Heritage iris garden leaves a legacy of beauty, community

11:37 PM CDT on Tuesday, October 27, 2009

By Les Cockrell / Region Editor

Alyce Specht shared her love of flowers with Denton for more than half a century, and this Saturday her gardening legacy will benefit a local school.
—CREDIT—
Alyce Specht

Specht died in June at age 95, but heritage iris bulbs from her garden, which provided 150 feet of color adjacent to McKenna Park, will be on sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Denton Christian Preschool.

Mixed iris plants, freshly dug, trimmed and packaged, will be offered in quantities of 10 per bag for $10 during the sale, which will be at the preschool, 1114 W. University Drive.

"I hope it’s great," Specht’s daughter, Melody Kelly, said of the sale. "The preschool was Mother’s favorite charity."

Denton Christian Preschool, a United Way agency, serves about 60 at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds.

In addition to helping out the school, the sale also should find good homes for all the irises lovingly cultivated by her mother through the years, Kelly said.

"My brother and I have been worried about what to do with her heritage irises," she said. "Mother took care of them for longer than she did us. There are thousands of them."

Many local residents used her mother’s flowers as a backdrop for family photos through the years, Kelly said.

"There were frequently photographers at the north end of McKenna Park taking photos of the irises in her backyard," she said. "People would stop and spend a great deal of time taking photos."

Melody Specht Kelly trims irises her mother, Alyce Specht, planted years ago in the McKenna Park flower bed behind her home. Since Specht’s death in June, her children have decided to dig up the flowers and donate them to the Denton Christian Preschool benefit iris sale scheduled for Saturday.
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Her mother began her garden with a collection of irises transplanted from her family home in Marlin, Kelly said. She later added different varieties from many sources, including some that were given to her by friends at First United Methodist Church of Denton.

"Through her church work, she visited elderly women, and when they could no longer care for their gardens, they gave them [irises] to Mother," Kelly said.

Saturday’s sale will provide a grab bag of iris varieties, she said.

"The idea of a Halloween sale reminded me of when I was a child," she said. "The Halloween carnivals had grab bags, and you paid your dime and got whatever was in there."

Likewise, shoppers on Saturday could find different iris varieties in each of their bags, she said.

"Over the years, they’ve all gotten mixed," Kelly said of her mother’s flowers. "While some of the bulbs may be quite valuable, we don’t know exactly where they are."

Kelly said her mother enjoyed working in her garden until she was 94.

"She was tiny, but she could really dig and move fertilizer bags around," Kelly said. "She was very independent."

Her mother would be pleased about the sale, Kelly said.

"She really worried about what would happen to her irises," she said.

Ginger McCormack, business manager at Denton Christian Preschool, said the sale will help continue Specht’s legacy of giving to her community.

"Alyce was wonderful about donating items to the school," McCormack said. "Next spring, the irises should be blooming all over the city."

For more information about the sale, call Denton Christian Preschool at 940-383-3332.

LES COCKRELL can be reached at 940-566-6887. His e-mail address is lcockrell@dentonrc.com .