IOWA BREEDER GARDEN
Preserving Iowa’s Plant Breeding Legacy
Throughout the Iowa Arboretum & Gardens’ history, projects that highlight Iowan plant breeders and their work grew, leading to the planting of the Iowa Breeder Garden. Located near the Beckwith Grand Pavilion, it contains specimen plants developed by several of Iowa’s most notable plant breeders.
Agnes Whiting Bearded Iris
Born in Van Meter, IA in 1894, Agnes Whiting was the daughter of a partner of the Iowa Seed Company. Her father was a plant breeder, in charge of experimental projects in mostly vegetables. After graduating from Highland Park College in Des Moines, she became a schoolteacher and eventually began gardening in 1919. She was captivated by bearded iris from the beginning, soon amassing a collection of over 100 varieties in her gardens with her husband Charles. She became extremely active in the Des Moines chapter of the American Iris Society, eventually acquiring hundreds of iris varieties. By 1930, she had begun pollinating iris in her garden. Fascinated and inspired by the seedlings she was seeing at annual meetings, Whiting began to keep meticulous noted about crosses, learning from leading hybridizers and any other possible source she could get her hands on.

Whiting soon became famous amongst Midwestern iris breeders, with tours of her garden happening frequently and other iris folks stopping by to “see what she was cooking” in the garden. She introduced her first seedling in 1940.
“Whiting was in the forefront of those golden years which saw the rapid growth in beauty and garden popularity of irises, and her efforts at hybridizing contributed incalculably to the fantastic rapidity of the development of irises as a truly worthy garden plant.”
Born in Van Meter, IA in 1894, Agnes Whiting was the daughter of a partner of the Iowa Seed Company. Her father was a plant breeder, in charge of experimental projects in mostly vegetables. After graduating from Highland Park College in Des Moines, she became a schoolteacher and eventually began gardening in 1919. She was captivated by bearded iris from the beginning, soon amassing a collection of over 100 varieties in her gardens with her husband Charles. She became extremely active in the Des Moines chapter of the American Iris Society, eventually acquiring hundreds of iris varieties. By 1930, she had begun pollinating iris in her garden. Fascinated and inspired by the seedlings she was seeing at annual meetings, Whiting began to keep meticulous noted about crosses, learning from leading hybridizers and any other possible source she could get her hands on.
As her hybridizing efforts took off, she won many awards for her irises. ‘Blue Rhythm’ (pictured) won the Dykes and Presidential Cup in 1950, and two English awards, becoming one of the most widely awarded irises in history. Many of her other iris won various awards during her time as a breeder. In 1947 Agnes Whiting became the first woman to ever receive the Hybridizer’s Medal from the American Iris Society, the highest award of the society.
Her iris introductions have been used extensively in further breeding, inspiring generations of iris lovers. In commemoration of her work, the Historic Iris Preservation Society has honored the arboretum’s collection as a Display Garden.
Dr. Griffin J. Buck Roses
Dr. Giffin J. Buck was born in Cincinnati, IA soon becoming an active member of the American Rose Society as a young man. After serving in World War II, Buck majored in horticulture at Iowa State College graduating in 1948. He stayed for both a master’s and doctorate degree, researching bud-graft unions in roses.
In 1949 he joined the extension staff, taking leadership of the university’s rose breeding program. Buck established a program that focused on developing new rose cultivars that would combine cold hardiness, large flower size, a long season of bloom, and resistance to common diseases. Buck’s first new roses were released in 1962. By his retirement as a Professor of Horticulture, Buck had developed 85 new rose varieties.

His rose ‘Red Sparkler’ was actually the first plant patent granted to ISU. His second patented rose was his most successful, named ‘Carefree Beauty’ and still available today. Combining vigor, cold hardiness, and a long season of bloom, it was one of the first roses to be beautiful all season long with superior disease resistance. It was also one of the first roses designated by Texas A&M University in their Earth Kind program. Carefree Beauty has since been used as a parent for countless other new rose varieties.
Buck was posthumously honored by the American Rose Society, which established an award for shrub roses in his name in 1997. He has also been awarded many other honors including Merit and Honor Awards from the Iowa State Horticultural Society, Iowa Nurserymen’s Merit Award, Red Rose Rent Day Appreciation Award, All-American Rose Selections, Inc. award for judging services, Award of Appreciation – Society of Iowa Florists, Honorary Life Membership Award – Society of Iowa Florists, and a Texas Rose Research Foundation Award.
In 1995, in conjunction with the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, the Iowa Arboretum developed a Buck Rose Evaluation Program, accommodating 300 original Buck roses and preserving them after ISU indicated they were no longer interested in continuing a rose breeding program. This program was part of the Center for Development of Hardy Landscape Plants, evaluating roses for floral traits, bloom pattern, plant size and habit, winter hardiness, disease and insect resistance, hip display, and fall color. Led by Kathy Zuzek, Marsha Richards, and Harold Pellett, this evaluation helped continue the research initially published in Roses for the North. The program concluded in the early 2000’s and many of the plants were donated back to ISU’s Reiman Gardens for their own Buck Rose Collection. This Iowa Breeder Garden contains a few of his most popular varieties.
The most complete collection of Buck roses can now be viewed at Reiman Gardens in Ames, IA.
Nan Ripley Daylilies
Nan Ripley began breeding daylilies in 1999 on the 10 acres she shares with her husband, Merwyn, near Nevada, IA. A retired Office Manager for the Athletic Compliance Department at Iowa State University, she has focused on hybridizing daylilies and gardening for over 20 years. Over her hybridizing tenure, she has won a plethora of awards, including the highly coveted Stout Silver Medal Award from the American Daylily Society (ADS). Her garden and breeding work have been featured in Martha Stewart Living and was recognized as an official ADS National Display Garden.

