Schoolboy wins top iris award

Press, 12 November 1981, Page 1

Schoolboy wins top iris award

A schoolboy, Richard Mumberson, aged 14, took the limelight yesterday at the Christchurch Iris Circle’s annual show in the Horticultural Hall: his spike of the tall, blue, bearded variety, Full Tide, won the premier award for the best bloom in the show.. Richard Mumberson was at school when the judges announced the award. His mother, Mrs Ina Mumberson, who accepted the award, said it would be a “great thrill” for him. Mrs Mumberson is a noted grower of irises, and has won many awards for her blooms, but she said she had no hand in her son’s success. “It was all his own work; he chose it, he bought it, and he grew it.” Irises from various parts of Canterbury are on show and according to experienced growers yesterday the standard is very high, in spite of a poor season — which makes Richard Mumberson’s achievement the more meritorious. The other big award, the Edith Currie Cup, for a harmonious display of six different bearded irises, was won by Edith Shaw. Ron Busch was runner up. A feature of the show this year is a big increase in the number of Californian hybrid irises. Several exhibitors showed blooms of high quality raised from seed obtained from Dr Lee Lenz, a leading Californian hybridist, but a local grower who stole the show. Joy Peck, of Christchurch, won the main award in this section with blooms which she had hybridised. Another outstanding feature of the show is a noncompetitive one, a colourful display of spuria and sibirica irises by one of New Zealand’s leading iris growers, Jean Collins, of Tauranga. The name of the aggregate winner — the exhibitor gaining the biggest number of points — was not available yesterday. A new award, “Queen of the Show,” is introduced this year for the best bloom on the second day of the show, and the total will not be computed until this award has been made today. The show, will be open to the public from 10 a.m.