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Vi Luihn, Siberian (DuBose '73) |
This
page has been reprinted with permission from Jim & Jean
Morris.
The text and photographs appear in the magazine
St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles; Vol.V,
No.3, April 2000.
Story by
Kathy Donovan Davis
Photography
by R. Todd Davis
Thank you so
much for sharing this article with us Jim and Jean.
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"Jim
Morris behind a waist-high phalanx of irises and daises in
the couple’s garden. His passion for irises has grown steadily
since childhood.
"Every time I plant a tomato plant, the next year it’s taken
up for irises," his wife, Jean, says, Fieldstone paths (at
right center) invite leisurely strolls." |
No Contest (Bill Maryott)
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Exactly
what role fate played in casting Jean and Jim Morris as irisarians
(iris aficionados) is debatable. But if Jim had cornered
the market on yellow wax beans just one more summer, he might
never have shifted from growing vegetable to flowers.
A sixth-grader when his family moved to a new house in Flat River,
Missouri, Jim eyed the next-door neighbor’s vegetable garden
and instantly began planning his own; sweet corn, strawberries,
peas and yellow wax beans. "I earned $1,500 one summer selling
beans to mom-and-pop grocery stores," he laughs. "Not
bad for the ’50s!"
Besides doing a brisk business in beans, Jim tended the row of
irises growing on his parent’s one-acre property. "One day,
walking home from track practice, I ‘liberated’ an iris from
a neighbor’s garden," he recalls. Soon after, the neighbor
offered him some rhizomes (the horizontal, root like plant stem)
of one genus of iris. With each rhizome’s three to five "increases," or
new plant started each year, Jim’s affinity grew, along with
the size of his garden.
Jean remembers when her future husband first
told her about his passion for irises. "We were student
at Mizzou. We’d been dating awhile, and Jim said, very seriously, "I
have something to tell your.’" Here comes his deepest,
darkest secret, she thought.
"I like irises," he admitted.
Oh? "I mean, I really like irises," Jim went
on.
Happily, his news fell on the right ears. Nurtured herself
by hours in the family garden growing up in Texas and Kansas
City, Jean didn’t even flinch.
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Abridged Version (Hager '83) |
Today, the West County couple’s remarkable garden – their
third in as many homes – attracts a steady stream of visitors during
bloom season, beginning in early March when tiny Iris reticulata poke
through the soil before the first crocuses. Blooming lasts into June,
although micro-climates within their garden mean the same variety of
flower may open seven days before or after those in another area of
the yard. "People who’ve never seen these flowers slam on their
brakes and ask to see our garden,"
Jim says.
Irises of every persuasion – bearded and beardless, rebloomers
and arilbreds, dwarfs, intermediates and talls – mass with companion
plants like daisies and daylilies, transforming the once over-treed,
flowerless property they bought 10 years ago. With their children,
Eric and Suzanne, grown and raising families and irises of their own,
the Morrises were ripe for a challenge. Moving into a multilevel modified-contemporary
house intrigued Jean as much as the lot lured Jim, an executive recruiter,
who sensed its unbounded potential.
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Sultan's Ruby
(Hollingworth '88)
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Raspberry Fudge
(Keppel '89)
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Stepping Out
(Schreiner '64)
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Protocol
(Keppel '96)
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Irises have two basic requirements: full sun and good drainage. "I
took down 40 trees. We had grass and two rosebushes," Jim
recalls. Next, he trucked in topsoil mixed with sand, peat and
compost. "If you prepare the soil, you get great results.
If you don’t, you get mixed results," he believes. After establishing
an irregular oval bed edged in cobblestones Jim salvaged over the
years from the rubble of demolished buildings downtown, the couple
spent month planting hundred of iris varieties they’d moved from
their former home. "I’m a scrounger," Jim confesses,
pointing proudly to abandoned bricks he fashioned into a yellow-brick
road between flower beds. Another prize find: a circa-1890 cast-iron
fence with fleur-de-lis stakes. Translated as "flower of the
lily," the fleur-de-lis actually is an iris, Jim explains,
borne on the heraldic crest of French royals. |
Although the Morrises say it's impossible to have one
favorite among their hundreds of iris varieties,
Jim's current fancy is "Protocol".
