INFO: Bios

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Introductions from some Iris-L subscribers,
compiled by Kathy Guest.
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I'm a new AIS member and have been growing TBs for many years.  Last year, we
added several dozen from Cooley's catalog, along with some Siberians a friend
sent me.  I'm very eager to add some Japanese iris this year and have sent
for a catalog.

We live in Central Ohio and garden in spite of heavy alkaline clay.  The
flower beds are much augmented with peat moss and compost for the ease of the
gardener, who doesn't like to chip plants out of bricks!  In addition, it
enables us to
grow flowers that don't appreciate being incased in cement, --like iris!

We also grow daylilies, daffodils, peonies, and shrub roses, in addition to
other perennials.

Connie Abel
Powell, Ohio, AIS, no idea what AIS region!!


Dear iris friends,

Although I'm a relative newcomer to the iris world. (5 years in the iris
society), I'm definitely an enthusiast.

When we moved to a 2.5 acre lot on the southern outskirts of Denver, I
started buying irises in all the bearded classes and I began hybridizing.  We
grow about 800 named varieties and I have about 1000 seedlings.

I enjoy entering shows, I have become a Garden Judge, and am a director of
the Aril Society International and of AIS Region 20.  I'm a teacher in the
Cherry Creek district.  Three more years to retirement and full time irising!

Some highlights of my iris-related experiences have been visiting the gardens
of Ben Hager and Keith Keppel in California (which I wrote about in the
Bulletin) and attending the Albuquerque Aril Society show the past 2 years.
 In my opinion, the aril seedlings of the late Howard Shockey are the
outstanding hybridizing achievement of recent years, and he always showed
them at the AAS show.

Lowell Baumunk
Littleton, Colorado

Having lurked for a couple of days, perhaps I too should do the decent thing
and introduce myself.

I live in Hampshire, UK, which is roughly halfway along the bottom bit of
England.  Temperatures here are quite mild for the latitude (I think that's
the right one -?) with winter minimum temperature of -8C  and summer maximum
about 32C.  Mostly though it hovers around the median.

Personal Iris interests centre upon the more alpine species, but the bearded
ones in the border do their bit too!  Recent acquisitions include I. attica
and I. ruthenica nana, but my pride & joy are my I. cycloglossa which I
raised from seed and which haven't even flowered yet...   Maybe 1996?

Ever hopefully  -  Ian Black


Hello everyone:

Tom asked us to post a brief introduction so that's what I'm doing! I'm
a
beginning iris grower in Zone 6. Irises have always been one of my
favorite flowers - but it's only recently that I've gotten interested in
growing them. So, I'm on this list to learn as much as possible about
irises and growing irises - all types - and to, hopefully, contribute
from my own new experiences.

I planted a new bed of bearded irises this past summer and had excellent
growth from the flags before winter. I hope that our terribly harsh
winter hasn't hurt them! The bearded irises I planted this year are all
pastels - a pastel iris bed - which I'm looking forward to! I hope to do
another iris bed with blues and purples. I also have a small bed with
some Dutch irises. I want to try other types of irises, particularly the
Japanese varieties. Is it true those can be grown in some shade?  I'm
interested in planting some Japanese irises on the northwest exposure of
my house.

Looking forward to participating in the list!

Rosemary Carlson
Lexington, KY
Zone 6
ro.carls@morehead-st.edu


My first garden plants were iris.  I helped my mother dig a twenty year
old bed, 8 x 8, of old, hierloom bearded iris (at tall white, and medium
blue/purple), and ended up with several hundred (it seemed) extra
rhizomes, which I put in several locations through my yard.  Since i've added
about twenty other bearded cultivars, and grown several Dutch Iris varieties
and a miniature bulbous iris, too!
Our area is obviously ideal for bearded iris, judging by the stands of
flags in pastures, surrounding the foundations of long-gone homes, though I've
only seen a couple of clumps of Siberian, and don't think I've ever seen
Japanese, Louisiana, or I. cristata.
It's great to have a gardening list to talk over one of my favorite
plants with fellow gardeners.  I expect to learn a lot!

