Showing posts with label Ron Killingsworth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ron Killingsworth. Show all posts

Monday, February 24, 2020

Some Louisiana Irises

By Ron Killingsworth


Louisiana Iris 'Adell Tingle'

The real Adell Tingle surrounded by the
irises that she loved
Adell Tingle’ (Hutchins, B 2006 LA) was the first iris we produced from hybridizing.  It was named for my mother’s sister, Aunt Adell.  Adell attended many Louisiana iris conventions and was an expert on plants native to Louisiana.  







Clump of Louisiana Iris 'Her Highness'
This picture shows a large clump of ‘Her Highness” (Levingston 1957 LA) growing near a pond we use to raise crawfish.  ‘Her Highness’ is a collected i.giganticaerulea, one of the species of Louisiana irises.

Louisiana Iris 'Fringed Gold' and others near Koi Pond
We grow Louisiana irises in dug beds, raised beds, along the edge of the lake, around the edge of ponds and mixed in with other plants.  These irises (mostly ‘Fringed Gold’ (Shepard, DL 1992 LA) are growing near the Koi pond and are watched over by two large long legged cranes. The home of my sister, Bobbie Ann (a nutritionist), and brother-in-law, Stan, is in the background.  Stan was born and raised on Long Island, NY, but when they retired (a gastroenterologist) he wanted a “southern plantation home”.  We could find the home and we could find the location, but never could find both together.  They finally bought 21 acres on Caddo Lake and built the double gallery home you see in the background.  We all call it the “Big House”.

Louisiana iris 'Fringed Gold'
 This is a closer view of ‘Fringed Gold’, one of my favorite Louisiana irises.

Iris.nelsonii - one of the species of Louisiana irises
One of the species of Louisiana iris is i.nelsonii.  This is a clump of that species growing in an area we call the “deer meadow”.

Louisiana irises growing in edge of "Crawfish Pond"
Louisiana irises love water!  These are some of my seedlings (irises grown from seeds that resulted from hybridizing two irises) that I did not think worthy of further development and planted around the edge of a pond in which we grow crawfish. Every year when they bloom I wonder why I “threw them out”.


Dutch Irises

We also grow Dutch irises, Spuria irises, 
i.pseudacorus, i.virginica and a lot of native plants.  This picture is of a purple Dutch iris in bloom.


Here in NW Louisiana we seldom have snow but are often “blessed” with freezing rain.  Next to my house is a large patch of bamboo.  Sue fights it each year as it tries to expand into her flower beds and yard.  This picture shows ice covered bamboo blocking the road to my house.

Ice covered bamboo
Seed pod from State Flower of Louisiana
Louisiana irises are the official wildflower of the State of Louisiana.  The state flower is shared with several other southern states.  I won’t tell you what the state flower is, but see if you can identify this seed pod from the state flower of Louisiana.

"Naked Ladies" -- Lycoris radiata
Spring around here is full of blooming flowers.    We also have many flowers that bloom in late fall. These fall bloomers are commonly called “naked ladies”, “surprise lilies”, “magic lilies”, “spider lilies”, etc.  The official name is Lycoris and those in this picture, the red ones, are Lycoris radiata.

Spuria irises growing between fruit trees
These are Spuria irises growing among fruit trees.

Louisiana irises in dug beds
This is a nice view of about 100 beds of Louisiana irises located near Caddo Lake and of course irrigated from the lake.

Irises and "hardy glads"
This is a view of a massive planting in what once was a part of our vegetable garden in front of my house, looking toward the Big House.  You can see the purple martin bird houses in the background and to the far left background you can see the top of the green house.

Louisiana irises in "deer meadow"
The bed of irises on the right are mostly species Louisianas and the irises on the left are mostly tetraploid Louisiana irises.  The “creek” in the background is a “water feature” and flows over several small dams and back into Caddo Lake.

Louisiana irises with Caddo Lake in background
Here is another view of Louisiana irises growing in beds with Caddo Lake and bald cypress trees in the background.

 This picture shows several different tetraploid Louisiana irises (mostly named “Professor fill in the blank”) with Caddo Lake and bald cypress trees in the background.

Mass planting of Louisiana irises in front of my house
 This is another view of a massive planting of irises in front of my house.  The Big House is in the background and purple martin "hotels" background on left.


