Inside RBG’s Iris Collection: Past, Present, and Future

Inside RBG’s Iris Collection: Past, Present, and Future

By Gianna Bazinet, Curator & Plant Records, Royal Botanical Gardens

Past

Irises have deep cultural significance, appearing in art, mythology, and traditional medicine across many civilizations. From ancient Egyptian gardens to Japanese woodblock prints, irises have been cherished for their colour, beauty and symbolism. The flower has been used in traditional herbal remedies and as a source of pigments and fragrances throughout history. RBG’s own iris collection has its own storied history – but the irises aren’t only living artifacts they have an important place in our present and future as well.

Our iris collection’s story started in 1945 when William J. Moffat, a Hamilton irisarian and mathematics teacher, made a generous donation of irises from his extensive collection. The original collection included over 200 cultivars: irises from Moffat’s garden, newer cultivars from Tennessee breeders, and historic irises from J. C. Taylor’s collection at the Department of Horticulture, OAC, Guelph. Based on this donation, the Spring Garden (currently known as Laking Garden) was created.  

Present + Future 

Currently, this historic collection is entering an exciting new chapter. 

With the support of the RBG community (staff, volunteers, donors), the irises will be moving to a new home at Hendrie Park! The ‘Global Garden’ space at Hendrie Park, characterized by the tall Bloodroot (Karl Unnasch) sculpture in the center, will become the new home of the iris collection.  

The move to Hendrie Park represents a thoughtful evolution in how RBG collections are exhibited. The new location offers several key advantages: reduced weed pressure, fresh soil conditions, and importantly, a more centralized and accessible space that brings our collections together for visitors to enjoy. This move takes a measured approach, moving portions of the collection while maintaining essential backups, ensuring each step is verified and assessed. This evolution extends beyond just the iris collection as the peony will move to Hendrie Park as well, following a similar strategic approach. 

In preparation for this move, extensive work has been undertaken, including planning, ongoing fundraising efforts, and an iris benchmarking project funded by the TAKLA foundation. The iris benchmarking project, a groundbreaking initiative for RBG, has given us valuable insights that will help us make thoughtful, informed decisions about the collection’s future. Today, our collection contains over 1,000 iris cultivars, including over 150 that are unique to RBG. The collection represents a significant piece of Canadian horticultural heritage, with 12% of our cultivars created by Canadian hybridizers. 

The benchmarking project confirmed what many iris supporters already knew—the collection’s strength lies in its diversity, spanning a range of hybridizers, forms, colors, heights, bloom times, ages, and rarities.  

The irises will gradually be moved to their new home after this year’s bloom in Laking Garden but before the first frost, an ideal window that allows them to establish roots before winter and supports our ongoing efforts to preserve and protect our rarest specimens.  

Looking ahead, we’re entering an exciting new chapter in the story of RBG’s iris collection. The move to Hendrie Park represents more than just a physical change – it’s another step forward in our dedication to preserving these botanical treasures. Our collection showcases decades of horticultural excellence and community support. Through careful planning and the enthusiastic backing of our RBG community, these remarkable flowers will continue to inspire and amaze future generations. 

While the irises are moving out of Laking Garden it will continue to be an important garden space for RBG. The bright future of Laking Garden involves transforming this garden into an exciting space focused on education and engagement. This reimagined area will connect people with plants in an innovative hands-on way, and we are excited to share more about this next chapter with our community soon.