COVER: This 8.5" x 11" catalog features one of the many floral iris arrangements by Carl Starker. The two iris varieties were not listed, but these arrangements were featured on their front covers until 1962.

ABOUT: This is a typical catalog that will run until the mid-70s. This particular catalog, as well as subsequent ones, no longer feature the 100 Best Iris.

GREETING: Among the happiest people in the world are those who have a worthwhile hobby. Some of our customers make a hobby of collecting the world's choicest Iris varieties and get a wonderful thrill out of blooming the latest topnotchers in their own garden. Other customers make a hobby of flowers in general but give an important position to Iris because they are the most orchidaceious of garden flowers.
     Still other customers may not view themselves as floral hobbyists at all, but they do consciously make a hobby out of their home, and their goal of home beautification depends so materially on use of flowers (both outdoors and in) that flowers necessarily come to play an improtant role in their lives. This is especially true of Iris because the make such a marvelous showing as a landscape flower as well as being spectacular in arrangements. So we feel that Iris, as an ideal hobby flower and as an ideal flower for home beautification have done a lot for human happiness.
     What is there about a hobby that gives it such intense interest? Is it not that it puts us out on a new frontier of adventure where the questing human spirit inherently longs to be? We hear a lot of talk these days about "man's new frontier in space," but the most significant and most satisfying human frontiers remain right here on terra firma in the realms of human relations and human betterment. You don't have to be up in a sputnik to be an explorer. We are all explorers and few realms equal the realm of Beauty as a fruitful field for exploration. So, as you explore this catalog, will you not think of it as a guidebook to a New Frontier of Beauty which can bring a lot of pleasure and inspiration to your lives? "New adventures in beauty" is the theme of this catalog and we hope you will enjoy it in an adventurous frame of mind!
     ROBERT SCHREINER

     OTHER INTROS:
           Divine Blue (Don Waters)
           Honey Rock (Don Waters)

Back to Catalogs