| Beersman | Gayer | Helsley |
| Johnson | Nicodemus | Roston |
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President's Cup: Winner - Heartstring Strummer 1st Runner Up - Where Eagles Dare 2nd Runner Up - tied between Carousel Waltz and At the Ballet Franklin Cup: |
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 Soloman's Seal, TB (Ensminger '99) |
 Italian Ice, TB (Cadd '01) |
 Vienna Waltz, TB (Keppel '00) |
Garden of Henry and Evelyn Beersman
The Beersmen’s started gardening in the early 1960’s. The first plot proved too rocky so they moved to a new location. Though the typical southwest Missouri garden only had ½" of topsoil, they added compost, animal manures and rotten hay used as a mulch and then plowed under, to build up the 6" they have today.
 Pink Haze, Siberian (McGarvey '80) |
 Celtic Harp, TB (Stahley '98) |
 Rush Creek, TB (Worel '99) |
In the process of improving the soil, they had larger crops of produce, so they joined the local Farmers Market to sell the surplus. They had been given 16 tall bearded iris by friends and relatives and they enjoyed the blooms. They multiplied so fast they started taking them to market.
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"Then this hobby goes out of hand! You can’t stop with just one more iris." |
Garden of H. R. and Marjorie Gayer
The Gayer’s have lived in their present location for over 30 years. At the time they had to move, an older friend provided them with a rhizome of each of the iris she had at the time. A few of them still survive, mostly unnamed.
The garden itself has "evolved". Sometimes changing, because Marjorie likes to plant trees – sometimes drastically when storms hit as one did last fall.
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 Aunt Hank, TB (Hedgecock '00) |
 Devil David, TB (Cadd '01) |
 Raspberry Topping, TB (Niswonger '00) |
 Tippy Lo Rain, TB (Grumbine '01) |
Both H.R. and Marjorie truly enjoy involvement in a number of plant societies – meeting a lot of people with similar interests and learning about iris, lilies, daylilies, hostas, and how to try to help azaleas and rhododendrons to survive in this climate.
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"It is always a pleasure for us to visit other gardens for fresh ideas and inspiration. We hope that you will enjoy your visit here – especially to the ‘guest’ iris beds." |
Plants have always been a part of Calvin’s life. He has grown iris as far back as his memory goes to the shared iris garden with his grandmother, Mabel Coday (the namesake of his Morgan-Wood Medal Siberian iris!).
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 Maslon, MTB (Spoon '02) |
 Pug, MTB (Kalkwart '01) |
 Turn the Page, MTB (Loveland '02) |
 Preference, MTB (Fisher '01) |
Calvin has been hybridizing iris since the later 1960’s with his first introduction coming from pollen given him by Dave Niswonger at the 1971 Wichita National AIS convention. The last several years have been devoted mainly to Siberian iris.
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To the Right and Left are Pictures taken in Calvin Helsley's Garden |
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 Flirty White Skirts, TB (Wulf '97) |
 Night Hawks Dream, TB (Roberts '00) |
 Smoke and Mirrors, TB (Niswonger '00) |
The garden, Ozark Mountain Lilies, consists of two lots in Mansfield. The lower lot contains a variety of plants ranging from peonies, hosta, lilies, crocus, arisaema, and many odds and ends tucked in here and there. The upper lot features the iris planting for the convention. "You will also see a lot of lilies planted among the iris. They had to go somewhere!"
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Above - Violin Music echoed through the trees and iris as the guest enjoyed the early morning stroll through Calvin's garden. |
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Calvin is now retired from teaching music and speech in the Licking public schools and devotes his time to gardening activities.
| The garden of Ben Johnson is located at his residence
in central Springfield. The front lawn contains plantings of lilacs, deutzia,
althea, peonies and daffodils. There is no back lawn. That area, with the exception of shade plantings around the house and decks, is the iris garden. |
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Begun in 1992 with the purchase of the property, several beds of iris and other perennials from a previous garden were carved out of the existing Bermuda grass lawn. Since that time Ben’s enthusiasm for iris and a hybridizing program begun in 1994 have resulted in a near monoculture of tall bearded iris. The constraints of a full time job and limited space have resulted in what is primarily a hybridizing garden, not a display garden. "The need to accommodate a growing seedling populations has left little room for ornamentation and frills." Indeed, a large portion of Ben’s collection of named varieties were sacrifice to accommodate guest iris and his seedlings.