Green house and irises
Here you see the green house, near the Koi pond, with Louisiana irises in the foreground.  The large rocks are sand stone and will be used to create a “water feature” on the side of the Koi pond.

Another group of irises near the pier.


 That’s my house in the background.  You can compare the home of a retired doctor with my home, the home of a retired US Army officer). It is very “southern” with large porches front and rear.  It is cedar sided and up on piers (off the ground).  Never build a house with a basement in Louisiana unless you want a swimming pool under your home!  ‘Hope and Glory’ (Sloan, R 2008 LA) is the iris in the middle, the tall one.

Here is another view of my home and to the right, near the tree covered with English ivy, are some of Sue’s old species Tall Bearded irises.  Since the Louisiana irises are blooming in this picture, the TB’s have probably already bloomed out.

Louisiana irises growing on edge of Caddo Lake
Louisiana irises like water.  Did I mention that?  That does not mean they will not grow with other plants, just don’t grow them with your cacti!  These irises are growing on the edge of Caddo Lake.


This is a view of Louisiana irises in the foreground with i.pseudacorus growing in the background.  The pier leads out to the boat house.


Pictured is another group of Louisiana irises, probably ‘Longue Vue’ (Haymon, D 1999 LA), with the lake and cypress trees in far background.


This pretty view shows Caddo Lake in the very back, the crawfish pond in the middle and a large group of Louisiana irises in the front.  You can see another long iris bed in the left back side of the picture.

Mixed poppies growing with Louisiana irises
 Louisiana irises grow well with other plants.  This pictures shows a large group of various poppies growing in the edge of the iris beds.


This is another view of the irises over by the Koi pond.  They seem to be happy here judging from the size of the bloom stems.  The bridge used to go across to an island in the pond but the Koi undermined the soil around the island until it became too small for the bridge to reach the island.


 The irises in the middle are several of Stan’s tetraploid seedlings.  The large marble fish is a recent addition to the Koi pond and actually “spits” water when working.  The Big House is seen in the background.


It is easy to take pictures when you have so many beautiful things to photograph.  It is hard to find an space around here in which Louisiana irises do NOT grow.

A different but pretty view of the irises with Caddo Lake in the background.


This is the third pond, the catfish pond, with irises growing around the edge.  In the background is a large planting of “Professors”, many of the tetraploid Louisiana irises named by Joe Mertzweiller, who produced many of the first Louisiana iris tetraploids and named them for his professor friends at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.


I told you Louisiana irises grow well with other plants. These are mixed in with various trees and blooming shrubs.


Just a pretty picture of irises.  I can’t recall the name of this iris.  With over 500 varieties of Louisiana irises, it is difficult to recognize all of them.

"Old Cherokee" Rose blossom
Sue grows a lot of roses.  She has a pretty impressive collection of antique roses.  This one is “Old Cherokee” and has the most beautiful bloom in the spring.  It is a climbing rose and when the petals fall off, they cover the ground like snow.  I think the bloom resembles the bloom of the dogwood tree.

Louisiana iris 'Our Friend Harry' in middle
 I had to have at least one of my irises in these pictures.  This picture of ‘Our Friend Harry’ (Killingsworth, R 2011 LA) was taken by the Koi pond.  I don’t recall the name of the iris on the right.


"Pink Cascade" peach tree
 My sister has planted many different fruit trees around the property.  ‘Pink Cascade’ is one of the varieties of peach tree that produces a beautiful bloom in the spring.

Large poppy blossoms
 We also have quite a few of these large poppies that return each year.  This is the “pink one” and we have another one the same size, but a double, and a more purple one.  We obtained the seeds for these from Marie Caillet of Little Elm, TX.  Marie is no longer with us but each time we see these poppies in the Spring, we are reminded of how much we miss her!


Louisiana iris 'Professor Marta Marie' - a tetraploid
‘Professor Marta Marie’ (Mertzweiller, J 1990 LA) is one of the tetraploid Louisiana irises.  Professor Mertzweiller named most of this first crop of his tetraploid irises for his fellow professors and workers at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.  This one was named for Marta Marie Caillet, who worked and taught in the same department.


