2 
f invite You to Join 
The Ever-widening World-wide Family of Rainbow Garden tris Enthusiasts 
Experience The Thrills of Growing Rare and Exotic Flowers 
From Distant Lands, and of Having Year-round Iris Bloom 
Get the Habit of Ordering New Iris Each Year and You will Always Have Excitement in Store for You 
Special 1954 Offer to Members of 
GARDEN CLUBS (Or Other Groups) 
| make it very much worth your while to get together NOW with your friends in your 
garden club or neighborhood and send all of your orders to me in one envelope. When 5 or 
more people send their orders together, and each person orders at least $10.00 worth, | 
send to each person, a choice mixture of 5 rare ARIL IRIS varieties (Regelias and Onco- 
gelias). This is a special present from me to thank you and your friends for telling your 
other club members about my Iris offerings, and to acquaint you with ARIL Iris this Aril 
Iris year. These free Iris are in addition to the PREMIUMS, SURPRISE GIFTS and other 
Iris offered elsewhere in this catalog. 
When | make it as easy as that you can hardly afford to pass up the opportunity. If you 
do not yet belong to your local garden or Iris club, it'll pay you to join and take advantage 
of this offer. The offer must, necessarily, be cancelled when | run out of Aril rhizomes, so 
get your club going on this right away! Additional catalogs for garden clubs are 25¢ each, 
5 for $1.00; 12 for $2.00. If it is not feasible for you to join a garden club, | will permit you 
and your neighbors to go in together and reap the benefits of this offer. 
EXTRA SPECIAL 
If 10 to 20 people send their orders together, under the above offer, | send as a special 
SURPRISE GIFT, one rhizome of a wonderful new $10.00 Iris, of my selection. You can 
draw straws for this, and mark which order is to get it. pay 
| anticipate that this is going to be a Garden Club year, as well as an Aril Iris year, for 
| expect a large part of my 1954 orders will come in 5 to 10 to an envelope, from members 
of the many thousands of garden clubs throughout the country. Be sure YOUR club gets 
its order in to me before my supply of free Arils is exhausted. | have the world’s only large 
supply of Arils, but an offer like this may deplete the supply very rapidly. 
You Need My RAINBOW IRIS MANUAL 
Both Manual and Supplement offered on next page. 
Since | offer such a wide variety of Iris of 20 distinct types, and having somewhat different 
cultural requirements, there has arisen a persistent demand for this comprehensive new 
MANUAL adequately covering the whole subject. In spite of the diversity of types of Iris, 
their culture is remarkably simple and easy to understand, as I have grouped them all 
under three general cultural procedures, with only minor special consideration in the 
handling of specific types. 
| have brought together for you in concentrated, verified form, a summary of my own 
accumulated experiences and those of many of my customers in dozens of different states. 
To this has been added valuable information from well over 100 books, bulletins and 
articles on Iris growing and hybridizing. In this way you can have practically everything 
you need to know, instantly available in one place without extensive searching, and without 
the expense of buying many different reference works. Included, for example, is various 
material directly from two of the most significant of all published works on Iris, namely, 
W. R. Dyke’s ‘“‘Handbook of Garden Irises’ and his monumental work ‘‘The Genus Iris.” 
The latter is valued, when obtainable, at about $100 a copy. 
The second half of this 44 page booklet covers all phases of hybridizing from planning 
your crosses to the techniques for pollinating, seed collection and seed sowing —for Tall 
Bearded Iris and also the many Unusual Iris offered in this catalog. Among the many sub- 
jects covered are these: Varieties recommended as parents in breeding for 26 specific 
objectives; How to synchronize blooming periods; Chromosome numbers; Mendelian in- 
heritance; Ways to increase your sets. 
You Also Need My SUPPLEMENT To The Manual 
In a field as subject to constant development as Iris culture and hybridizing, no publica- 
tion can remain wholly complete and up-to-date for very long. Hence | propose to issue, 
from time to time, a series of SUPPLEMENTS to my MANUAL to provide you with latest 
information on various subjects of vital interest. The following partial outline will give a 
a good idea of the comprehensive contents of Supplement No. 1. 
I—PLANNING YOUR IRIS GARDEN: Utilizing all types of Iris; harmonious color group- 
ings; charts of blooming seasons and heights. 
1i—CULTURE OF ARILS: Promising new cultural techniques. 
HHI—IRIS EXHIBITION: How to stage an Iris show, exhibit Iris and win prizes. 
IV—IRIS HYBRIDIZING: Speeding seed germination; best kinds for parents. 
Send Living Gifts That Grow and Increase 
MY HELPFUL GIFT ORDER SERVICE 
FOR BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES, MOTHER’S DAY, FATHER’S DAY, ETC. 
Unlike nearly all other gifts that you might send to express your sentiments, those for 
the garden grow and increase, and become ever more beautiful with the passing of the 
years. So when you are wondering what to give gardening friends, why not take advantage 
of my helpful GIFT ORDER SERVICE. Note simple instructions at top of order blank. Gift 
Iris serve for years as reminders of your thoughtfulness. Please note season when different 
items may be shipped, summer or fall. | furnish a gift card unless you wish to supply your 
own. 