Scott Corbin
Madill, OK  Zone 7  (Southcentral...in the arms of Lake Texoma)


All Hail To The robin
This the first time I have had the courage to enter this group in writing .I
do have reams of your erudite and nutty conversations .We are the Davis,
Dirty Hands Doug & Mother Muriel. We live in Southern Cal., Long Beach, to be
precise .We live near the L.A. River ,so our soil is fine silt. It is so fine
that water sensetive South African plants easily  die from lack of water
with regular watering . We have composted
Does it help to know everything for 30 yrs. and still the soil is WELL
DRAINED. O Well. We grow most of our own salad materials ,tomatoes for
canning & drying,, herbs for year round  use ,oranges, lemons, limes
,linequats, avocados ,and plums .We live in town on a city lot and a half.
Ours is the original farm house for this area .Years ago I had quite an iris
garden I even did some hybridizing. With an up and growing family most of
that" went the way of." Im trying to get back into growing iris again. Our
soil will grow arils quite well. I want to also grow Japanese Iris, and TBs.
To help round out who we are, I paint, grow Bonsai ,do butterfly gardening
(really), feed hummingbirds ,collect Mud men(20-40s Chinese figures),collect
depression glass(Fire king ,) My wife collects Princess Pattern Depression
Glass and we take care of the grand children, A LOT. We have more to say
 than this, but Ill let it go for now.
>>>>Iris are quite hardy but I have no idea about how they fair in places
like Southern CAso I expect you wont have problems.( Cheryl & Erich
Schaefer)
Well let me tell you about our problems: First of all, with out frequent
earthquakes  TB"s are almost out of the question because there is structural
damage to such high rise iris .After each tremor there are acres of TBs
 shattered  because they were poorly designed and constructed.  The
miniatures  do much better during earthquakes. Now ,as to the wild fires
  that regularly sweep the country side, the TBs again do poorly .When we
have whats called a crown fire ,the fire sweeps across and burns the
blossoms  of the tops of  the TBS. The miniatures do well unless we have
whats called a ground fire .Then they are in trouble. FLOODS: We like floods
because our soil can use the water. ( WE are well drained ( The soil))
    RE-BLOOMING:  Im  afraid I dont understand .We may have a problem. We
didnt know that they were supposed to stop blooming. How can we in SO. CAL.
Get ours to stop blooming so that we can be more like every one else ? Can
you get back to me on this? COLD: WE had to put long pants on the other day.
Bummer
Until later
Dirty Hands Doug & Mother Muriel


Hello, all!  I am an irisarian gardening in Newfield, N.Y. (near Ithaca, home
of Cornell University).  I've been raising irises for 10+ years, and have
also been an AIS member about that long.  Started out with TBs, like most
folks.  Dabbled with arils and arilbreds, not terribly successfully, though I
still grow a few.

Got interested in Siberians, started collecting those and joined the Siberian
Iris Society.  My next infatuation was with Japanese irises, so now have some
of them and below to the Society for Japanese Irises.  Also got interested in
species, and joined the Species Iris Group of North America.  I'm also a
member of the Spuria section, though I have only half a dozen of those, and
they're proving challenging.

This Christmas brought me memberships in HIPS and the Median Section, so now
I'm hopelessly overextended on section memberships.   Just keeping up with
the publications is challenging.  I probably have about 250 different
varieties of irises; mostly TBs, with smaller amounts of nearly everything
else. I'd like to know how people manage to keep up with 1,000 varieties or
so!

I' ve been to several AIS conventions, which I enjoy enormously.  Probably
will not make it to Sacto this year, but have reservations for the M.A.S.S.
(Mad about Species and Siberians) event--or is it Mad About Siberians and
Species)?  I'm finding the "mini" conventions every bit as much fun as the
nationals.  They're also a terrific learning experience.  Hope this list is,
also.  Thanks to all who have made it possible!
Dorothy Fingerhood


Not to be a list hog, but I jumped in with a question before I saw a
request for introductions.....

In addition to my struggling Siberians and my thriving I. pseudocorus I
have several varieties (a piddling 10 probably) of bearded iris--these
are not my favorites.  I grow the I. cristata, have a few Japanese Iris
varieties (including the only rarity I have in my collection--one with
variegated foliage that is not really commerically available yet--they
were selling a few at the Middleburg, VA Garden Symposium last March), a
Louisiana hybrid "Black Gamecock" and, against my better judgment I
planted some dutch iris this year (love the flowers, hate the foliage).

I love all gardening, but I'd say my greatest interest is in perennials
and native plants of all types.  I do want to expand my
plantings of water-loving iris of all types.

Debbie Green
dxgree@facstaff.wm.edu


I might be backing up, but I see that people are introducing themselves, so I
will too.  My name is Kathy Guest and I am tickled pink that Tom has started
this list.  I've been on the Daylily list since late summer and it's a
wonderful medium.

I do my iris gardening in East Aurora, NY (suburb of Buffalo) and, although I
grow every kind of iris that will tolerate our climate, I have special
affection for the beardless types.  I was just elected RVP of Region 2 and I
was chair of the WNY Iris group for 4 years.  Our philosophy is "this is
supposed to be fun", so we try to keep a good mix of education and
socializing in our club.

