Thousands of Iris plants: Janice Topp, of Jackson Twp. sits on a bench in one of her 11 Iris gardens at her home in Jackson Twp. The gardens, all planted by her, include 3,000 Iris plants comprised of 303 varieties, some of which she hybrinated herself, as well as 200 Asiatic lilies and 33 day lilies and many hostas. She also has a vegetable garden, an array of fruit trees and many flowering shrubs. (Tribune photo by Alexandra Newman)

By ALEXANDRA NEWMAN

Janice Topp, of Jackson Twp., a modern day pioneer, has a great love for Iris plants. Her gardens are a tribute, her passion.

Topp recently gave a tour of her 11 flower beds to the Chesterton Tribune and shared stories of her experiences getting plants in her gardens and stories of the original homestead on the property she calls home.

“We’ll start down by the road,” said Topp, an extremely organized gardener. She has 303 varieties of Iris plants, each catalogued according to the garden in which it is planted and the date it was planted. She has 3,000 Iris plants.

The two gardens located by the road are filled with purple and yellow Irises. She even put a bench in the one closest to the road so that joggers and others walking by can sit down to take a break and enjoy the spectacular view.

“These plants don’t get much watering” she said, “unlike the hybrids by the house. These by the road depend on mother nature”.

Those by the house get special attention. The blooms are as spectacular as their names - Thunder Echo, Ruffle Surprise, Bountiful Harvest, Dusky Dancer, Orbiter, Aphrodisiac, Funny Girl, Firebreather, Fringe Benefits, Raspberry Fudge, Sugar Magnolia, Tiger Honey, and Hotdogs & Mustard, to name but a few.

“The one color that you’ll never find is a true red Iris,” she said as she goes through the names of the blooming beauties.

Topp belongs to the American Iris Society and does her own hybrination. Irises in her garden begin blooming in March and continue through June. Miniature Irises are like a ground cover for the exotic Irises by the house. She brought those her from the family farm in North Dakota.

“I grew up in North Dakota on a farm,” she said. “I milked cows, bailed hay, and did whatever was needed on the farm. I love orchids, and Irises look like orchids, so I began planting them. Through the years, I kept adding, and adding - I did the gardens by myself,” she continued.

She cleared the ground, carried the stone and placed it around each garden in which she put in the dirt and planted each plant- as well as various shrubs, trees, vegetable garden and patio. Some of the stone used for borders is the foundation of the original homestead.

One of the gardens is a memorial garden. It’s where she burried her pets. This garden includes Lilies and Hostas, Balloon plants, Astillbe, Choral Bells… She has 200 Asiatic lilies and 33 other kinds of Day Lilies.

Among her other flowers currently in bloom is a spectacular choral peony, a new variety in the peony family.

One garden is for vegetables. It is fenced off to keep out the deer. “We live off what I grow in the garden,” she said, adding that she cans some of it and she makes jelly and jam from the variety of fruit trees, berries and grape vines.

She also has 26 bird houses scattered throughout what could be called a retreat.

“It takes eight hours a week to mow the lawn,” she continued. She now has to divide the time instead of mowing it all at one time. Because of a bad back, she promised her doctor to slow down a little.

However, for her, slowing down is not piloting a plane (She belongs to Indiana Dunes Chapter and the Chicago Area Chapter of the Ninety-Nines, an International Organization of Women Pilots), or sky diving or parachuting - and breaking up the time she mows the yard. She continues to can the vegetables she plants, hand-sew quilts, sew appliques on clothing, and she teaches nursing at Purdue North Central. She has been a nurse for 42 years. She also likes to travel. She has been to the Arctic Circle, Hawaii and all over the world. This year she will be attending the family’s 75th reunion in North Dakota.

“I worked three jobs most of my life,” she said when asked how she does all that she does.

It is almost like destiny that Topp moved to this location. When the land was purchased, the original buildings were located here.

“The original house and outbuildings that were on the 34 acres were pre-Civil War era,” she said, adding she gave siding from one of the buildings to Jim Stricker, then president of the Association of Artists and Craftsmen of Porter County, who took them and used them for the Chesterton Art Center. A windmill still stands at the homestead site.

Topp gives tours to garden clubs and she gives bulbs to friends and family and starts to the garden clubs. She recently entertained the Ninety-Nines who came in from three states. She does not sell her plants, but she has left bulbs at the end of the road for neighbors to pick up.

“My plants are now growing in Alaska, Texas, Seattle and Maryland,” she said smiling that her flowers are prospering and being shared across the U.S.

Posted 5/31/2007