cor- 
rege and Easter Morn. Compare this to the situation this same time last year 
when, writing the foreword to the 1937 catalog, I described the Crysoro buds 
as “high." Full iris bloom and the issuing of this catalog will coincide this year. 
Bud stems reach up high in all the second year plantings of midseason 
varieties and bloom should come in about a week. In the plantings of late 
varieties and the first year plantings of midseason varieties, the buds are still 
low and bloom should be about two weeks away. Either that or the stems will 
be very short. It looks as if this were going to be one of those years a hybridizer 
prays for; in which dwarfs, intermediates and midseason irises bloom together 
and opportunities for unusual crosses abound. 
•Kjfxy ^T>T-vT^T7o)o xjrMVTi-ko Mr. John Grinter, of Independence, the most dis- 
MR. GRINTER S HONOR t;„g„i^hed of our local hybridizers, has had the 
pleasure of seeing his creation, Missouri, win the Dykes medal for 1937. It is 
an honor that Mr. Grinter has earned through years of devoted, intelligent work. 
The Iris Garden 
DOROTHY STONER 
5674 Goodman Road 
Merriam, Kansas 
