Mid-America Home Garden. Here Thomas was growing
re-select and second year seedlings. We found Thomas,
along with Paul Black, evaluating seedlings and making
crosses that morning. There were literally thousands
of seedlings to evaluate in that field. I asked which of
their seedlings they thought would make the cut and
was directed to several outstanding TBs and SDBs.
Paul pointed out SDB seedling AA 219 (Tourist Trap
X Bazinga), one that he has posted on Facebook as
a probable introduction. He also pointed out one of
the brightest yellow self SDBs that I have ever seen:
seedling X 301 A. Then I found a couple of IB seedlings
that I thought were outstanding: IB seedling Z 158 A, a
yellow ground, rose/burgundy plicata with an orange
beard; and IB Z 167 A, a cream ground, purple plicata
with a pink beard.
Thomas pointed out a line of TB plicata seedlings
that he has been working on. Two of my favorites were
TL 167, a bi-color plicata with pink standards over light
pink ground, purple dotted falls with eyelash markings
under the burnt orange beard. And seedling TI 174
AA, a rose standard and light peach ground purple/
red plicata with that eyelash pattern under an orange
beard. I also spotted a very bright pink amoena with a
narrow white band on the falls, seedling TJ 335 B.
After a way too short visit with Thomas and Paul, it
was off to the garden of Keith Keppel. Keith greeted us
and showed us several new introductions and seedlings
that were just starting to bloom. Of course, with any
visit to Keith Keppel’s garden you would expect to see
plicatas and luminatas, and we were not disappointed.
A couple of my favorites were the plicata seedling
series 13–17, orange/gold standards over gold ground
red/violet plicata falls and gold beards; and a luminata
series 15–8, purple standards over near black falls, with
typical light edges and white/yellow beards, all having
Marky Smith’s ‘Belle Fille’ (2015) as the pod parent.
Most of Keith’s new and recent TB introductions were
in bloom also. I really liked ‘Ocean Liner’ (2017) in
lavender-blue with fall veining, and ‘Brass Lamp’ (2018)
with that big gold beard. Once again, this visit was too
short, but the TBIS Board of Directors had to get back
to the hotel for meetings and an auction.
Saturday was the tour day for the convention. Our
first stop was to the garden of Lynda Miller. Lynda’s
entire front yard is iris. The first couple of rows were
guest iris and then row after row of Lynda’s commercial
Paul Black seedling AA 219 (SDB)
Paul Black seedling Z 158 A (IB)
Keith Keppel seedling 13-17 G (TB)
‘Brass Lamp’ (Keith Keppel 2018, TB)
28 AIS Bulletin Summer 2018