Hybridizing New Iris Varieties

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This endeavor to hybridize/breed new iris varieties has been a long journey. For me, it is like a painting or any other artwork, just in slow-motion. The man-hours involved in gardening and caring for them, pollinating, collecting seed, planting out seedlings, weeding (AHHH - the godforsaken weeding!), cataloging, photographing, selecting, researching, did I mention WEEDING, is a TON of work - none of which was in my wheelhouse a number of years ago! A big part of hybridizing is the cataloging and record keeping that is involved - I keep actual excel file spreadsheets of plants and seedlings, intricate maps for the plantings, and binders of all the notes etc. for records and evaluation of plants. At this point, I can still remember or look up exactly where each variety came from or was obtained. I also still have a fairly good mental map of where specific plants are located out in the field/garden - it gets worst each year with the additional planting of hundred or thousands of my seedlings and any new varieties I purchase online. 

An indispensable resource has been the American Iris Society's iris database. Here you can look up pedigrees and genetic parentage of many of the newly named or "introduced" varieties of iris being bred by hybridizers around the world. Being meticulous and charting things out pays off when you are constantly trying to improve your approach. It has been much more work than I originally thought. Yet, it is truly rewarding. 

As I've already stated, it is inspiring to wake up in the early springtime morning with anticipation of seeing a brand new flower, that you had a hand in creating, which no one else has ever laid eyes on before. Each day you get to go out to the garden beds and sit down to greet several new cheerful faces. I'm sure I've had conversation with a few - it sounds weird, but in a way they speak back. In a very real sense, if your are looking at a variety that someone has taken the time care for and name, you ARE having a visual conversation of what they saw within the bloom/plant. It was selected for and speaks. Okay,  enough romanticizing.

So...the thrill and excitement is the impetus for this endeavor to make "living art." An added benefit is the incorporation of everything I've learned from growing/breeding iris combining with my art-making. A number of large scale paintings are in mind just waiting to undergo the formality of becoming. I'm just waiting and taking my time. They will come. During the winter months, one year, I'll get around to a few large scale watercolor iris paintings. I've been patient as a painter/artist, happy to learn something new and I've been content getting in the dirt instead of the paint for many years. One day the two will merge, and already have, with my art-making through my photography experience. Hybridizing, photographing, working in the yard - it all brings a joy other pursuits often haven't, and more importantly has put me in tune with the rhythms of nature and working outside. If nothing else, I certainly get my exercise, and very often, a cleansing of mind - that I find comes with mundane repetitive work, except it never really feels like work. That last part is important. It is a mindset, and it is a driving factor and allure of it all for me. The payoffs have come in the form of better physical and mental health plus being a part of a community that is unique and welcoming. The irisarians, hybridizers, and iris lovers are a great group of individuals - in fact, a model other communities could stand to learn from.

All that said, I am not yet near the point that it takes to have my own registered or named varieties. The majority of photographs and iris varieties currently available here, are of plants hybridized by breeders and from iris gardens found online. There is a surprisingly large iris community on the web. In short, I have purchased and propagated these plants that have been photographed - and my collection is always growing while yard space is dwindling. This stock is being utilized for my own breeding programs and sales to support the always expanding garden. Last I counted, I grow over 600 varieties and thousands of my own plants, called seedlings, from my own crosses. Many of these seedlings will become compost after blooming, for not being up to certain standards as a good garden plant. Only a small percentage will perform, proving worthy of introduction and display new or exciting qualities to warrant naming/registration with the American Iris Society, but that is the eventual plan. 

From pollinating an iris to seed, and then seeing one bloom for the first time, is a 2-3 year investment, if you're lucky. There has been a learning curve, especially because I am coming at this from the angle of being an artist, and sadly, not having a natural green thumb. Iris are forgiving, however, and afford a wonderful chance to create something new. Each seed you reap will be a completely genetically unique cross of the parent plants, thus, no two are alike, with siblings that can often appear completely different from one another. 

I hope you will enjoy my foray into gardening and the art I see in it. 

A video (not mine) to see how hand pollination of an iris is done.

Another video (not mine) of hand pollinating an iris. 

Informational video on pollination and genetics (again, not mine.)

I do sell plants (named/introduced varieties) during the months of JUNE - SEPTEMBER.

I plan to put a list or gallery of available plants on my Plants for Sale page in late spring 2020.

Please see my Contact page if you have any questions.   

