Irises Make Beautiful Alternative To Wheat

The 70-minute drive from Spokane ends at the top of a gravel drive where a painted sign points to the Iris Test Garden.

There the greens, browns and grays of the Palouse give way to a vibrant sea of colors. Thousands of bearded heads, yellow, purple, peach, blue, violet and pink nod in the wind.

Plastic-bonneted women, all members of a homemakers club in Garfield, Wash., make their way on paths through the hip-high foliage. “Here’s some white ones over here,” an older woman calls out. A younger woman darts over with pen and paper to record the varieties’ names.

It’s another day on Jim and Janet Leifer’s iris farm near St. John, Wash.

More than 2,000 iris varieties grow on about nine acres. From mid-May until early July, the Leifers entertain scheduled tours of the farm and unscheduled visits from those who can find it.

The Leifers’ farm is likely the biggest attraction in the St. John area — at least during bloom season. Last year, more than 1,000 visitors found their way 15 miles off the Palouse Highway to the fields of flowers.

Iris inheritance

Most of the Leifers’ flowers have been around a long time, some longer than the Leifers themselves. The plants came from well-known iris enthusiast Austin Morgan, who grew and sold the flowers in College Place, Wash., near Walla Walla.

Morgan had grown many of these varieties for more than 35 years. And many of his plants came from even older gardens, some going back at least 80 years.

But several years ago, as Morgan’s health was failing, he wanted to pass his business to someone who would keep growing the irises he had fostered and bred. He chose the Leifers, who had shown sincere interest in continuing his legacy.

They began as wheat farmers, but irises are a growing side business as they seek an alternatives to wheat.

Back in 1987, as Jim Leifer looked at his tax return, he worried that most of his income was coming from government payments. “I knew that couldn’t last,” he said.

So he started studying alternative crops to the wheat and barley that are standard on nearly every farm in Whitman County.

“He came up to me one day and said we’re either going to do pigs or we’re going to do iris,” said Janet Leifer. For her, the choice was easy. “I didn’t want pigs around.”

The iris path led them to Morgan, known throughout the region for his flowers. Leifer spent four hours talking with him and touring his farm.

Two years later, the Leifers purchased 300 varieties of irises from Morgan. And when Morgan had to give up running his gardens in 1994, the Leifers bought the business, unearthed thousands of irises and moved everything to St. John.

Their first year, they lost 400 varieties to bleak weather.

Jim Leifer said the loss provided a lesson. “They died so we didn’t have to wait five years to find out they didn’t work (in this area).”

In 1995, they started their commercial sales and garden tours. Only 125 people came to visit that year. But what come out of their patches were plants that will survive. “I don’t want to sell flowers that won’t make it here,” Jim Leifer said. In fact, their largest field isn’t even irrigated, but the irises still flourish.

Normally the fields are ready for viewing after the second week in May and are in full bloom by Memorial Day. But this year, due to the cold spring “we didn’t hardly have a flower out (in mid-May),” Jim Leifer said.

Now though, the fields are approaching full bloom. The Leifers expect their irises to peak during the next three weeks. Though to this point they’ve grown more irises than they can sell, they’re also expecting more visitors this year than ever.

A family blossoms

Jim and Janet met 15 years ago. Both had been married before, but they knew right away they were meant for each other. “Two dates, a couple of phone calls and we’re married,” Janet Leifer said. Some of the odds were against them.

“I told Jim I would never marry a farmer or someone who didn’t drink coffee,” she said, laughing and cradling her own coffee mug one recent morning. “He’s both.”

They have three children and have been foster parents to nearly 20 more.

The whole family takes part in the iris farming. While Jim, who has a master’s degree in soils and agronomy, does the planting, Janet keeps track of the orders, updates the Web site and weeds. The children take on some of the tasks and entertain visitors who come to see the blooms. They also keep things going around the house while Jim is out in the 1,690 acres of wheat and barley fields that the family leases and farms.

Each July the Leifers unearth the rhizomes (the bulbs from which irises grow) and send them to customers who pay about $3.50 a plant. Last year they filled more than 400 orders.

“Everything is done by hand,” Janet Leifer said. “It goes from our dirt to your dirt in 10 days.”

But visitors to Leifer’s farm shouldn’t expect a sales pitch.

“Our job is to show the iris,” said Jim Leifer. “The flowers sell themselves.”

Many of their visitors come with a mission to find the right iris for their yards. Others, often retirees who live in nursing homes or apartments, just come to see the beautiful fields. Both types of visitors leave satisfied.

Loretta Harder, a senior member of the Besse Mechling home extension club, was stunned to find the Leifers’ bountiful iris patches on the Palouse. She insisted on walking out through the rows.

Her reaction:“This is out of this world.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: MORE DETAILS Leifer Web site More information on the iris and the Leifer farm and family can be found on their Web site: http://www.iristg.com