The Person Who Influenced My Love of Iris
by Gabriel Lockhart, age 14

My name is Gabriel Lockhart and I have been growing Irises since before age five.   I had first gotten into Irises by following my Grandfather around and helping him plant Irises that he lad down.  He showed me how deep to plant them and how far apart.  I remember taking my little shovel and digging a hole in the dirt, pouring some water in, adding some more dirt, putting in the iris and covering the rhizome.  I would then stand back and look at it and sometimes say, "Oops, too deep."  Each Spring I would go out and work in the garden with my grandpa, grandma, and my mother, making this a family affair.  I started my own little garden with my favorite irises, joined the local iris club and started entering irises in the youth division of the local iris show.  I am now 14 and have over fifty varieties in my garden.

During my childhood I had learned a lot about Irises.  I had learned about how to plant the, grow them, and take care of them.  Last Spring I got my very own tiller.  He taught me how to use it and we dug and tilled up quite a bit for some new gardens.  He has even taught me how to hybridize.  He showed me some of the seedlings that he and my grandmother had made and told me about the process.  Then he said if I were really interested in hybridizing I should talk to a well known hybridizer.  It just happens that we are lucky enough to have a well known hybridizer in our local iris chapter, Dave Niswonger.  I enjoy the presentations that Dave gives and appreciate the times that he takes to talk to me.  He talked to me abut genes and hybridizing.  I feel I have learned so much, yet, I know there is so much more to learn.

My grandfather is the person I have chosen to write about in the essay.  He is the person who has most influenced my love of Irises.  I have my grandfather to thank for taking me out to the garden with him when I was little.  He's the one that gave me my first shovel and my first irises to plant.  He's the one who got me to join the local iris club and introduced me to other people who love irises and hybridize them.  Just as my irises and my garden has grown, my love for irises has grown.  Thank you Grandpa!

The Person Who Influenced My Love of Iris
by Joan Huggins, age 12

Ever since I can remember, my grandmother Mary Huggins has had many kinds of plants in and around her house.  Of them all, the flowers I have always been most drawn to were the irises.  As my interest in them first began to develop, my grandmother began teaching me about these gorgeous plants.  Sometimes, when I visited her, we would sit down together and look at her iris catalogs, commenting on how beautiful each flower was and each of us picking out our favorites. 

As time went by, my grandmother taught me that each different type of iris has a name and then started tutoring me about spoon, flounces, and beards and she would use a real blossom as a model.  Next thing I knew, I was looking through her bookshelves; they have always been full of plant books.  I would bring home stacks of books and read nonstop.  As I did this, wheat had started out as a small interest developed into a deep passion.

About a year of this went by.  As you can imagine, I was overjoyed when my grandmother asked me if I would go with her to the Johnson County Iris Society, of which she is a former president.  I became the first youth member and was able to learn even more by attending the Society meetings and shows, further enhancing my knowledge and love of the plants.  I also learned what wonderful people were involved in iris cultivation and I have developed new friends through the Society.

Last year my grandmother put me in touch with some iris cultivators in Utah who graciously allowed me to pick out any plants I wanted from their catalogue, which they sent me for free.  Between those plants and some from my grandmother's garden, I have stared building my own iris garden.  My garden is still growing bigger and I am looking forward to the first blooms of spring.  I couldn't have done any of this if my grandmother hadn't been there for me, leading me and teaching me every step of the way.  I forgot to mention, my grandmother can only see the irises through her peripheral vision as she is legally blind with macular degeneration.  Yet how she has opened my eyes!