The older form of the Louisiana irises remains a favorite to me.  I really like it when the “stands” stand up and the “falls” fall down.  This form is common in the species.  I can’t recall the name of this one but it resembles ‘Dorothea K. Williamson’ (Williamson, E 1918 LA), a cross between i.fulva and i.brevicaulis.

Louisiana iris 'Red Velvet Elvis'
Kevin Vaughn of Salem, OR, lived most of his life in MS and is a well known “weed scientist”.  He hybridized this iris, ‘Red Velvet Elvis’ (Vaughn, K 1996 LA) which won the Mary Swords DeBaillion Medal (MSDM) in 2005.  http://www.louisianas.org/index.php/awards/52-history-of-the-mary-swords-debaillon-medal-by-marie-caillet  The MSDM is the highest award for a Louisiana Iris and is awarded by votes from the official American Iris Society (AIS) ballot voted by AIS judges each year.  This was taken by the Koi pond.

  
As I said previously, we seldom get snow here in NW LA but last year it snowed twice.  This picture, however, was taken after a really heavy sleet storm in February 2015.  The commercial nursery is located on property that was once a summer camp for underprivileged children run by the YMCA.  The cabins in the background were once two girls cabins and two boys cabins.  They are now used for different purposes. You can see the purple martin “hotel” in the right center.  This is the vegetable garden with massive plantings of Louisiana irises to the left.


Spring bloom is always a wonderful time of the year and this shows blooming shrubs and trees in front of the Big House.


My wife, Sue has her own collection of flowers and roses.  This shows some of her roses beside the house with several old species Tall Bearded irises getting ready to bloom.

"Naked Ladies" have a very interesting blossom
 The “surprise lilies” or “naked ladies” are really amazing flowers.  They put out a bloom stalk and bloom and then later the foliage appears.  This close up picture shows the details of the amazing bloom.
Tall Bearded iris 'Royal Invitation'
This part of the country does not lend itself to growing Tall Bearded irises.  It is simply too hot and we have too much rain to please this species of irises.  Sue does manage to grow quite a few Tall Bearded irises by covering the beds with raised plastic sheets during the spring downpours.  This is a picture of ‘Royal Invitation’ (Nichols, H 2009 TB).

Louisiana Iris 'Kristi G'
‘Kristi G’ (Mertzweiller, J 1985 LA) is one of the best “garden” irises we grow.  It is very hardy and has tremendous increase each year.

Sometimes an iris will get an extra burst of growth and stick its head up out of the clump.  This one caught my eye and I just thought it made a nice picture.  There are many beautiful yellow Louisiana irises but I failed to note the name of this one.

Monday, March 25, 2019

Diversity of Color in Louisiana Irises - White irises

by Ron Killingsworth


"The name Iris is derived from a Greek word meaning "rainbow" and is a fitting name for this beautiful family of flowers." (The Louisiana Iris - The History and Culture of Five Native American Species and their Hybrids, an official publication of the Society for Louisiana Irises.)

The pigments of the iris petals create the brilliant colors of irises.  There are many articles and books written on this subject, so feel free to "google" it and learn as much as you desire.  Our discussion today is simply about the wide range of colors to be found in this group of irises.

The color range of Louisiana irises had been greatly expanded by more than 75 years of hybridizing.

This time we will look at the wide variety of shapes and sizes in white Louisiana irises.  White irises must have good substance in order to withstand "washing out" in the hot Louisiana sun.  There are still quite a few white Louisiana irises to be found in the native habitat, especially in south Louisiana, and most likely in the species i.giganticaerulea.

In other postings we discussed other flower colors to be found in Louisiana irises.  Today we look at some of the white Louisiana irises.  Again, different people see color in different ways so you may not find all these irises to be what you consider as "white". Without further discussion, let us jump right into examining some fine examples of white Louisiana irises.
'Acadian Miss' by Charles Arny, 1980.
This is one of the first Louisiana irises to exhibit some ruffling on the edges.  The very first iris to show ruffling was 'Charlie's Michele' (Arny 1969) which was a rose colored iris.  'Charlie's Michele' was the pod parent of 'Clara Goula' (Arny 1975) and the ruffling is quite nice on 'Clara Goula'.  'Clara Goula' was the pollen parent for 'Acadian Miss' and passed some of the ruffling on toe this iris. It is distinguished for other white irises by the ruffling and the bold green style arms.

