historic iris, heirloom iris

You are by-no-means ALONE! It's just sad that there are not some backbones within the authority figures. Things like this infuriate me.

I admit I'm not real knowledgable about history and my husband watches the history channel all the time and it drives me crazy cause I'm not interested. That has nothing to do with my regard for preserving history. It doesn't matter if I am interested in a particular ship or war site or whatever; the fact remains that it is historical information and should be preserved. Historical and heritage type plants (or buildings) should be considered in the same way. In fact they should receive more attention knowing that something has survived 50 - 100 years or so. It is amazing now-a-days that something can survive that long with the enormous changes in atmosphere, environment, and weather. Respect should be received.

My husband LOVES watching the History channel and also the Military channel drives me crazy!!! he says someone has to keep an eye on the Nazi's. We have zoning laws but there hard to keep up with, you just don't expect that people will do what they do. And quite frankly you can't beat money because with money comes their entorage of people to clear thier way around anything.Like I said one good Hurricane!!! Thins the herd.And yes I'm very bitter of what the Cape is looking like, historic homes are torn down all the time even with the zoning laws they always find someway around it. This boom happened in the 1980s then recession in the 90s couldn't give away these huge houses and now after 5yrs of craziness its happening again.Eventually they'll be no land left. Makes me sad. Well thats my 2cents worth.Heidi

crazyplanter: Is there some support for saving the Cape. Sounds like you need to organize and get to the zoning board before the buyers do. I tried to open a nursery here specializing in heritage plants. I didn't realize until after 2.5 years, that the town bullies were blocking it, and the zoning board could not do anything without standing up to them. I lost.

I used to live in Santa Barbara, CA. It seemed to me they had a very strong preservation ethic to maintain the Spanish heritage of the town. I don't know what it looks like now--how effective they were in the end.

Maybe we should learn from the tree-huggers tactics. Strap ourselves to the relics of our heritage and try to save it--invite the local tv station.

Yes there seems to be alot of support and the zoning laws are slowly catching up,hopefully before all is lost.Oh well I thank you for letting me vent.Good luck to you gloria125 and your fight.

Crazyplanter: Good luck to you in yours!

We are lucky in Iowa--too far away from most cities and weather too extreme for most of the "trophy homes" people. Still too many of them around as far as I'm concerned! We like our uncluttered backroads and simple little towns. My Dh and I can ride for 1/2 hour on a back road on the Harley and not see a single car--just barns and farm houses and fields. Still looks like a Grant Wood painting in most areas.

And Ive seen your photos of your iris. It sounds so peaceful! Actually, I live in a peaceful little town in Alabama. But it has been infested by a clique obssessed with undermining the State's business. They think they are "saving money" by mowing away the daffodils, iris, and herbiciding roses that were part of the historic landscape. Its only a few people who do this. The real people stay away. To bad, because its their history.

Save money by mowing down history> Someone has their prioities mixed up. We are going a different way in Iowa. We refuse to mow a roadside area, throw down some wildflower seeds & post a sign stating it is a "prairie reclamation project". Saves us all kinds of money on the Iowa highways! LOL

well I left out some steps of logic in there Mow the historic plants away, then she can't spend state money on a groundskeeper who can tell the difference between plants and weeds. Priorities still mixed up. Our highway department planted some wildflowers, but didn't know what to do with them. Mowed them away. Oh. Well. Maybe the solution is to just plant so many flowers that they finally get the message (!). Merry Christmas, Wanda. I irises I got from you are putting out little babies.

Good! Love to hear that my iris are good "mothers". hmm. Just counted my historics--looks like I have almost 90 that pre-date 1970. But the ones I really consider old re the dog-eared ones prior to 1950. Some of the colors just kill me. Look at this early Austin : Mulberry Snow 1955. It is so lovely and has "horns"!

WOW. When I first went to work at the historic house there was a little boxwood garden with some some iris planted in the center of the bed. One of the iris was a yellow horned iris. So far as I could tell, this was not an old iris. In fact, I found that it had just been released, by Schreiner, I think. I don't remember the name. The woman who worked at the house before me was a plant breeder--specializing in camellias. But, I suppose she could have belonged to one of those groups who test new releases before they are released. Any how. I thought horned irises were a relatively new invention. Thanks for sharing that beauty with us!

Actually, Mulberry Snow hitch-hiked it's way into my garden with "Rhages" from Tazzy's garden. She had to go back 8 years to see when it had bloomed last in that bed. Tazzy thought it had died!

Oh. My. What a beauty. Why that little sneak, Mulberry Snow. It knew where the pastures were greener! I would like to put dibs on those two when you are ready to divide them.

Wandasflowers:

Did you know about the Trail of Tears iris?

http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=3007885

Thought you guys might enjoy some other historics
this is Gypsy Queen Salter 1859

Honorabile Lemon 1840
Source of many sports

This is one of the sports
Kaleidoscope Katkamier 1929

PS no two petals are the same

This message was edited Dec 20, 2006 7:41 AM

Faustine Lemon 1859

Amas Foster 1885

Crimson King Barr 1893

I. Albicans Lange 1860
Collected species from Arabia

Loreley Goos/Koenemann 1909

Romeo Millet & Fils 1912

Pocahontas Farr 1915
This one and another call Mme Chereau Lemon 1844 are nearly identical

Wabash - Williamson1936 Dykes Medal 1940
A great iris

What a lovely group of historics! Is your Amas always that blue? And I've never seen Kaleidoscope before. What wonderful broken color. Looks like a retro version of the new Kaspareks.

The Trail of Tears iris looks so modern in the picture. I would have thought it would have been I. Albicans or I. Florentina. The story is wonderful. I wonder if the picture is right.

Google came up with a Texas species iris of "Trail of Tears": http://facstaff.hsc.unt.edu/rbarton/Iris/hexas/I_brevicaulis.html

avmoran: WOW. You have inspired me to fill out my historic iris section. Do you have a source for these?

Wandasflowers: It makes sense that the Trail of Tears would be a native american species. Good research! Those little irises would be a lot earlier than the Germanic iris wouldn't they?

Speaking of historics, hasn't anyone purchased from Blue Bird Haven? According to the issue of ROOTS I just received they have over 1600 cultivars over 30 years old. But no one has rated them in Garden Watchdog.

This is Argus Phesant Deforest 1948

Blue Doll Warburton 1958 MDB

Bright White Welch 1958 MDB

Copper Strike Witt 1968

Golden Alps Brummitt 1952

Golden Forest Hutchison 1958

Golden Russet Hall 1945

Happy Days Mitchell 1934

Headlines Brummitt 1959

Argus Phesant Deforest 1948, Copper Strike Witt 1968, and Headlines Brummitt 1959; Fabulous.

By any chance, do you have; Pink Lace 1945, Native Dancer 1954, or Tahiti Sunrise 1963 you could post pictures of?

Sorry I do not have any of those.......yet LOL
How ever how about
Helen McGregor Graves 1946

Night Owl Schreiner 1970