Bryan Dodsworth
Biography
Bryan Dodsworth (1920-2009) is the most celebrated C20 British Breeder Tall Bearded Irises. He lived at East Bridgford in Nottinghamshire where he bred his irises over fifty years, winning the prestigious UK Dykes Medal for new irises twelve times.
Educated at Bramcote in Scarborough, and then Rugby School, he goes up to Oxford in 1938 just before the start of the Second World War. Enlisting in the Royal Artillery, he serves in North Africa and then as part of the Combined Operations Bombardment Unit (COBU) is awarded the Military Cross in the D-Day Landings in 1944. In the final stages he is involved in the campaign to liberate Holland, and later in Malaya.
Qualified as a Solicitor in York. In 1949 joins Raleigh in Nottingham (later Tube investments) as Company Secretary and works for TI as a Director until he retires in 1975.
Interest in Irises
(i) Attending regular Board Meetings in London Bryan visits Kew Gardens regularly. Here he gets to know the celebrated Head Gardener, George Preston. Attracted initially by the sheer beauty of an iris flower, the number of different varieties and wide colour range, this fosters a lifelong passion for Tall Bearded Irises.
(ii) In 1960’s he is drawn to American irises and begins importing them and started a hybridising programme that was to last over fifty years. However, by the 1970’s the American irises he likes are no longer available. In their place comes an endless stream of large bloomed varieties, with ever more strident colour mixes. Increasingly, he finds the American irises do not react well to British weather conditions, and his losses prove both costly and substantial. This sequence of events is the spur to develop his own particular strain of British Irises.
Annabel Jane
Fifty Years Striving for Perfection in Form and Colour
- Producing over 50,000 seedlings, yet registering less than sixty-five varieties, of which over fifty are to be found in this Collection.
- Sets extremely high standards himself as an Iris Hybridiser, and expects others to do the same. Incredibly rigorous in plant selection of plant, with only top-notch irises, the best. Only the very best will do.
- Exhibiting irises successfully at British Iris Society Shows for over thirty years, he wins the coveted Dykes Medal for Iris Hybridising twelve times. No one has won the Medal more than four times previously. Instituted by John Rikatson Dykes, a founder member of the RHS in 1927, nearly one hundred years ago, this record is unlikely to be bettered.
- Known as the creator of the ‘Quintessential Modern British Iris’.
Iris Hybridiser
Bryan sought three things in his hybridising:
(i)Plants with great form and structure.
– Perfect Flower Shape and of a size in proportion to the height of the stem.
– Flowers carried on branches spaced evenly along the stem
Stunning Peach Pink Bearded iris
Branching is incredibly important and allows you to enjoy each flower from a distance. It is almost entirely absent from many modern iris hybrids. This took him many years to perfect.
(ii)Flowers robust enough to withstand the Nottinghamshire wind and rain. Essential in his windy garden on the top of a hill overlooking the Trent
(iii) Flowers with clear, clean colours; of the same colour or shades of the same colour. To him the shape of the Iris flower is perfection personified. It owes everything to the balance between the ‘Standards’ (the three vertical petals) and the ‘Falls’ (the three horizontal petals). And, in his view nothing destroys the sense of balance more than a change of colour.
‘Hots’- William of Orange
This is why his irises are largely the same colour known as ‘Selfs’, or shades of the same colour, ‘Bi-Tones’.
Distinctiveness
This unique combination is the hallmark characteristic of Bryan Dodsworth’s irises and makes this Collection unusual and highly distinctive. Compare this to many modern iris hybrids with sharply contrasting colours and colour mixes. These irises may be interesting close up, but, viewed from any distance, you lose the definition of the flower. They have no place in his garden.
Garden Design/Planting
These irises are of great interest to gardeners and garden designers today. Why not design your own colour palette with his clear clean colours? Enjoy ‘cools’ (whites and blues) and mix these with ‘softs’ (pinks and pale lilac or yellows) for contrast. Alternatively, if your taste is for something stronger, use the ‘Hots’ (Orange, Reds, Magentas) and mix these with the ‘Softs’, and see how well they work. These single-coloured irises are both unusual and so useful in any planting scheme.
Wide Colour Palette – The Colours of the Rainbow
Legacy
Bryan Dodsworth died in 2009. The late Barry Emmerson, Bryan’s student for the last twenty years of his life, helps Simon after his father’s death. Working together they identify all the irises in the walled garden at East Bridgford, before moving them to Norfolk when the Nottinghamshire House was sold.
Barry Emmerson
In 2016 Simon registers the Collection with Plant Heritage: ‘Tall Bearded Irises Raised by Bryan Dodsworth’. That year Gardeners World runs a feature on the irises.
Collaboration with Doddington
Finding a permanent home for my late father’s Iris Collection was always a long-term aspiration. Here at Doddington we have good working relations both with Claire and James Birch, and with Antony Jarvis who for over forty years has taken a particular interest in the Iris Collections. We also work closely with the Gardens and Admin Teams who provide tremendous support.
We are involved with the design of the new Iris Border and responsible for the Planting Plan. This serves both to highlight the vibrant colour range and extend the flowering period to the maximum, through mixes of ‘Early’, ‘Mid’, ‘Late’ and ‘Very Late’ varieties. We hope you enjoy what you see.
Irises For Sale
Some of the irises from the Collection are for sale. They can be purchased from the English Iris Company. In future years we hope to extend the range as more plant material becomes available.
Simon Dodsworth
May 2026
+44(0)7789 670299
