After someone has spent years building up a precious and irreplaceable collection, its loss can be more than an individual sorrow. When that collection is of something as vulnerable and immobile as an iris, saving it intact for posterity is no casual commitment. Our Collection Holders are an extraordinarily dedicated bunch, often giving over their lives and their gardens to a single species; but even this does not guarantee their Collection's long term future if illness or a change in circumstances intervene.

So it happened with the Siberian Iris collection started by Jennifer Hewitt at Clee Hill which contained the first yellow Iris sibirica ‘Butter & Sugar’ shown below as well as older cultivars such as ‘Mrs Rowe’, traced back to 1916. When Jennifer became unable to continue looking after the collection, she passed it on to Kim Davies' Lingen Nurseries. The subsequent closure of this nursery once more put the collection at risk.

Step forward Plant Heritage's latest Collection saviours, Alun and Jill Whitehead, iris specialists who have been raising irises of all types in their Hereford garden and nursery since 1996.

"We provided a new home for the surviving plants, filling gaps in the collection with over 100 irises from our own borders" says Jill Whitehead. The resulting glorious display - at its peak from the end of May to early June - was formally awarded National Collection® status in 2009.

Jill advises that Siberian Irises are adaptable plants that are easy to grow and are particularly suited to naturalistic plantings; with their handsome foliage and seedheads they have an extended season of interest. They flourish on most soils except the very driest. Flower colours range from purples and lavenders through soft blues to white and yellow.

"We can see Clee Hill from our garden, so we take great pleasure in knowing that Jennifer's irises have returned to their origins." Jill adds, mentioning that one of their favourite plants among the many Iris sibirica cultivars developed by Jennifer is 'Peter Hewitt'. This violet blue and gold beauty, pictured at the top of the page, was named for her late husband and was the winner in 2008 of the highest accolade for irises, the British Iris Society’s Dykes Medal, which is usually awarded to bearded irises.

The Whiteheads’ Siberian Iris Collection can be viewed on Tuesdays and Thursdays during Aulden Farm's normal nursery opening times. See www.auldenfarm.co.uk for more details.

_{All photos on this page © Mr & Mrs Whitehead.}