Lucy Skellorn, Foster Irises

When Lucy was growing up in her family home near Stowmarket, she remembered an oil painting of her great, great, grandfather hanging on the wall. As a child she was aware that he had something to do with irises but had no idea quite how famous he was in his day.

 He was, in fact, Sir Michael Foster, (1836 - 1907) physiologist, MP, teacher, writer and a passionate collector of irises, often referred to as ‘the father of iris breeding.’ He worked at Trinity College in Cambridge and lived at Gt Shelford where he spent his leisure time developing new irises. Much of his source material was brought back from such places as Turkey, the Middle East and China.

 Iris amas was developed from a specimen found in Turkey in 1885 and became a source for many hybrids, bred for larger flowers of a robust nature with prolific flowering. Sir Michael Foster introduced many new varieties including Mrs Horace Darwin, a white flower with purple veining, named after Charles Darwin’s daughter in law and Iris Caterina, one of Lucy’s favourites, with blue flowers and a good fragrance.

 Lucy has worked in in the gardens of Helmingham Hall and Ickworth House, amongst others. This encouraged Lucy’s mission to find as many of her great, great grandfather’s irises as possible. She now holds the official Foster iris collection in her garden in Ringshall, near Stowmarket.