I'm Bernice Miller's granddaughter. Grandmother was very much into tall bearded iris hybridizing between the 70's and 90's. Unfortunately her garden has gone into ruin and her records are lost. I am attempting to re-buy and collect her introductions. I have managed to re-purchase many of them. However, I'm not even sure if I have a complete list of her introductions and there are many I know about that I have not found to re-purchase. All help is appreciated.

Most of Grandmother's introductions are re-bloomers. She specialized in reds. Her main goal was to produce southern climate reds that bloom prolifically and re-bloom. I would say she was very successful. I have quite a few prolific re-blooming reds. Some bloom more than two times per season.

Thank you! Gerie Killen, AL

Oh, all tips on raising great iris in clay type soil in the south is appreciated.

Also, oh. Successfully marking my clusters is driving me crazy! Any tips for economical, extremely tough, plant markers?


Here is a photo of Bernice's Legacy. It is her last introduction (actually introduced by her dear friend Dave Niswonger for her, as she became disabled.) I would say it is her crowning achievement as it has all the traits she strived for.

Gerie said:I'm not even sure if I have a complete list of her introductions and there are many I know about that I have not found to re-purchase.

There are 17 of them in our database.

http://garden.org/plants/group...

Dave! Thank you so much for doing the search! I have most of them but a few I don't have and some I didn't even know about! The pictures help so much, too. As I have been recollecting them, I have realized that I must be very careful to make sure what I have received is actually Grandmother's iris. For instance, I bought Uriah the Hittite from two suppliers and they are two different iris that could fit the description. When I google Uriah the Hittite, I get results for both. I still don't know which one is correct.

I found All Things Plants just yesterday. It seems awesome. I hope to post more pictures of my iris, soon.

Another source for photos is the American Iris Society wiki database. It is an online listing of all registered irises. They have many photos that are not in the All Things Plants database. Good Luck!

to the iris forum Gerie! Hope you are successful in your search. Many of the members of this forum are great at finding information!

That photo of Bernice's Legacy is lovely!

Gerie,

This website makes reference to Coronation Of David. http://springtimeinthefall.com...

By contacting them you may be able to track one down. If you send a list of the irises you do not have we may be able to help locate some for you.

C and T Iris Patch has several of the irises your grandmother created:

Angelic Wings
Coronation of David
My Friend Jonathan

They are open through October 20th so if you wanted you could still place an order with them.

dave said:

There are 17 of them in our database.

http://garden.org/plants/group...

There are probably more. Back in the 70's, AIS didn't list the hybridizer's first name, just the initial. Dave fixed many of those for us, but I don't think Mrs. Miller was among them. If you search for B. Miller in the database (how did you get the search results to show in your link, Dave, I can never get that to work?), there are another 47 irises that all appear to be hers.

Gerie said:


Oh, all tips on raising great iris in clay type soil in the south is appreciated.

You may need to make raised beds out of coarse compost, sand, and/or something else that improves drainage. Soft rot during wet periods in the summer is likely to be your biggest challenge. Anything that improves drainage will help with that.

I agree with Kent. I have clay here in NC so I made raised beds that are filled with a combination of topsoil, compost, and garden mix. This creates better drainage and is also a mixture that won't get hard as rock during the hot summer months. Just don't use manure in the beds because that will increase the chance of rot.

Gerie,

I'm in the Dallas area and have mainly clay soil. Kent's suggestion of coarse compost works best for me. Sand tends to make brick--with this clay, at any rate. For new plantings, after I have broken up a section of the clay, bags of Hapi-Gro Landscaper's Mix from Lowes are mixed in. At $3.50 per bag, it is fairly economical to use and is made up of bark fines, peat moss and perlite, and will work as a mulch, too. Most people will say not to mulch Iris due to the hazards of rot, but since it breaks down more quickly than the usual mulch, I don't think it would be a hindrance to lay it on for the first year, anyway. Using it as mulch will help the soil, as well. I mulch EVERYTHING going in the ground because we rarely ever have enough rain for soggy soil rot to be a problem, but your area might be different. Adding to that process, sometimes, I dig in the leaves that fall from my big ol' Cedar Elm in late season (and blow in from all the neighbors' trees); sometimes I let them lay around and decompose by themselves. My property has a slight slope side-to-side which helps with drainage, but previous owners tried to make a flat area out of most of the front yard. When I plant on there, I try to mound the soil up enough to slightly raise the Iris above the main soil level, again to make sure they don't sit in water. You also might check with your county extension agent for more information on planting in clay. Let us know how you get on with this project!

Debra

Cross posted with Leslie.

KentPfeiffer said:

There are probably more. Back in the 70's, AIS didn't list the hybridizer's first name, just the initial. Dave fixed many of those for us, but I don't think Mrs. Miller was among them. If you search for B. Miller in the database (how did you get the search results to show in your link, Dave, I can never get that to work?), there are another 47 irises that all appear to be hers.

Kent, if you look at the last few posts in this thread, that may answer your question about search results. I think. Maybe.
The thread "Search results" in Plant Database forum

I've seen that, but can't figure out exactly what Evan did

Hope you collect more of her plants. I met her at AIS conventions a couple times & she was a lovely lady. some of her biblical names will show here irises when they are listed under B. Millar.

Hi Gerie!

There are a lot more of your Grandmothers irises listed here. I hope you're able to gather them all. So Bernice's legacy can live on through future generations.

Welcome, Gerie .........Arlyn

I will post the welcome sign as well.

Wow! I'm overwhelmed. It will take me a long time to read all of your responses. Thank you so much for your help and your well wishes in my success of creating a legacy garden of my Grandmother's iris.

Wow! I'm overwhelmed. It will take me a long time to read all of your responses. Thank you so much for your help and your well wishes in my success of creating a legacy garden of my Grandmother's iris.

FYI, I'm starting my fall divisions and reorganizations. I've started putting my extras on ebay. My ebay name is agbif.