I made many trips to Kathy Allens wonderful garden the last few years of her life. Her plant sale tables were filled with some of the best alpines I have ever seen in a nursery. Just beyond her simple little lathe house where she kept her alpines in tidy little anderson pots, were some raised beds filled with iris. I bought quite a few of the iris she had through those years and while I was almost always after her super dwarf species (which she always had in amazing abundance). I would occasionally grab one of her un named Iris with that oh so familier label Iris sp. I found many good ones, her Iris sp. #4 is a fantastic selection.
Well this one has been floating around the nursery for a number of years, again it was just labeled iris sp. It’s a dwarf bearded with the most amazing crimson raspberry falls, rimmed in bright yellow, with salmon egg glowing beard and small yellow standards. I have searched the world over for a species iris and I can’t seem to find one that matches it. I don’t know if she was actively breeding her dwarf bearded collection at the time or just sowing seeds of her wonderful collection but it produced this fantastic dwarf that is a tribute to her and I’m proud to call it after her.
Like all the dwarf bearded, it’s fantastically tolerant of dry summer conditions, likes full sun and will bloom it’s little heart out. It’s more of a mid season bloomer as well if you like to round out your iris collection. Fantastic Iris for the rock garden as it tops out at around 12”.
We miss Kathy a lot around these parts. I’m glad to be carrying on a bit of the legacy as I recently got her collection of photo’s and notes on her sales plants. It’s an amazing horticultural masterpiece of note taking only a librarian could devise with such exactitude. Thankfully her seed box made it’s way back to Oregon and I’ll hope to be adding more of her treasures to the catalog through the years.
I made many trips to Kathy Allens wonderful garden the last few years of her life. Her plant sale tables were filled with some of the best alpines I have ever seen in a nursery. Just beyond her simple little lathe house where she kept her alpines in tidy little anderson pots, were some raised beds filled with iris. I bought quite a few of the iris she had through those years and while I was almost always after her super dwarf species (which she always had in amazing abundance). I would occasionally grab one of her un named Iris with that oh so familier label Iris sp. I found many good ones, her Iris sp. #4 is a fantastic selection.
Well this one has been floating around the nursery for a number of years, again it was just labeled iris sp. It’s a dwarf bearded with the most amazing crimson raspberry falls, rimmed in bright yellow, with salmon egg glowing beard and small yellow standards. I have searched the world over for a species iris and I can’t seem to find one that matches it. I don’t know if she was actively breeding her dwarf bearded collection at the time or just sowing seeds of her wonderful collection but it produced this fantastic dwarf that is a tribute to her and I’m proud to call it after her.
Like all the dwarf bearded, it’s fantastically tolerant of dry summer conditions, likes full sun and will bloom it’s little heart out. It’s more of a mid season bloomer as well if you like to round out your iris collection. Fantastic Iris for the rock garden as it tops out at around 12”.
We miss Kathy a lot around these parts. I’m glad to be carrying on a bit of the legacy as I recently got her collection of photo’s and notes on her sales plants. It’s an amazing horticultural masterpiece of note taking only a librarian could devise with such exactitude. Thankfully her seed box made it’s way back to Oregon and I’ll hope to be adding more of her treasures to the catalog through the years.
