1928 - 1929 Rosedale Iris Garden Catalogue

“MAKE gardening your hobby for your health’s sake. Make IRIS gardening your hobby for the alluring charm,and beauty that endures. Women of distinguished social and public position recognize in the IRIS an unusual opportunity to have something individual. In fact, modern good taste demands an IRIS garden.”

So reads the introduction to the 1928–1929 catalogue for ‘Rosedale Iris Gardens’ which was located on Douglas Road in Burnaby Lake, BC. Originally called ‘Avalon Estate’ and home to Frederick and Alice Hart, this estate property was later purchased by Montague and Ethel Moore and renamed ‘Rosedale Farm’, probably after the cottage in Winnipeg where Ethel was born. Ethel's entrepreneurial spirit was very much in evidence for it was she who started the Rosedale Iris Gardens and was responsible for the day to day running of the farm.

Harriet Ethel Hutchings Moore was born in Winnipeg on August 21, 1884. Her father was a wealthy businessman. Ethel attended the University of Manitoba, graduating with a degree in the liberal arts. On June 1, 1910 she married Montague Moore, and they moved to British Columbia around 1913. In 1917 the Moores purchased a beautiful property in Burnaby on the edge of Deer Lake. This would become ‘Rosedale Farm’.

There was a small orchard in the fields leading down to the lake consisting of apple and pear trees with some space devoted to raspberries and strawberries. The fruits were sold to locals and to juice and jam producers; vegetables were grown for the family's use. They also had chickens and cows. Ethel Moore seems to have begun growing irises in the mid 1920s. In an article entitled Iris, The Flower of Kings, which was published in Country Life in BC, Moore described her passion for these lovely flowers. She confessed that like every amateur gardener she fell in love with the rose but found them difficult to grow. Then she discovered the attraction of iris." I thought they were the most fascinating of all perennials." Her particular favourites were ‘Quaker Lady’ (Farr 1909), ‘Blue Jay’ (Farr 1913), ‘Red Cloud’ (Farr 1913), ‘San Gabriel’ (Dean 1921) and ‘Lord of June’ (Yeld 1911). "Like the rose of Old England, the iris is essentially a flower of romance," she wrote in the introduction to her 1928 catalogue.

Ethel was entranced with the beauty of the iris; she loved the range of colours from opalescent white to brilliant blue; "these rare creatures give that touch of individuality and distinction that commands the respect and admiration of others". She is credited by her family with developing many varieties of iris. In the 1940s she developed a particularly beautiful one in honour of her daughter-in-law, Marcia. Ethel lamented the fact that there was no iris association in Vancouver. "In England and the East there are large iris societies and splendid exhibitions given every year" - and noted that “(t)oday it is the vogue in England and on the continent to have iris gardens."

Ethel Moore died in 1948.

(Article by Lynda Maeve Orr, of the Burnaby Museum, with edits by K. Brewitt, 2009) Note: the iris ‘Marcia’ could not be found in the AIS Checklists so there is a possibility it was never registered. - kb)

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1928 -1929 Rosedale Iris Gardens

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For more information on historic Irises visit the Historic Iris Preservation Society at http://www.historiciris.org/

-- BrewItt - 19 Jun 2022