by Jamie Montelepre
While looking at old Society for the Louisiana Iris newsletters, I came across this letter from an iris enthusiast from New Zealand. She claims to be new at growing irises, but she describes seeding hundreds of plants that produced prolific blooms. Read on to see how Mrs. McCashin grew irises in New Zealand in 1956:
September, 1956
The following letter was received from one of our newest members, Mrs. Dorothy McCashin … Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
“Is there anyone who would correspond and give me all the information and identification of the various Louisiana Iris Species because I have no one over here who knows them. I know the Abbeville type and fulva, giganticaerulea, but would not know Virginicas. Mr. Paul Cook who knew I was interested in Louisianas sent me the seed of 500 three years ago. Mrs. Stevens said I would be very lucky if I germinated 100 of them but would not get them to flower as it was impossible. Here in the Hutt Valley we are fortunate in having good river soil, part of my garden was once the old river bed and in winter parts of it is under water. All I knew about the Louisianas was that they grew wild in the swamps of the Mississippi so when the seeds started to come up, transplanted them to that part of the garden that got flooded. I had 193 flowered in their second year from the seed. Every colour was there from dark velvety red to yellow terracotta, pink, yellow, and lavender standards and lemon falls and the clumps had 15 to 20 stems, all in two years and up to 5 feet tall. Our Iris convention was at Pelson so I took a large selection of them down with me in the plane. I wish you could have been there to see the expression on everyones faces when they saw them on the table at the meeting. It was the first time they had been seen, especially the Abbeville Reds. Mrs. Stevens was amazed, yet I have found them easy to flower, pollinate and set seed here. This year the last of the seed will flower. Out of the 500 I have over 460 to germinate and still odd ones coming up in the seed bed. I have hand pollinated the best ones last year and this seed is now up. Eight I named and released to friends. I think the reason why they flowered so easily is that they are flooded in winter and the ground dries out and bakes in the summer and cracks. I do not give them any water, yet they grow like weeds. How do I go about registering the named ones and would I be able to enter the photographic competition. The Iris I named, all but the yellow one, measure 7 inches across. Some have a very small signal, some have none. As I am only a beginner would like to know more about them and others are also becoming interested in them.
“I have named mine
Kia Ora – Deep crimson red
Rewi – Brick red, small yellow signal
Rata – Terracotta, small yellow signal
Huia – Cyclamen, small yellow signal
Golden Buttercup – Golden yellow
Stella – Strawberry pink self
Royal – Deep royal blue self
Midnight – Deep velvety blue black
“They flower over here in October to November and December and ten to twelve flowers on a stem. The Director of Hutt parks is interested in them and we are hoping to grow them along the banks of the Hutt river. These Iris are a long way from home, but flourish very easily. I hope you will forgive me being so long, but I am very keen and have been awaiting news of them so long. I do hope someone will be interested enough to write and give me news and advice on how to distinguish the different types.
“You can imagine what a display I will have this season with over 460 all to flower. The bud spikes can be seen easily already.”
