1950 
Cell’s Jris Gardens 
TELL MUHLESTEIN, Hybridizer and Introducer 
691 East 8th North -- Phone 533-W 
PROVO, UTAH 
FOREWORD 
CREBIINGS, IRIS FRIENDS: 
Well, it's that time again! Time to ‘'drool'' over new catalogues, or some 
long-anticipated variety that has at last come within one's financial means. Or 
is this the time things take on a ''dream-world'' influence and one's being seems 
to be litted out of commonplace things—the heart seems to beat a little faster, 
one's blood courses through a tingling body that can neither sleep nor stay the 
waking hours trom the beauty about to unfold—revealing old friends whose virtues 
and faults are accepted with the greatest of pleasure. Wild, or mad insanity? 
Who knows? Who cares? | doubt any of our clan would change one minute of 
it (save, at times, the weather), and we are never tree of this disease, not one 
season of the year, for even after bloom is gone we are busy transplanting, dream- 
ing new color-combinations—new symphonies to play with our ‘colorful musicians’; 
and for those who hybridize there is constant vigil over seed pods, beds of seed- 
lings, and for all of us a winter of dreams; and nights, again with all the catalogues. 
Then comes spring and sheer nostalgia fills the air. And who among us has not 
thrilled to the sight or feel of the first ‘fattened fan'' which tells us there is 
beauty here in just a short while. Then we feel anew a surge of strength that, 
somehow, sees us through the long hours of cleaning up the garden, the back- 
breaking weeding, watering and ‘feeding’ our subjects. But, enough! 
You'll see I've added a little color to the catalogue this year. This is made 
possible, of course, through the many hundreds of friends and customers we have 
made since 1944 when our first single page list was issued. While | am not a 
big'' grower | try to keep up to date with new varieties so that our listings will 
be interesting to those who like to own the novelties—then, too, since we are 
hybridizing it is good for our judgment to have the new things for comparison 
purposes, and we do have a lot of guests from fanciers all over the world, and 
| will say here these are considered quests and are neither given away, divided, 
distributed, or destroyed without the permission of the hybridizer. It has been 
the practice of those who "‘guest'’ iris to return the clumps intact unless otherwise 
directed by the owner of the stock. | was quite surprised last year, however, to 
have one commercial grower bill me fifteen dollars each for guesting three iris 
for me when | demanded the return of my stock {after growing it for only one 
season) with demand for a cash payment, when | did not give her a plant of my 
one introduction, and she wrote: ''No wonder all the hybridizers say you are con- 
ceited."’ | could not understand this. Even if it were true, and | don't believe my 
friends will agree with such a statement, it wasn't in good taste, regardless. 
Perhaps | was unwise to say that ' Pink Formal’ was a "FABULOUS" iris. But the 
word to me may mean something quite different than it would to you or possibly 
to some other hybridizer. | should have said, “a good step forward," and that 
‘< what it is. And here | am going out on a limb this year with the naming and 
Fae 
