LOUISIANA POND
The star of the guest gardens for me was
the “Louisiana Pond” in Madisonville, LA, north
of the Big Easy across Lake Pontchartrain.
Hosted by Gary and Leigh Anne Salathe in a
subdivision, this former mud hole was turned into
a Louisiana Iris paradise with an especially large
planting of Pat O’Connor varieties. Many named
irises were doing well here, but best to me was
the large planting of the light blue species I.
giganticaerulea behind Gary’s boat and pirogue
(more below). This is considered the “Giant Blue
Iris,” the state wild flower. It is the largest of five
species once found in abundance in southeast
Louisiana marshes. It has been decimated over
the last one hundred years by saltwater intrusion
through manmade canals and hurricane flood
waters. With construction of higher hurricane
protection levees, the closing of some waterways
and the building of new fresh water Mississippi
River diversions, new opportunities are being
created for native plants to be reintroduced into
some of the marshes where they once thrived.
Irises here are being grown so that one half of
these plants can be donated each year to local
non-profits that are replanting the marshes.
Gary Salathe is one of those replanters.
Known locally as “Mudboy” he uses the pictured
pirogue to traverse the marshes during his
planting sorties.
While viewing the irises and ducks at the
Louisiana Pond, New York visitor M. J. Urist used
her brand-new iPhone 10 to bring up the call
of the black-bellied whistler duck. They cocked
their heads and swam over to visit. Honestly.
LSU HAMMOND RESEARCH STATION
Focused on landscape horticulture, this
low-lying acreage was planted with donations
from the GNOIS, and with two beds of guest
irises including many seedlings and recent
introductions. Among the irises looking good
here were ‘Gentle Memories’ (Joe Musacchia
2017, LA) with six stalks, ‘Acadian Debutante’
(Hooker Nichols 2008, LA), and ‘Aqua Velva’
(Kevin Vaughn 2015, LA). Judges’ Training was
conducted in this garden.
LONGUE VUE
This was the former home of the chairman of Sears
Roebuck and evokes charm, class and wealth. The
gardens were designed by landscape designer Ellen
Shipman with the “Wild Garden” of Louisiana irises
planted by Louisiana iris icon Caroline Dormon in
the 1950s. Here I saw garden namesake ‘Longue Vue’
(Dorman Haymon 2000, LA) a ruffled white, ‘Edmund
Riggs’ (Richard Sloan 2003, LA) a pastel lilac-pink, and
‘Flare Out’ (Marvin Granger 1992, LA)
a cartwheel shaped blue-purple.
Signage for the Wild Garden of Caroline Dormon at Longue Vue
‘Edmund Riggs’ (Richard Sloan 2003, LA)
‘Flare Out’ (Marvin Granger 1992, LA)
22 AIS Bulletin Summer 2018