'Circe Miss' by M. D. Faith 2005
'Circe Miss' resembles 'Acadian Miss' but there is a difference in the two irises.  This one does not have as much ruffling and the signals are somewhat different.

'Clara Goula'
This is not a great picture of 'Clara Goula' and again you can see the resemblance of the progeny.

'Cotton Plantation' by Mary Dunn 1994
This is an example of a bloom that has recently opened.  Below is an example of blooms that are a few days old and you can see how the petals re-curve somewhat in the picture below.

'Cotton Plantation'
If you have even been in a cotton field just before picking time, the cotton bolls do resemble this iris.

'Danza' by J. C. Taylor 1986
This iris tends to be more "light yellow" when first opened but fades to a pleasing white that can stand up to hot weather.

'Dural White Butterfly' by J. C. Taylor 1989
This is one of the "famous" white irises and it has been used in many hybridizing attempts/successes.  It is registered as "White self", no further description.  Again you can see the characteristics of the parents back to 'Charlie's Michele'.

'Her Highness' by Levingston 1957
This is a collected i.giganticaerulea alba and is one of my favorite white irises in the old open form.  We have a huge patch of this iris and it puts on quite a show every year.  It won the Mary Swords DeBallion Award in 1959, the highest award most Louisiana irises will ever win.


'Ice Angel' by A. Faggard 1988
Registered as "white, diamond dusted icy blue" and a great description of this iris, another of my favorites.  When it first opens, the area near the style arms dust in fact have a dusted icy look.  The pinkish blush also sets it apart for other white irises.

'Ice Magic' by J. C. Taylor 1991
A lot of Taylor's white irises have 'Helen Naish' (J. C. Taylor 1979) as one of the parents (pollen parent in this case).  'Helen Naish' has 'Clara Goula' as the pod parent.

'Inez Conger' (Charles Arny, 1973)
The real Inez Conger lived in Arcadia, LA, and raised many irises back in the 1950-70 time frame.  Her son, Sidney Conger, hybridized many Louisiana irises.  This one is registered as "white self, large orange signal" as if you paid the registration fee based on the number of words in the description!

'Lime and Soda' by Peter Jackson 2010
It is registered as "stands and falls soft lemon".  Perhaps this is a picture of a bloom a few days old and has faded to a pleasing white with a yellow blush.  I bet you could trace the parentage back to one of the famous white irises.

'Longue Vue' by Dorman Haymon 1999
Dorman named this iris for Longue Vue Home and Gardens in New Orleans.  It has 'Dural White Butterfly' for the pollen parent.  This is one of the most well know white Louisiana irises.

'Longue Vue'
Another nice picture of 'Longue Vue'.

'Marie Dolores' by Dorman Haymon 1986
Another fine example of a white Louisiana iris, this one with cream colored style arms and nice signals.  The registration says it has "pronounced sweet fragrance" but I have seldom found a Louisiana iris with fragrance.  I must check it out next year if I can simply remember to do so!

'Miranda Leigh' by Rusty Ostheimer McSparrin 2001
A very nice white iris that won the Caillet Cup in 2009.  It grows pretty short for me but really puts on a show during bloom season.

'Monument' by Mary Dunn 1977
The pod parent is 'Charlie's Michele' and the pollen parent is 'Ila Nunn' (Arny 1967), a pretty light yellow, registered as white, which I assume pleasingly fades to white.

'Starlite Starbrite' by Marvin Granger 1985
No, I did not misspell the name.  Marvin hybridized quite a few of the "cartwheel" form and this is by far one of my favorites.  It will win you a nice ribbon on the show table. It has all falls and no stands.

"Sylvarena' by Jeff Weeks 2010
A very nice iris that will catch you eye during bloom season.  It has 'Exquisite Lady' (A. Owen, 1986) as the pod and pollen parents.  'Exquisite Lady' has a silver rim (halo) on the stands and falls but I see that did not get passed to the progeny.

'Texas Toast' by Joe Mertzweiller, registered by Marie Caillet in 2005 after Joe's death.  It is a tetraploid registered as "cream" but fading to white.

To learn more about Louisiana irises, visit their website here. 
To learn more about all irises, visit the American Iris Society