"Mr Bliss has given us marked improvements on then existing forms over a wide range of colours. This improvement is not so often a matter of size and height as it is of branching, poise, and a freedom of flowering, factors of utmost importance in the development of varieties for the garden. We have a strong tendency to over emphasise qualities that are of importance on the exhibition table, and to forget that the Iris is fundamentally a flower for the hardy garden. In that Mr Bliss has rarely made this mistake his varieties will tend to live and to receive more, rather than less, appreciation."
AN AMERICAN VIEW OF IRISES, R. S. Sturtevant, Bulletin No. 2, The Iris Society, 1925.
About 20 years ago, Anne Milner was offered two irises bred by her great uncle 'Arthur Bliss' when researching her family history with a distant cousin. Her cousin explained that her mother, Phyllis, used to help Uncle Arthur as a child and that Phyllis had these two irises directly from him. These two irises were supposed to be Dominion and Cardinal. Dominion was a famous iris as it was the fore-runner of many modern irises.
From the gift of these two irises the National Collection of Arthur Bliss Irises was born.
Anne is also interested in finding other Bliss Irises, and would love to hear from anyone who has any information about where any might be growing and the web site has a list of all his irises and the dates of introduction..
Please visit the web site by clicking on the avatar below to go directly to the site.
Heritage Irises takes this opportunity to wish Anne all the very best with her new web site and a continued growth with her collection.
Clicking the above top image will take you to the larger, higher resolution version.
Photo credit and copyright Iris Hunter
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