Anna is known as the Flower Lady of Elma.  She lives on Bowen Road, a busy north-south route on the eastern side of Buffalo.  Many a driver has slammed on his/her brakes to catch a glimpse of the gorgeous display of flowers in her front yard.   This happens most often when her favorite Japanese irises are in bloom.  However, there is a parade of blooms in her garden beginning in March when thousands of snowdrops and crocus burst forth and ending with the last mum in November. People stop all the time to chat with her about growing better flowers.  Anna has worshipped in her garden – God’s Cathedral – and co-created with the Lord when she hybridized Japanese irises and daylilies in the last 15 of her 90 year life.   With weeding and transplanting help, she still grows MDB, SDB, IB, MTB, TB, Siberian, Louisiana, species and of course Japanese irises. Among them are the seven cultivars of Japanese irises she hybridized and introduced.  At the 2008 Japanese Iris Society convention, her last introduction, a dwarf Japanese iris ‘Miss Buffalo’ drew enough attention that John Coble notified her they have included this iris for sale in the 2009 Ensata Catalog. 

‘Miss Buffalo’

Anna is being honored because of the many folks she got “hooked on growing irises”.  Demonstrating her enthusiasm for growing, showing and hybridizing new varieties of irises, she has brought many iris society members into the fold over the 30 years that she has belonged to the American Iris Society.  Every year she would exhibit irises at the WNYIS show, and then stay for hours to talk to show visitors.  Kathy Guest-Shadrack gave her the “Sitting Pretty Award” for selling “The Joy of Growing Irises” to folks.  Her loyalty to the Society was also demonstrated because, since 1985, Anna has donated annually around $500 worth of irises she grew to the WNYIS sale.  There were so many irises to prepare that even her husband Martin and daughter Maria pitched in and helped dig, clean and label rhizomes.  And then she would stay many hours at the sale showing customers how to grow Japanese irises.  Sale customers today still ask  ”Where is Anna?” 

Anna started growing seeds of Japanese irises which her friend Al Wirtz had hybridized.  For years Mom and I would go see his Japanese irises in his small garden in Kenmore and at exhibits when he took bloom stalks to local banks for folks to enjoy their beauty. Her hybridized lines contain forerunners of Art Hazzard’s from Michigan and a Dr. Nigishi’s from Japan with whom Al exchanged seeds at a national convention.  The Nigishi seedlings are the shorter types because in Japan they were grown in pots for enjoyment on indoor altars.  In honor of Al Wirtz and Anna Rettig, WNYIS gives to the best Japanese Iris in our local show the WIRTZ-RETTIG Award.  

Every visitor in her garden can tell you about the magnificent green-thumb Anna has.  When friends would auction and win expensive flowers at conventions, they would bring them to her to multiply.  Anna has a special growing knack, a direct line of blessing from the Lord.  She calls it “MISTUS – CHRISTUS” which translated from German means :   where there is manure, there is Christ (blessing things to grow).  She learned that lesson from her grandmother Schmidt in Yugoslavia who taught her how to garden.  As a widow (with no nursery in town) Grossmutter Schmidt would grow crops of flowers and sell them for income.  Her most famous crops were spring pansies, which Anna cared for.  In the streets, she had to gather oxen manure and make MANURE TEA which she used to feed the pansies.  In spring, when folks came to buy the blooming plants, Anna would cry “They are taking the prettiest ones!”   Grossmutter consoled her with “There will still be more beautiful ones coming into bloom”.  Grossmutter showed her how to collect and start seed, and how to hybridize to create double Stock flowers by cross pollinating the doubles with the singles, because only the singles produce seeds from which new doubles will grow.  To this day, she still ties strings on the special seed pods to be harvested and grow new seedlings from.  Anna’s legacy is that several of her seven grandchildren enjoy gardening, and so do five of her 13 great-grand children.  All grandchildren and great-grand children visit to enjoy her garden with her.  Anna still enjoys growing new varieties of flowers, “more beautiful ones coming into bloom!”