The 72-year-old Smith politely gave one to Office Manager Leigh Dallas. Then he said there were plenty more where that came from.
Smith told of acres of numerous types of Iris’s located on his 36-acre property in Red Boiling Springs.
Later in the afternoon, the Times took a trip to the east side of the county. Upon arriving at his residence on Bennett Hill Road, it quickly became apparent that Smith was not exaggerating.
Doyle had lots of flowers all right – 500 types of Iris’s located on about two-and-half acres.
“You’re going to see some that are going to knock your eyeballs out,” Doyle correctly said.
People come from all around to see them. They come from Spring Hill, McMinnville, Cookeville.
“I’ve got more people that come from Clay County, Jackson County, Sumner County and Kentucky than I do from Macon County – and I don’t understand it,” Doyle said. “It don’t cost them a thing.”
Not all the field was in bloom on this day, though.
By this Saturday, Doyle and wife Lucille estimate that 85 percent or more of the field should be in bloom, and they’ve got a big party planned for occasion.
The Smiths will have a bluegrass county/gospel band on hand for the blooming celebration.
The Smith’s house is located at 617 Bennett Hill Road – and that land has belonged in the Smith family for generations.
Doyle was born in Red Boiling Springs. Lucille was born in Clay County but moved to Red Boiling Springs when she was 10. Both went to Red Boiling Springs for school.
Doyle was in the Army when the couple was married October 20, 1962.
The couple moved to Nashville in 1963 and lived there until Doyle retired.
Doyle retired four years ago. He worked as a barber in the Music City.
“I’m just an old country boy, but let me say something about the people in Nashville,” Doyle said. “I ran into some great people down there. Of course, I was the best barber you ever seen anyhow. But I love those people. They were good to me and I miss them. I don’t go back.”
In the four years since he retired, Doyle has only been back to Nashville twice.
Doyle’s barber shop in Nashville is named “Doyle’s” and is located right off Harding Place on Antioch Pike. One of his three sons, Denny, runs the shop these days. Doyle’s other two sons are named David and Darren.
Doyle’s love for Iris’s began thanks to a customer – Elmore Marshall – at the barber shop.
“I knew he was into greenhouses and things like that,” Doyle recalled. “One day he was in there and said, ‘Doyle, you ought to come down and see my flowers.’ I asked him what kind of flowers he was talking about and he said Iris’s.”
Doyle’s mother had some Iris’s that he recalled from previous years. Doyle, at that time, was unimpressed.
“I don’t care nothing about no Iris,” Doyle recalled telling Elmore back in 1995.
“Doyle,” Elmore said, “these are hybrid. They’re a different color. You need to come and see them.”
Elmore lived about two miles from the barber shop, so Doyle decided he’d stop by and have a look on the way home from work one day.
“He had maybe 135,” Doyle recalled. “I looked at them, and I went home and ate and I said, ‘Lucille, you need to go out there and see them Iris’s.’”
Lucille tagged along on the next trip to Elmore’s place, at which point Elmore gave Doyle 14 Iris’s.
Doyle brought those 14 back to Red Boiling Springs and planted them – and he’s been doing so ever since.
“When they started growing and blooming, we’d have some people stop in,” said Doyle, noting that the couple hadn’t yet built the house on their land in RBS at that time. “They’d never seen colors like this.”
Within a week, Doyle got a book advertising different types of Iris’s and ordered him 86 of them, to make an even 100 with the 14 Elmore had given him.
Every year the company would send Doyle a book and every year he’d order a few more Iris’s.
“I’d see another one I’d want to see in the bloom,” he said. “I’ve got better than 500 of them out there now.”
Doyle keeps several Iris’s on hand to give away for free. It’s a hobby, not a job.
“I didn’t want to create a job,” Doyle said. “It’s a hobby for me. But I’ve got money in those root systems. I don’t want to sell them. I try to discourage them from buying them, but if they want them – that’s not what I’m in it for.
“I want people to come and see them and take pictures of them. But I do sell them.”
Lucille spoke up to clarify Doyle’s position.
“If those ladies find something they can’t live without, he sells them,” Lucille said. “A lot of them will go down there and find something they can’t live without. If they really want them, he will sell them.”
The land has been in Doyle’s family since the time it was first deeded in the 1800s.
Going back in generations, it belonged to Doyle’s dad, Martin E. Smith, who had Doyle when he was 72.
Going back another generation, the land belonged to Doyle’s grandfather, Nathan Thomas Smith.
And this Saturday, lots of folks will be on hand on that very land for the blooming festivities.
“There’ll be some pickin’ and grinnin’ going on,” Doyle said.
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