Our first speaker this year was Lucy Skellorn from Suffolk. Lucy grew up in
Stowmarket and a picture of her great- great-grandfather Sir Michael Foster
hung on the wall in her parents’ home. “ We knew he was involved in Iris
breeding but not much more”. Sir Michael was a Physiologist, MP,
teacher and writer but his passion was the Iris flower. Whilst he worked at
Trinity College in Cambridge he lived in Great Shelford and it was here he
developed new species of Iris. He had many friends who travelled the world
and he would ask them to bring him back iris plants. By observing the
plants he introduced tetraploids , species that have four sets of
chromosomes rather than two. These plants were floriferous and many had
a good scent. He became the father of Iris breeding.
After working in London Lucy moved back to Suffolk and studied
horticulture. A chance meeting she had with Sarah Cook, a former head
gardener at Sissinghurst and collector of Irises grown by Cedric Morris,
inspired her to find out more about the man whose picture hung on the
wall.
Whilst clearing her family home she found correspondence of her mothers
with the Iris Preservation Society. This led her to The Linnean Society where
she found all Sir Michael’s meticulous notes and records of his work. This
spurred Lucy on to find as many as possible of her great-great-grandfathers
collection. She now holds the official Foster Iris collection at her home.
There are still many to be found and sadly some may be lost forever. Lucy
kindly brought some plants to sell at the meeting.
Due to covid her plans to exhibit at Chelsea were cancelled. In 2022 she
was invited back and won a Gold Medal. Lucy’s passion was certainly
evident in her excellent talk and her work has led her to become involved in the restoration of Benton End House and Garden once the home of artists Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines.
Heather Scally
