The Joyce Lockatell Memorial Garden was established in 1997 to promote the culture of tall bearded irises and companion perennials. It was created to help honor the memory of Mike Lockatell's late mother. After waging a long battle with colon cancer, she passed away in May 1996 as her favorite tall bearded were coming into bloom. These attractive perennial plants still remain the central focus of the Garden's main display beds.

The original plantings were located in the Westover Hills section of Richmond, VA. The Garden moved to a Tuckahoe address in West End Richmond for two years from 1999 through 2000. The Central Virginia Iris Society had the Garden on its spring tour during this time period.

The size and scope of the garden continued to grow requiring relocation to a site in the Flatrock section of Powhatan County. Massive construction work resulted in the establishment of four display beds covering 34,000 square feet. These plantings featured bearded iris varieties and seedlings, herbaceous peonies and Siberian iris varieties and seedlings. The garden reopened for public visitation in Spring 02. Virginia Homegrown seen on WCVE TV in Richmond filmed a segment during bloom season for its May broadcast. The Garden also received additional notice from Powhatan Today Newspaper. It published a story written by fellow Powhatan Garden Club member Pam Mann. The flattering article helped boost public visitation by County residents the following spring.

Despite an abnormal wet spring in 03, the Garden broke all attendance records particularly on Mother's Day fueled in part by a timely mention in the Home Section of the Richmond Times Dispatch. Visitors arrived from across the state of Virginia to see the display beds in peak bloom. After bloom season was over, an article written by Victoria Lewkow appeared in the July issue of Richmond Magazine.

The Garden's increased attendance and media attention led to the site's landlord to request no further public visitation of the display space. We embarked on an intense effort the following winter and spring of 2004 to identify and purchase a permanent home for the plantings. The search did not uncover any sensible options at that time. A deadline of October1, 2005 was established to remove the entire garden from the Flatrock location. Work began in earnest after spring bloom to dig bearded iris named varieties plus Zurbrigg and Lockatell seedlings. Deadline extensions allowed us to move the Siberian iris and herbaceous peony beds through the remainder of the fall into winter 06.

Thanks to the cooperation of fellow Powhatan Garden Club member Joan Cosby and her husband, Gabe, the Garden has moved to a new location on their former family dairy farm in Western Powhatan County. Construction of new display beds commenced in June 06. Work to date has succeeded in reestablishing plantings for bearded iris named varieties and seedlings with an emphasis on rebloom. The scope of the Siberian plantings has changed. The new display has tripled in size featuring some of the latest varieties on the market plus Lockatell seedlings.

The herbaceous peony plantings are still a work in progress. These heirloom perennials are a time investment. Despite using potted examples for the new display areas, plants typically need multiple growing seasons to produce mature flowers. We however expect reasonable flowering this spring on a number of personal favorites and many new varieties previously grown in containers. We are looking forward to public visitation during peak bloom in mid May.