FEAST OF IRISES

Niswonger introduced Charm City Choice in 1992.

Using tweezers, Niswonger took pollen from one of his irises, Halo in Rosewood, which he introduced in 1993.

Niswonger takes photographs of his seedlings.

O.D. "Dave" Niswonger brushed pollen onto the stigma of a seedling.

O.D. "Dave" Niswonger always liked those old blue flags that grew along the picket fence at his grandmother's house near Patton.

Reared at a time and in a family where turning the soil to raise vegetables was as natural as eating and sleeping, Niswonger developed an appreciation for nature's wonders at an early age.

"When I was 6 years old, I had my own tomato plants," the son of a Methodist minister said. But along with the vegetable garden, "mother always liked to have a few flowers," said Niswonger, who retired Dec. 31, 1990, after 14 years as administrator of Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was assistant administrator there prior to that appointment.

His working with plants as a hobby, Niswonger is immersed in what could be called a second career as one of the world's foremost iris experts.

Niswonger has traveled extensively throughout the United States and abroad, sharing his vast knowledge gained through more than 40 years of hybridizing iris and other plants.

"I'm interested in horticulture in general," he said. "It just turns out, I've been more successful with iris than any other plant." Nature provides some 300 species of iris in the wild, Niswonger explained. Hybrids are crosses of different species.

Spring ushers in some of Niswonger's busiest days. With several thousand seedlings growing at his private nursery near Gordonville, there's plenty of work.

"There's a jillion things to do," Niswonger said on a recent afternoon when rain kept him in the family room of the Cape Girardeau home where he and his wife, Marie, reared two sons and a daughter. But the drizzly conditions could not dampen his zest for one of his favorite subjects. While explaining with practiced patience the intricacies of iris hybridization, someone telephoned from Connecticut for a conversation about, what else, iris.

Along with increased gardening chores, spring brings for the hybridizer loads of anticipation. It's the waiting and wondering about how the new hybrids will look when they bloom that sparks the thrill, Niswonger said. Accomplishing a cross that brings forth a never-before-seen flower, and then watching others enjoy it, "that's what does it for you," he said.

And Niswonger has achieved such successes many times. He has won the American Iris Society's top award for best new iris two times and has received countless other awards for his achievements with irises and other plants.

Since making his first iris crosses in the early 1950s, Niswonger has introduced more than 100 new irises. His first iris introduction was in 1967. The plant was called Sapphire Fuzz. Introducing an iris means making the new hybrid available for the public to obtain.

A hybridizer, Niswonger said, is "either going to improve on a present color or work on development of a new color pattern that has never been grown before."

Through hybridization, iris color and character possibilities are seemingly infinite. "There's more variation of color in an iris than any other plant," Niswonger said. "You want to get a variety developed that's as good or better than anything like it in the industry."

The flowers of all irises have a distinctive three-part symmetry, but other features of the flowers and plants can vary greatly. The standards, the falls and the beard are typically the three major components of the iris flower. Colors can vary on all three parts.

Though tall, bearded irises are among the most common types of iris grown in Southeast Missouri, there are many other kinds, including beardless varieties. Bearded irises, which require a cold season, are grown in many parts of the world. Some beardless varieties will grow in warm climates where bearded iris will not bloom.

Niswonger ships irises around the world from his operation, called Cape Iris Gardens, and likewise, he receives irises from plant experts based in the far corners of the globe. His interest, he explains, is primarily in developing new varieties. Of the many projects he is working on, Niswonger said, "I'm trying to get a pure white with a blue beard."

A member of myriad horticulture organizations, Niswonger is first vice president of the American Iris Society. There are about 160 iris clubs throughout the United States and in Canada that are affiliated with the American Iris Society. Niswonger is director of affiliates.

He is also a member of the SEMO Iris Society, which held its annual iris show at West Park Mall last weekend. "Anyone interested in growing irises can join the SEMO Iris Society and the American Iris Society," he noted.

Worldwide, 100,000 irises are registered and named. With Niswonger's help, those numbers and those beautiful flowers just keep growing.