Tall bearded Iris COUNTRY MANOR

A 40 year old Classic Iris that superlatives still do it little justice. Giant sized blooms with just the right amount of ruffling are carried on sturdy tall stalks with three branches and spur and nine to twelve buds.Standards are an warm white with light lemon at midribs. Nicely ruffled falls with light yellow hafts and yellow beard colours diffuses throughout the falls to give a buttery cream effect. A very good grower that shows great increase. Fertile.  Breathtaking! Another of my Bucket Irises!

Mrs Richard P. Kegerise, Temple, Philadelphia. Introducing for 1973.
COUNTRY MANOR Sdlg. 20-70 T.B. M-L 38-40 in. Cup Race X 1-66 (Swan Ballet x Rippling Waters)
A large ruffled creamy white. Light yellow hafts and yellow beard create a glowing center. Nicely held standards and rounded falls. An exceptionally strong well-branched stalk having three branches and terminal-at times an additional spur. It consistently blooms with three open flowers at one time. Bud count nine. A good increaser and fertile both ways. Indeed a show stalk. HC '72 $25.00

Bulletin of the American Iris Society, July 1973, Number 210.
The Philadelphia Story, Hal Stahly.
After lunch at the Good and Plenty (it was both!) in Lancaster, we headed toward Reading, the location of the Kegerise gardens. There are two of these gardens, tended by two sisters who married brothers, both of whom are iris hybridizers. It all sounds very complicated in writing, when it is really rather simple; since the sisters are the hybridizers, we'll just refer to the gardens as that of Eleanor K. and that of Evelyn K. While Eleanor is working the irises, husband Richard must be manicuring the lawn-not a weed in the broad expanse of grass. Here too we heard birds chirping in their fine pin oak. Eleanor Kegerise's own COUNTRY MANOR was putting on a tremendous show here at its birthplace. This big warm white with yellow shoulders and beard has fine fluted ruffles, good substance, beautiful form, and a really magnificent stalk with four and five branches plus terminal. It later won the President's Cup.

Bulletin of the American Iris Society, October 1990, Number 279.
An Iris Season in Review. Ted White (Maine)
20. COUNTRY MANOR (El. Kegerise '73) is an iris that grows like a tree ! It's stems usually measure 40" or more and carry a very generous 10-12 buds. The color is a creamy white with light golden yellow at the hafts and yellow beards. Country Manor often has 3-5 flowers open at once and usually does well on the show-bench. AM '76

AIS Checklist 1979
COUNTRY MANOR   Eleanor Kegerise, Reg. 1972. Sdlg. 20-70. TB 39" (99 cm) M.     S. white; F. white with light yellow hafts; yellow beard; ruffled. Cup Race X 1-66: (Swan Ballet x Rippling Waters)., Eleanor Kegerise 1973. President's Cup 1973,HM 1974, AM 1976.

I note the pod parent is that great white Tall Bearded Iris 'Cup Race', runnerup for the 1972 Dykes Medal. A little known fact is that 'Cup Race' led at several times during the voting for the Dykes Medal in 1972, and three days before the end of the talley, was in the lead.................. just a little digression . 
 
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