1949 
Cell’s Jris Gardens 
(Tell Muhlestein, Hybridizer and Introducer) 
691 East 8th North, Provo, Utah 
Phone: 533W 
Forward 
GREETINGS IRIS FRIENDS, 
First let me thank the many hundreds of iris friends and customers for the 
kind expressions of appreciation for my 1948 Catalogue, and of course, for the 
many orders which make this catalogue possible. There were so many letters that 
| was unable to answer all personally, or at the time, so | would like to take this 
opportunity to say, ‘Thanks again for your response as well as the many fine sug- 
gestions which others might enjoy it | should print them in these pages.’ You will 
find some breeding suggestions in this catalogue, again, and | will mention espe- 
cially tine parents among the standard varieties and novelties listed herein. 
| am especially proud of the iris | will introduce this year. They have been 
selected as superior to anything in their various color classes it has been our good 
fortune to grow or see in other gardens. They are not perfect iris, but their quali- 
ties are good. | think the first requisite of quality in an iris is color (beauty), and 
next | consider substance of great importance, for how often we see a beautitul 
flower that melts like snow the minute the hot sun hits it or droops in the first 
light rain. While | like good branching | have come to appreciate varieties with 
less and shorter branching as garden subjects. Varieties with low and wide branch- 
ing may be excellent exhibition flowers, but in the garden the clumps are not 
always attractive for their flowers are often down in the foliage or on the ground 
and wide branches sometimes twist among other branches of a plant giving an 
unsightly appearance to the clump. This is not noticeable, of course, with first 
year plants, but very much so on two or three year old clumps. Some poorly 
branched iris are especially beautiful in clumps for mass effect. The same might 
be said of small-flowered varieties, and these, after all, are unquestionably still 
the most beautiful for cutting and indoor arrangements for the average-sized 
home. 
We hope, again, you will enjoy the pursuit of this catalogue and we hope, 
too, those of you who breed iris to add further beauty to gardens throughout 
the world, will find some helpful suggestions in these pages, for we all learn by 
our mistakes as well as our successes. But even so there is no proven sure-fire 
rule to breeding fine iris. Some ‘'wild'’ cross may give us an unusual break in 
color, something extremely large or heavy substanced. Some hybrids like Wm. 
Mohr, that are notoriously difficult to set seed, will, often, give us a beauty such 
as Elmohr, and surely Elmohr has substance to put either ot its parents to shame, 
so we cannot say, definitely, that a variety with poor substance will produce 
that quality in its children, although we can expect some of its grandchildren to 
inherit this poor substance. 
Again let me say Thanks for your many good letters and orders. 
Happy irising for 1949 and the years to follow. | am, 
Sincerely, 
TELL MUHLESTEIN 
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