IT’S EASY TO ORDER BY MAIL 
It’s simplicity itself to just list the varieties you want and their prices on my handy 
blue order blank. Please enclose remittance with your order. For your convenience | accept 
personal checks or postal or express money orders made out merely to Rainbow Gardens. 
Currency is 0. K. on small orders. No. C. 0. D.’s please. | acknowledge your order when 
received, unless to be shipped very soon. 
ORDER EARLY. As explained under “SHIPPING” in the different sections, most Iris 
are shipped all through the summer and fall, but some kinds only in the fall. They may 
be ordered at any time, but I strongly urge that you order very soon after this catalog 
reaches you, since the choicest items, that you particularly desire, may be sold out if you 
wait. Hundreds of people order by AIR MAIL to insure getting everything they want. | am 
nearly always able to fill such orders in full. When ordering after July 15 it will help to write 
the word “Alternates” under the list of varieties ordered, or on a separate sheet, and give 
a few varieties with appropriate prices that we can substitute if sold out of any you ordered. 
EARLY DELIVERY. If you desire early delivery, send your order by AIR MAIL, and 
within a few days of the time my catalog reaches you. Please don’t wait until | have two 
or three thousand orders on hand, and then expect that your order can easily be put in 
ahead of the many orders that were rushed to me from all over the United States. Normally, 
about % of our year’s orders are received in the spring, and shipped out in rotation in the 
order received, during July and August. Later orders are normally shipped from August to 
October. Certain Iris require fall shipment and these are sent as soon as ready for trans- 
planting. 
SPECIAL SHIPPING DATES. My new low prices and generous Premiums and Gifts 
are based on digging and shipping orders in large batches in regular sequence, as received. 
A special shipping date for an individual order necessitates that it be dug and shipped 
separately, at a much higher cost. So if circumstances require that your Iris be sent at a 
special date, please add 10 to your remittance and we will handle your order individually. 
LETTERS AND NOTES should not be put on your order, but on a separate sheet bear- 
ing your full name and address. 
Orders under $6.00 will usually be sent in one shipment, summer or fall as soon as all 
are ready for shipping. 
Orders received after November Ist are ordinarily filled at the very beginning of the 
next shipping season, that is, in early July. The shipment of Iris during the winter is difficult 
and expensive, so if rhizomes are wanted during November, December, January or Feb- 
ruary, | make a 10% extra charge for handling. No shipments made during active growing 
and flowering period from March 1 to June 30. 
“TYPE OF IRIS’ Column on Order Blank 
It is a big help to us in filling your order if you mark the TYPE of Iris for each variety on 
your order, though this is not necessary if you do not have the time. The easiest way is to 
just use these simple abbreviations and ditto marks where several of one type are grouped 
together: A= Autumn Bloomer; Bo = Border: D = Dwarf; 1 = Intermediate; L = Louisi- 
ana; N = Native, Western; Od = Oddity; O = Onco; Ob = Oncobred; Og = Oncogelia; 
R = Regelia; Rb = Regeliabred:; $i = Siberian; $p = Spuria; $t = Stylosa; TB = Tall 
Bearded, both main section and Novelties; Ta = Table; W = Winter Bloomer. 
Ironclad 3-Point GUARANTEE 
To Safeguard All of My Iris Friends 
My Iris business has been built very largely on a great many repeat orders. | make 
every effort to please you with each and every shipment | send to you. And my 3-point 
guarantee gives you complete confidence that you will get good stock and receive fair treat- 
ment every time you order. 
CONDITION ON ARRIVAL —!| personally supervise the selection of the choice rhizomes 
and bulbs with which to fill your order. Each shipment is expertly packed. So | can guar- 
antee that my stock will reach you in good condition, and that you will be pleased with 
what | send you. If any items are ever damaged by improper handling enroute to you, or 
are otherwise unsatisfactory upon arrival, please report within 10 days, so that | can make 
it right with you. 
TRUENESS OF STOCK-—| go over my entire garden every blooming season to make 
sure that every row is 100% true to name. So it is extremely unlikely that you will ever 
receive from me an untrue rhizome or bulb. But, if through some error, a variety does not 
turn out to be what it is labeled, write me about it soon after it first blooms, preferably 
when you are sending in your next order. Then, | can add a free replacement to your order 
and send it all in one package, which is a big help to me. 
SURVIVAL —I! have such confidence in the high quality of my stock and its proven 
ability to grow anywhere in the United States, that, without knowing anything about your 
conditions, or the care that the plants will get, | guarantee each and every variety you 
order to grow in your garden, to the extent that I will replace, at half price, any that fail to 
survive. The only exceptions are the very few kinds | note as being tender, as these natur- 
ally cannot be guaranteed in cold climates. Please report within one year. If you do so when 
placing your next order, | will send the replacement with your order and pay the postage 
on the whole shipment. 
REFERENCES: Dun and Bradstreet, Bank of America, Placerville, California. 
MEMBER: American Iris Society, British Iris Society, New Engiand Iris Society, Utah 
Iris Society, Northern California Iris Society, El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce. 
1954—The ARIL Year for Everyone 
See Pages 4 to 8 
r * 
32 I have enthusiastic customers in every state and many foreign countries. Read some of their comments on page 34. 
