Iris eyes are smiling

If there is a harbinger of heaven on earth, some would say it is music, others might say it is the flower. Even before Nashville was known as Music City, there were those who knew it as The Iris City, for the cultivation of the iris, which in Greek means rainbow (the bridge between heaven and earth), was undertaken with as much zeal as the cultivation of music.

At Greg and Macey McCullough's Iris City Gardens in Primm Springs, southwest of Nashville in northern Williamson County, the irises are about to be in full flower, as are the peonies, daylilies and a whole host of other perennials. Beginning as a mail-order operation, Iris City has cross-pollinated into a retail enterprise, as well. The Gardens grow over 1,700 different irises, 500 daylilies, 100 peonies and pond plants including water lilies, and sell potted varieties of iris, daylilies, peonies and other perennials for spring planting.

"We grow things because we like them," says Greg McCullough, who transplanted himself and his wife from Music City to Iris City in 1993. The McCulloughs, CPAs by training and background, calculated on doing something more adventurous on their new property. Macey's grandfather, Thomas A. Williams, was a champion of the iris; known as "The Old Dirt Dobber," he hosted a long-running local and CBS radio show on gardening in the 1930s and ‘40s. An avid hybridizer of the tall bearded iris, he published a catalog under the name "Iris City Garden."

Williams died in 1949. 35 years later, Macey and Greg McCullough moved about 4,000 irises that had originated in his gardens to their farm. The couple continues to search for "introductions," plants from hybridizers that they will grow and list in their catalog. Introducing an iris into commerce is the first step in making it eligible for an award. There are 330 different species of iris, and awards for each; the top award given annually to an iris is the Dykes Medal, and a number of Nashvillians have been recipients.

There are three or four acres of plants at Iris City. The McCulloughs ship all over the U. S., and get visitors from everywhere. They kick off their year with a booth at the Nashville Lawn & Garden Show, where they hand out cards giving peak blooming periods (from around Mother's Day through May and June) and directions to their farm. Others find out about them from articles in periodicals (Southern Living did a piece a year ago) and features on TV (Channel 8's "Volunteer Gardener" has done three segments on Iris City, the latest two weeks ago).

"We've built up a large base of people familiar with us," McCullough says. The Iris City staff will pot about 10,000 plants this season. The Gardens employs four part-time adults that have been there since the beginning - McCullough affectionately calls them "plant nuts" - as well as a dozen or more local kids, starting at age 16. Some of these go on working through college and beyond. Working conditions are so congenial that parents will come out and ask if their kids can get on there, McCullough says.

"That's the most rewarding part, all the nice people that come to work with us," he says. In September, the busiest time of year, the McCulloughs recruit everyone in sight.

Last year, three nights of freeze around this time killed all the blooms, and during the summer's drought everything lay dormant, and some plants were lost but most came back. McCullough says it looks like a good bloom this year.

Iris City Gardens is at 7675 Younger Creek Road in Primm Springs. Call 1-800-934-4747 or visit www.iriscitygardens.com for information and directions.

In 1931, a group of iris growers and hybridizers formed the Nashville Iris Association to foster the planting and cultivation of irises, with the goal of having Nashville known as "The Iris City." By 1948, four Dykes medals had been won by Nashvillians: Dauntless (1929), Copper Lustre (1934), Mary Geddes (1936) and Chivalry (1945). The American Iris Society held three of its annual conventions in Nashville, in 1935, 1941 and 1948.

Today, the Middle Tennessee Iris Society carries on the Association's mission. (Visit tnstateirisgarden.com.)

In Greek mythology, Iris is the messenger of the gods who, cloaked in a robe of dewdrops reflecting the stars, communicates messages via rainbows. In some cultures, the iris is a symbol of heraldry and royalty. In Japan it stands for heroism and its blue color for blue blood.

Irises come in a broad spectrum of colors -- blue, white, brown, lilac, yellow like the summer sky, and combinations of colors.

The iris is the Tennessee state flower. It was designated so in 1933, largely through the efforts of the Nashville Iris Association. No color or variety was specified, but a purple tall bearded iris is usually depicted.