Grandma Johnston would be very proud that you love Iris as much as she did. Hello I am Brads Dad and keenly remember taking Brad his first Iris to his first home. It was Stepping Out from Schreiners Iris in Oregon. It was the first Iris my Grandma Johnston gave to me in 1975. I grew up amongst the iris in Winterset Iowa,home of The Bridges of Madison County.When I was 9 years old our large family always got togather on Sunday mornings in May to walk Grandmas Iris Garden and it was big to us.Grandpa Johnston would cook breakfast over an open firepit and the smell of fresh bloomed iris filled the air. It was among the best days of my life being with my cousins on those mornings and unknowingly being exposed to the Iris Bug. I am the only family member of all those cousins who were there on those Sunday mornings to have had the seed for love of Iris planted deep in my soul. Every year when I go out to my Iris bed as I have for 38 years and lean over to inhale the fragrance of my first bloom which is usually "Change Of Pace" I am 9 again and I am with my family again on those Sunday Mornings so long ago. To tend the beds is like tending family to me. I am thankful for Brad and that he has taken the seeds of another generation and is carrying them forward. I am in awe of his Iris Burms that I am blessed to see every year. The size of his bloom beds dwarf mine now and he has Iris from every major grower in this beds. We have flown to Oregon and California and personally met and talked Iris with Ray Schreiner, Paul Black and Tom Johnson, Keith Keppel and Joe Ghio in California. These are the heavy weights of the Iris breeding kingdom. I wish I could have taken Grandma Johnston with us but she passed on in 1978 and so Brad and I carry the torch for her now and gladly so. I have been blessed. Hers wishing all of you a great bloom season 2014. I'll see you in the Iris bed. Michael Collins