Garden of Barbara and Richard Nicodemus
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 Rill, Siberian clump (Bellagamba '91) |
 Rill, Siberian (Bellagamba '91) |
Although Barbara has always loved flowers, her interest really peaked when she bought Stepping Out when she was 17 years old. When she and Richard decided to open the garden to the public in 1997, she was growing several hundred varieties of irises. Not only do they have a large selection of TB’s but also Siberians, Louisianas, Spurias, Japanese and Versicolors.
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Visitors were crowded around the deck signing Judge's Training sheets, purchasing the auction iris, and partaking in refreshments. |
They have planted the convention beds of TB’s and Siberians in the lawn in front and beside the house, but due to limited space, also have a bed of guests in the upper garden.
 Amplified, TB (Ghio '00) |
 Fiery Temper, TB (Keppel '01) |
 Forrest Waves, TB (Edelman '00) |
 Kiwi Cheesecake, TB (Niswonger '98) |
 Rachel Drumm, TB (Mullin '00) |
 Tropical Glory, TB (Meek '01) |
 Ride the Tiger, TB (Lauer '02) |
 Sunkist Delight, TB (Niswonger '95) |
 GB x 11 TR, TB (Loveland sdlg) |
 Mike Thiessen leads a group during the JT session. |
 Magenta Moment, Sib (Helsley '92) |
 Chandler's Choice, Sib (McEwen '95) |
Barbara started hybridizing in 1994 and Richard made his first cross in 1997. "Due to illness in November 2001, a lot of plans for the yard and garden were put on hold for the convention. We mainly put our efforts into taking care of the convention beds and the rest of the irises." Richard has a full time job and farms. He helps with making the iris beds when he can and provides moral support.
Garden
of Brian, Bill and Judy Roston (Honey Branch)
By Nancy Price
It was a lengthy drive from Garden City, Kansas, to Springfield, Missouri. Many other travelers and myself also drove in heavy rains to reach our destiny. Rainfall totals around the Springfield area and the Honey Branch Garden included 15 inches within the last 10 days, of which four inches fell the night before our tour. This garden also received hail the previous week.
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To the Left is Mike
Thiessen from Washington, MO.
This is the Pool where many weddings have been held in this beautiful garden. |
| The Guest Iris Beds were
situated near this Lake. Several Pseudocorus are planted around the embankment of this lake. |
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My notes reflect that there were few Iris to view. There were only two sunny locations for iris plantings – around the pool and a second site overlooking the lake. The larger planting of iris was around the pool at the front of the garden area. Here the irises are interspersed with other perennials, creating a lovely setting for weddings. It was a lovely walk along rocky trails leading downward to the lake where the guest beds were planted.
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The Honey Branch Garden is also known as the Garden of Dreams. In 1993, Bill and Judy Roston purchased 260 acres of Ozark hill property. Included on this property are two caves – the Big Honey Branch Cave and the Little Honey Branch Cave. The larger cave, ¼ mile in length and equipped with lighting for visitors, was used for commercial tourism. It is now closed.
The Little Honey Branch Cave has a waterfall and is located opposite one of the iris plantings. Both caves and these Ozark hillsides are often very shady which lends favorable to Hosta culture. There are over 700 varieties of hosta. The family is members of a local club, Greater Ozarks Hosta Society, and the National Society for Hosta. Because of high demand, a tissue culture laboratory was established to propagate plants faster than conventional ways. Orien Pets Lilies, Trumpet Lilies, Asiatic Lilies, and a few other varieties of lilies are also hybridized in this laboratory.
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To the Left
is Dave Niswonger. On the Right is Calvin Helsley. |
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All of the caretaking in this beautiful garden, which includes the caves, waterfalls, bridges, gazebos, a lake, and woodland trails, is done by Bill and Judy Roston and their son Brian. Bill is a medical physician in private practice and his lovely wife Judy assists him part-time. Brian enjoys the work because of the diversity of scenery, the running water falls, the natural beauty of the landscape, and his overall love for plants. There are also many ornamental trees, shrubs and other plants. Many hours have been invested transferring variegated perennial plants from the "wild" woodland areas of the property, then making selections and relocating these plants within the garden areas where they can be viewed by thousands of visitors annually.
Many thanks to the Roston family for sharing their botanical treasure with us, and thanks to the Iris Society of the Ozarks for including this garden on tour.
