GREETINGS FOR 1948 
“Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote, 
The droughte of March hath perced to the rote’ 
(Chaucer) 
Even now, as in Chaucer’s time, do April’s showers bring May flowers 
and stir the hearts of garden folk to go on pilgrimages to see what other 
gardeners are growing. Many an intended journey gets no farther than an 
arm chair with a catalog from a garden which it was hoped could be visited. 
We hope that this list can be used as a record of what was seen upon the 
occasion of your visit to A VILLAGE GARDEN. It is located in the Village 
of Warrensburg, nine miles northwest of Decatur, Illinois, on State High- 
way 121. 
Despite the terrible weather of 1947—record rains in April, May and 
June, followed by 72 days of record drought and heat—the plants went into 
the winter in apparently fair condition. During the past year we have 
added many new varieties to our planting. Mr. Fay’s fine new plicata, 
FIREDANCE, is scheduled for competition from RARE MARBLE. DAN- 
UBE WAVE is a fine marine blue and BLUE FRILLS is very nice. We 
also have good reports on STRATOLINER and STRATOSPHERE BLUE 
in this class. New ones for red effect in the garden are MICHAEL BAR- 
TON, PRAIRIE FIRE, MEXICAN MAGIC and the ‘hot’ red CAMPFIRE 
GLOW. There are a number of new purples appearing. PURPLE MOOR 
is one of the finest I have seen and I have good reports on LA GOLOND- 
RINA and CAPISTRANO. The two new amoenas, CHOIR BOY AND MT. 
McKINLEY and the variegatas RED TORCH and THE ORIOLE should 
prove interesting. That fine yellow MATTIE GATES with two very un- 
usual ones, that might be classed as yellow, COOL LEMONADE and GREEN 
PASTURES will be seen here for the first time. 
There will also be a number of guests which are to be admired only. 
We do understand that AFAR in the pink class and CHARLES GERS- 
DORFY a fine new variegata blend will be offered by Schreiners this year. 
RED WAVES and VELVET MANTLE are two reds that I admired last 
year. LEADING LADY is said to be rather an unusual combination of 
white and yellow and we feel sure that the chance to compare BLIZZARD, 
CHOCARUA aand FAUGHT 77J3 with some of the whites now on the 
market will prove interesting. We know you will want many of the numbered 
seedlings which are being tested for a number of the hybridizers and we 
hope you will like the— 
NEW INTRODUCTIONS 
In the spring of 1945 I made a vi sit to the garden of Miss Eva Faught 
at Carbondale, Illinois. It was a typical day for visiting an iris garden. 
it had rained hard during the night and continued to do so during the day. 
I was very much impressed with the weather resistance of many of the 
seedlings that I saw there. As it was prior to the peak of the season, many 
varieties were yet to bloom, and later in the summer Miss Faught sent some 
of these for trial asking that I pay special attention to their hardiness. 
With no more care than is given any newly planted variety these have prov- 
ed hardy with one or two exceptions. When these iris bloomed in 1946 I 
thought that two of them were the best blue iris I had seen, In spite of 
their ancestry (See The AMERICAN IRIS SOCIETY Bulletin 105, P. 38) 
they are perfectly hardy. I have now grown them for three years and, 
