Historic Iris Preservation Soc.
- To: irisarians <I*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Historic Iris Preservation Soc.
- From: N* L* <7*@CompuServe.COM>
- Date: 04 Aug 96 14:21:04 EDT
Donald: Glad you asked about HIPS (the Historic Iris Preservation Society). I
think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and wish there were a daylily
equivalent!
HIPS members get the spring and fall issues of 'Roots', an excellent
newsletter. There's a sale of historic varieties each season, and a symposium
(by eras: pre-1900, 1900-1910s, 1920s, etc.). The society also designates HIPS
display gardens, a list of which is published in the newsletter. The
newsletter also regularly contains a list of commercial sources for older iris.
Also, there are the 'locator' services: There is a person who will find
commercial sources for cultivars if they exist. If they don't, the HIPS Data
Bank, which is a listing of cultivars with all the places they're
grown/available from, comes into play: members can submit two or three
cultivars sought to the Data Bank collector, who will steer the seekers to
someone growing them for possible sale or swap. The Data Bank list of
cultivars itself is published each year: varieties for which sources exist
(either commercial or growing in gardens), with notation when there is only one
known source. Members are encouraged to submit the list of historics they're
growing to the Data Bank each year.
A committee of people who know their older irises is also available to help
identify unknowns for members.
Other publications: Although they're available to all AIS members, the
reprintings of the 1939 and 1949 checklists were the results of HIPS lobbying,
I believe. HIPS itself sells back issues of 'Roots' (beginning fall of '88),
and 'Chronicles' on the work and cultivars of different hybridizers, as well as
some reprinted early catalogs. The auction at the HIPS meeting at the national
convention is another source for very rare and wonderful old iris documents.
And there are half a dozen excellent slide shows, organized by era, hybridizer,
award winners, etc.
And finally: our very own convention is on the horizon, hosted by Region 2
(possibly next year but more probably the season after? I'm not sure. We're
stoked, whenever it is!).
Membership info is on Scott's new AIS web page; I'd put it here but gotta go
plant irises.
Nell Lancaster, Lexington, VA 75500.2521@compuserve.com USDA zone 6b