Jean loves "Going My Way".
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Clear Morning Sky (Ernst '91) |
When the
Morrises aren’t pursuing their garden’s tactile pleasures – planting,
hybridizing, watering, weeding and feeding – they enthusiastically
share their encyclopedic knowledge by cultivating new legions
of fans through their respective posts in multiple iris societies.
Besides her job as a Special School District teaching assistant,
Jean chairs the national youth committee of the 8,000-member
American Iris Society, writes and edits copy for AIS’
quarterly bulletins, organizes show and works with the Kirkwood
Iris Society’s classroom project at Southview School in Crestwood. "KIS
members adopt a school and, along with students, plant an iris
garden," she says, "reaching 15 to 20 kids who wouldn’t
otherwise be exposed to gardening." Another youth-affiliated
program through the Greater St. Louis Iris Society does similar
work with Marquette High School students. "We joined AIS
for the flowers, but we stay in it for the people," Jean
says, smiling. |
Successfully calculating when light will be best and
blooms most spectacular to capture irises on film has netted Jim a
side profession: Scores of his photographs grace "Magic of Irises" (Fulcrum
Publishing, $39.95) by SLH&L garden editor Barbara Perry
Lawton. Along with writing about irises for various journals, Jim is
regional vice president of the third-largest region of the American
Iris Society, as well as president and founder of the Greater St. Louis
Daffodil Club, to name only a few alliances. This leaves just enough
time to serve as past president of the Median Iris Society, which focuses
on intermediate-size bearded irises sized between dwarfs and tall bearded
hybrids. The beard, Barbara Perry Lawton writes, is the furry strip
made up of tiny hairs running lengthwise along the center of the falls,
the three lower petals of the flower. The iris’ three erect inner segments
are called standards. (For the completely overwhelmed, the Morrises
oblige with metal ID tags in their garden, designating SDBs [standard
dwarf beardeds], IBs [intermediate beardeds] and so on.)
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A
grove of ash, dogwood, wild cherry and sugar maple trees rings
the Morrises's side lawn and backyard (left), but allows enough
full sun for irises, daisies, daylilies and other companion
flowers to flourish. |
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The Morrises agree that at this point in their lives,
ease of growing is a good thing. "We used to pamper everything
and cover extensively," Jim notes, "but now I say, ‘Mother
Nature is Mother Nature.’ If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be." By
the end of her workday, Jean welcomes the serenity and solitude her
garden offer: "After dealing with kids all day, the stress just
falls from your shoulders. If we’re not here, we’re probably in someone
else’s garden."
Named
for Iris, the goddess of the rainbow in Greek mythology,
irises come in all colors, except bright red.
Tips for growing irises
To grow any and all irises, Jean and Jim Morris advise:
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The
plants need a half day of full sun and good drainage.
Shade means foliage and no flowers. Raised beds help
drainage.
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Avoid
rot by storing bulbs and rhizomes in paper – not plastic – bags
for circulation.
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Prepare
the soil. "In growing, it’s all about soil," Jim
says. Irises will grow well in Missouri’s clay soil,
but before anything goes in the ground, mix topsoil with
sand, peat and compost.
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Put
well-rotted cow manure 18 inches down before planting.
The roots will grow toward their nutrients, rather
than grow in it.
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Lilac and Lavendar
(Greenlee '80)
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Alfalfa
pellets make an excellent, inexpensive, organic fertilizer
that can’t be overdone. Broadcast pellets over flower
beds.Control weeds with shredded bark mulch.
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Plant
rhizomes in shallow soil. In our area’s freeze/thaw cycle,
rhizomes will sometimes
"heave up" out of the ground. To prevent heaving,
pin the rhizome down with a bent coat hanger; put bricks
on top or cover plant with sand to prevent air pockets.
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Divide
clumps every three to four years.
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Watch
for new varieties. Brand-new iris varieties cost between
$25 to $45 per plant, vs. new hostas that run nearer
$100. Most irises are priced between $3 and $10 apiece.
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Enjoy
these facts: Irises are drought-resistant, and deer don’t
eat them. They like tulips better!
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