Vern McCaskill

Billie Lee and Vern built their home, and opened a nursery on South Michillinda Avenue in Pasadena, California, in 1932.^[6][7] Specialising in Camellias and Azaleas, the business became the largest Camellia nursery in the southern California region.^[8] Over his horticultural career, between 1930 and 1988, McCaskill developed 72 Camellia japonica cultivars and eight non-reticulata hybrids between 1930 and 1988.^[9][10] In the 1970s, due to the long periods of time needed to create new Camellia cultivars and hybrids, McCaskill switched to Iris ser. Californicae, and started to sell Iris cultivars.^[11]

As an accredited Camellia judge,^[12] McCaskill also became the director of the Southern California Camellia Society.^[7] He was the editor of the first Camellia nomenclature book in 1942, entitled Classification of Camellias.^[13] it listed 196 varieties. He also edited the first Camellia taxonomy work in 1947 with William E. Woodroof and O.L. Eakin, with 911 cultivars, as The Camellia, Its Culture and Nomenclature.^[13]

Vern is credited as hybridisers of the following irises:

• Iris 'Hidden Shadows' ^[14]
• Iris 'Kaweah Maiden' ^[15]
• Iris 'Kaweah Sunrise' ^[16]
• Iris 'Showers of Flowers' ^[17]

• The Camellia, Its Culture and Nomenclature, edited with William E. Woodroof and O.L. Eakin (1947).
• The December 1954 issue of the Camellia Review includes a photograph of Billie Lee being presented with an award, alongside her husband Vern, and son Jack.