Chis and Chat 
We’ve been taking note of Spring garden pictures, and nie we may be prejudiced, 
still it would seem that gardens showing Iris, if only by way of accent, are much more 
attractive than those without. Nothing else seems to point up the garden — or the 
picture — as well. Check on this, and see if you agree. 
January of this year established something of a record for lowest temperatures and 
most snow in Oregon. Luckily for us, no doubt, the snow completely covered the Iris all 
during the below-zero period. Soon as the snow melted, the plants started to grow as 
though given a special tonic! 
Many remarked last year that the planting looked so healthy and clean. It keeps us 
busy, as we do most of the work ourselves, with only occasional help in the early Spring. 
Is it any wonder we are sometimes late in answering correspondence, although we do enjoy 
all of the good letters we receive. More often than not, the orders come as part of a newsy 
letter, sometimes with a “P.S.” that the writer does not expect a lengthy reply during the 
busy season. We enjoy Iris throughout the year, one way or another. 
Including the Koda slides sent to us, a “must have’ now, is a camera. We've been 
leaving the picture-taking to others, but have been rather embarrassed by having to write, in 
answer to inquiries, that we do not have a Kodaslide collection to loan. Have only a few 
good ones, furnished by kindly folk who have visited here. It is our idea to get a camera 
that will do everything except, perhaps, walk around and select its own subjects. That way, 
we will probably waste less film. And we do hope to discover how one of the things can 
go on a binge and picture a Lady Mohr with a bright tangerine beard! 
This may prove to be a (comparatively) dull season after all the excitement of 749. 
It will help, if some of the Iris folk do return this year, as they’ve written that they hoped to. 
Will have Helen Coilingwood, Heritage, Melody Lane, Pinnacle, Peg Debaugh, Cherie, 
Pink Sensation, some new Tompkins seedlings, and the first introductions from the new 
hybridists, Joyce and Walter Button, to bloom this year. 
Noted a black-and-white of Helen Collingwood in the English Year Book. Have only 
six issues of this book, beginning with 1944, but look forward. to more of them. Also 
received an interesting reprint from the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 
(compliments of H. J. Randall) in which Zantha, Mary Vernon, New Snow and Patrice 
were shown, full page. 
New Snow can really be beautiful. As also Snow Flurry, its parent. And Purissima, a 
parent of Snow Flurry. After all these years, Purissima showing in such fine new varieties,— 
even as one of the parents of the most recent Dykes Medal winner, Helen McGregor. 
Intriguing. 
Was rather pleased to see four plicatas among the American varieties selected for trial 
at Wisley in 1949. Blue Shimmer, Firecracker, Minnie Colquitt, ands Patrice 
Also enjoyed the Region I Bulletin for December, in which the Iris connoiseurs were 
asked to list their favorite three, with reasons for the selection. Only one variety (Distance ) 
appeared twice. And only three were varities listed in the top forty of the Tenth Symposium. 
(New Snow, Cascade Splendor and seit ai a), 
And now, returning to Oregon, where we anticipate a “pink season.” With David Hall's 
new ones being here; and all those that should appear in the hybridist’s seedling rows! 
For instance, my newest plot is pink. And all those that did not bloom in ’49 surely should 
this year. Will attempt to pick the “best pink.” Or “top dozen!” And will qualify that to 
read,—as of here. Cannot include all which may be seen across the U. S. and Canada! 
Wonder how many there are. 
Quite often a request is received, that “the best” variety in each color class be checked 
in the catalog for the convenience of the customer. While we are always willing to help, 
such requests are perplexing! 
And speaking of convenience, we are tempted, at times, to move our planting to a 
location more accessible to visitors. For US, of course, it’s just right. Soil especially 
suited to growing Iris; a south slope; good water, and out of reach ar the valley floods. 
And we like being “back in the hills.” Not as far, perhaps, as the two boys who were 
bragging,—one that his folks lived so far back in the hills that they’d never had a clock, 
and the other that his folks lived so far back they had to pipe the daylight in! 
And that will be about all from here at this time! From now on, we hope to hear 
from YOU: 