Ripley has been involved in local and national associations, serving as a Regional Director for ADS as well as the ADS Educational Outreach program director. Her garden has contained as many as 6,000 daylilies at one time, and she regularly cycles through up to 2,000 new seedlings every year as part of her breeding work.
Known particularly for vivid colors, petal shapes, and diamond dusting, Ripley has introduced 64 daylily introductions with notable varieties like ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ and ‘Bob’s Hawkeye Beauty.’ Her varieties can be purchased through her online nursery, Walkabout Gardens. Several of her varieties, both registered and unregistered can be viewed in this garden.
Additional Iowa Breeders
As this garden grows, we are constantly looking for plants from other Iowa breeders. Iowa State University’s horticulture program has introduced several notable plants, including the ‘Sunrise’ forsythia and ‘September Sun’ seaside alder. Dr. Eugene Coffman introduced the ‘Wavecrest’ viburnum (more information about him on the Coffman Viburnum Walk page). Many other hybridizers are also honored in the Iowa Hosta Garden. This garden also contains a ‘Kintzley’s Ghost’ honeysuckle named for William Kintzley the Iowa State University faculty member who developed the plant.
Back to Our Plants hompage
Plant Lists:
Agnes Whiting Irises:
Iris x ‘Arab Chief’ – Arab Chief iris
Iris x ‘Aurora Dawn’ – Aurora Dawn iris
Iris x ‘Blue Rhythm’ -Blue Rhythm iris
Iris x ‘Blue Zenith’ – Blue Zenith iris
Iris x ‘Burning Brand’ – Burning Brand iris
Iris x ‘Cadet Blue’ – Cadet Blue iris
Iris x ‘Cloth of Gold’ – Cloth of Gold iris
Iris x ‘Copper Frills’ – Copper Frills iris
Iris x ‘Crepe Suzette’ – Crepe Suzette iris
Iris x ‘Frivol’ – Frivol iris
Iris x ‘Gilt Edge’ – Gilt Edge iris
Iris x ‘Gold Sovereign’ – Gold Sovereign iris
Iris x ‘Harvest Moon’ – Harvest Moon iris
Iris x ‘Lavender and Gold Lace’ – Lavender and Gold Lace iris
Iris x ‘Lilac Lane’ – Lilac Lane iris
Iris x ‘Maytime’ – Maytime iris
Iris x ‘Midcontinent’ – Midcontinent iris
Iris x ‘Nylon’ – Nylon iris
Iris x ‘Pale Primrose’ – Pale Primrose iris
Iris x ‘Pink Clover’ – Pink Clover iris
Iris x ‘Raejean’ – Raejean iris
Iris x ‘Rocket’ – Rocket iris
Iris x ‘Rubient’ – Rubient iris
Iris x ‘Tea Rose’ – Tea Rose iris
Iris x ‘Three Oaks’ – Three Oaks iris
Iris x ‘Two Jewels’ – Two Jewels iris
Iris x ‘Vatican Purple’ – Vatican Purple iris
Iris x ‘Victoria’ – Victoria iris
Dr. Griffith J. Buck Roses
Rosa x ‘April Moon’ – April Moon rose
Rosa x ‘Prairie Princess’ – Prairie Princess rose
Nan Ripley Daylilies
Hemerocallis x ‘Bob’s Hawkeye Beauty’ – Bob’s Hawkeye Beauty daylily
Hemerocallis x ‘Cherry Arb’ – Cherry Arb daylily
Iowa State University selections
Lonicera reticulata ‘Kintzley’s Ghost’ – Kintzley’s Ghost honeysuckle
Other plants
Baptisia x ‘Twilight Prairieblues’ – Twilight Prairieblues false indigo
Heuchera x ‘Berry Smoothie’ – Berry Smoothie coralbells
Hemerocallis x ‘Siloam June Bug’ – Siloam June Bug daylily
Hydrangea paniculata ‘White Diamonds’ – White Diamonds panicled hydrangea
Rosa x ‘Black Cherry’ – Black Cherry rose
Rosa x ‘Daring Spirit’ – Daring Spirit rose
Rosa x ‘Double Delight’ – Double Delight rose
Rosa x ‘Jane Seymour’ – Jane Seymour rose
Rosa x ‘Love’ – Love rose
Rosa x ‘Sedona’ – Sedona rose
Salix x ‘Winter Gold’ – Winter Gold willow
Sedum x ‘Autumn Joy’ – Autumn Joy sedum