For more on registering/naming an iris visit  The American Iris Society Website

Over the years, as my interest in iris grew, I began seeking out local clubs and gardens to join and participate in. That is how I came across the Willot garden. The Willot garden is right off of I-90 at the northern end of Rockefeller Park and The Cleveland Cultural Gardens, which are interspersed along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The whole area is beautiful but is even more so throughout the spring. The only other sizable iris garden nearby, that I know, is about 45 minutes from Cleveland called the Schoepfle Garden located in Birmingham, OH - and for me the Willot garden is already a hour and a half trek. Still, I try to get up there several times each spring to help weed and to photograph - then, after a bit of sweating, I grab a Long Island iced tea with some Flautas at the Tacologist restaurant on Euclid Blvd. right next to University Circle! It's a beautiful part of Cleveland with the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, The Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, all nearby. In my phantasy world, a project for the future would be to have a small group of iris enthusiasts from the Youngstown/Boardman area to work on fundraising and construct a similar garden area with both the Mill Creek Metroparks or Boardman Park. I should note that Mill Creek does have a small iris display, but I'm afraid their iris may lack the attention, and sunlight, given to the rose garden or incredible daffodil displays at the Fellows Riverside Garden. 

I've pulled a good share of weeds at the Willot garden and was assigned the task of taking "mugshots" to help catalogue their collection in 2019. The garden is maintained by volunteer work and a good portion of that is by fellow members of the Northeast Ohio Iris Society (NEO) Bob and Sandy Pindell. A huge amount of work is also done by Ron Hartmiller, a trained horticulturalist, and serving conservator of the Willot Garden. Our NEO Iris Society president, Fred Pedersen, takes time in tidying up the space too - I'm not sure how they all keep up with it - that garden is always in pristine condition! Bob, Sandy, and Ron are all full of knowledge on iris, and are willing to share that with visitors, whom will likely encounter each of them on any given weekend at the garden throughout the spring. 

I think everyone in the Northeast Ohio Iris Society are looking forward to hosting the regional meeting in 2021, and I am especially excited to have some of my own seedlings growing alongside the Willot garden in the newly installed seedling display garden. Kudos to Louis DiSanto, a fellow hybridizer, for coordinating and installing the display garden - a ton of work went into it and that does not go unnoticed. Some of his seedlings can be seen in the Willot seedling display bed, and here on the American Iris Society Region 6 website. Louis has some really nice species and MTB hybrids, in my opinion, and recently became an American Iris Society judge - something I hope to do someday. He is also a storehouse of knowledge and has always been eager and gracious enough to share what he knows. 

I've compiled a missing list (below) in coordination with Bob Pindell, and others, of iris that the Willots bred but are no longer located at the garden, never got there, or are "missing." I've been able to track down several varieties (and donate them to the garden) from online iris garden sites or via facebook groups, but many remain out there, several without even such as a photo on the iris wikipedia. I, for one, am curious what one of the Willot hybrids named 'Falconskeape' (TB) looks like, if it is out there somewhere. I think I just like the name. The Willot's focused mainly on smaller dwarf varieties. Thus, a good portion of the garden is devoted to the little guys. There is still quite a display of larger Tall Bearded iris and many other species. The garden also has an annual plant sale, plus potted varieties for sale to visitors, and I believe the proceeds go to the volunteer upkeep at the Rockefeller Greenhouse facility. I, myself, grow many Willot varieties, as a sort of back-up, for what is essentially a living museum to the great efforts of Tony and Dorothy Willot.

The Willot Iris Garden is a tribute to iris experts and longtime greenhouse volunteers, Tony and Dorothy Willot. It features many of the nearly 40 cultivars of the iris species that they bred and grew right in this location. 

In addition to the Willot irises the garden contains examples of old and new irises by other hybridizers and examples of species of irises sometimes found in gardens in the Cleveland area. 

Each clump of iris has a marker with the name of the iris, the name of the hybridizer, the year of introduction, class, and a location code. 

The garden is a project of the Friends of Greenhouse in cooperation with the North East Ohio Iris Society, the Gardeners of Greater Cleveland and the Advisory Board of the Cuyahoga Master Gardeners. The Garden is an official display of The American Iris Society and the Historic Preservation Society, maintained by volunteers and funded by the sale of potted irises from the garden, the sale of inscribed bricks, grants and gifts from organizations and individuals. 

You can help support the Willot Iris Garden by becoming a member of the Friends of Greenhouse (FOG), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.