Hybridizer Dale Johnson

Florissant, Missouri, USA

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DALE E. JOHNSON

By Jim Morris, Missouri

Dale Johnson burst on the Siberian iris scene at the 1985 AIS Convention in Indianapolis, IN with his cultivar ‘Silver Illusion’. Riley Probst, of Kirkwood, MO at that time, remembers Dr. Currier McEwen asking, “Who is this Johnson chap?” That seemed to be everyone’s question when they saw ‘Silver Illusion’ for the first time.

Well, Dale was a retired machinist from the Universal Match Corp. who began his iris hobby in Florissant, MO, a suburb of St. Louis. He was a member of the Greater St. Louis Iris Society in the 1980s and 1990s and participated in their various iris shows and garden tours. His wife Alice supported his hobby and even won Horticultural Sweepstakes and the Joseph Becherer Memorial Trophy (for most blue ribbons) at the 1981 AIS Convention in St. Louis (the show was sponsored by the Washington Iris Club). Competing against the likes of Sheldon Butt, Jim Morris and Riley Probst, Dale was able to garner but two GSLIS Best in Shows, one in 1985 with a spuria ‘Spring Island’ and another in 1988 with ‘Bishop’s Pawn’ (Johnson 1987), his own Siberian introduction.

Johnson was interested in and grew many kinds of flowers. He grew English irises, MDBs, SDBs, IBs, TBs, spurias and Siberians on a hillside with graduated beds surrounded by brick walkways. He potted hundreds of SDBs each year and sold them through a local nursery. He began to hybridize and had many lively Siberian and median discussions with Harley Briscoe and Louise Bellagamba, two other GSLIS members who registered SDBs, TBs and Siberians. In his hybridizing he was somewhat of a shooting star in that all of his registrations and introductions were between 1985 and 1988. About that time he bought a larger piece of farm land in order to grow his seedlings, but illness curtailed his hybridizing efforts after 1988.

He registered nine Siberian and eight Tall Bearded irises. He won six HMs and two AMs with Siberians ‘Cathy Childerson’ (1988, AM 1993) and his star ‘Silver Illusion’ (1987, AM 1991). Julius Wadekamper and Jean Morris named ‘Silver Illusion’ during a naming brain session in 1985. Dale immediately liked the name and registered it. Julius agreed to introduce it through his Borbeleta Gardens in Faribault, MN. Although a shy grower away from home, this quicksilver iris with green veining became a popular parent passing its flaring form on to later generations. It was voted the top Siberian HM in 1989 with his ‘Bishop’s Pawn’ voted third. After winning its AM in 1991, ‘Silver Illusion’ was later pictured in the Siberian section of the 1998 book Magic of Irises written by Barbara Perry Lawton.

Dale Johnson lived from October 11, 1932 to June 15, 1998.

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Registrations/Introductions:

Siberian: 'Bishop's Pawn', Cathy Childerson', 'It's Delightful', 'Queen's Gambit', 'Reddy To Go', 'Silver Illusion', 'Snowy Mountain', Standing Tall', 'Tri-Blue',

Tall Bearded: ''Blue Eyed Lady', 'Butter Bread', 'Country Sweetheart', 'Honey Delight', 'Ice 'N Lemon', 'Spacious Sky', 'Stormy', 'Strawberries 'N Cream',

-- BobPries - 2012-02-10