I belong to the Japanese and Iris sections and I'm considering the species.
 I love the modern varieties best and have only a couple of 'historics'.  My
screen name is "Irisborer" because my sweet husband, Leonard, (a
non-gardener) was present at a talk I gave once where I mentioned the
"dreaded iris borer", he thought I said "iris BORE" and said that this
describes me!  He struck me funny.

Kathy Guest (I don't think I'm boring at all!)


Hi!
My name is Jules Hojnowski.  I like to grow Japanese, Tall bearded,
Siberians, and Lousiana Iris. I'm currently working with Kathy Guest to
produce a web page for Japanese Iris.  If you have any suggestions for iris
that you would like to see on the web, please feel free to let me know, and
I'll see
what I can do.  I live in Ithaca, NY and work at Cornell University with
computers.

Thanks!  Hope to hear from all of you soon!

Jules

Hi,

I'm a new list member as of two days ago.  My mother has always had iris
in the garden, and I have helped her collection by getting some colors I
did not remember her having.  I know them by sight, but am lacking in any
other information/knowledge.  I want to learn.

We are in the process of buying a house, and I have a nice garden spot
picked out and can hardly wait to dig in (pardon the pun).  I want to put
in a couple of dwarf citrus, some roses and iris to start.  I need to
know more about them (space, companion plantings, spacing, hardiness, and
the rest).  I am in southern California, the Los Angeles area.  I noticed
some of you are putting in zone numbers, where do you look that up?

Would appreciate pointers, books to read, and the like.  We are moving to
a higher desert area, both colder and hotter than where we are now.  Also
more wind conditions.    Up till now, we have lived in an apartment, &
have a tiny shaded "garden" that has mostly potted plants, from jade
plants to pregnant onions to roses, both minis and bush types.  I can
grow African Violets on the window ledge successfully; and figure a real
garden to be a treat worth waiting for.  I finally have a sunny location!

I do not know about garden clubs in our new town, but will find out in a
month or so.  We are in the process of learning more about our new
location other than how to get to the house and back out to the freeway
without getting lost ;)  and so I figure the grocery store first and then
the local nursery.

I look forward to meeting you on the list.

Pat Hollenbeck


Hi everyone, I'm brand new to the list, which I heard about
simultaneously from a member of a local iris society and through a
post on rec.gardens.  It was a welcome surprise!

I joined in order to get iris-specific info and make contacts,
especially in the Virginia area.  I live in Ashland, Virginia (about
15 miles N of Richmond).

My primary interest is southeast U.S.
natives, but I also grow sibs, JIs, louisianas, various beardeds, and
a few more exotic irids (Neomarica, Dietes).

Now that I've made my introduction, I think I'll sit back for a few
days to form a picture of what is going on here.  I welcome any
contact from fellow listers who share my interests and may be
interested in trades.

Thanks to all involved in making the list happen!

Dustin, who is under about 6 inches of melting snow, and looking
forward to 50 degree weather in the next few days.

HOWARTH@ZOOL.UMD.EDU


Tom asked us to introduce ourselves so here I go. I am thinking about
growing irises again. I haven't grown them since I was a young girl. I live in
southern New Jersey. The soil here is green marl so I am not sure I will
be able to grow them. I do have my own compost pile so of course I will use
the soil I get from there. It snowed here last night so right now I have
plenty of time to plan my garden. I have one daffodil bed, one lily bed and
three annual garden beds. In my annual garden beds I grow marigolds, begonias,
verbena, snapdragons and some herbs. I am thinking of turning one of the
annual garden beds into a iris bed.

Nancy.


Hello from Mountain Home AR - which is in Northcentral Arkansas about 25
miles across the Missouri border.  I have been growing iris for about
10-12 years - just as another perrenial, not as a specialty.  I have
about 100 varieties at this time - 30 of which I brought with me from
Minnesota when we moved south 3 years ago. The others were gifts from
friends in Minnesota who got them from a fella who decided to give up
his gardening. I'm not sure of all the varieties but am looking forward to
seeing what happens this spring. Most of the 70 were given to me since
last spring.  Majority of my iris are bearded though I have some
Japanese.  My home is on a bluff overlooking Norfork Lake. Soil is
classic Arkansas - clay and rocks.  I have amended it significantly in
the short time I have been here. There are some really neat rock
formations that I have been able to "work" into gardens. Some huge
boulders (sandstone) with great character.  All told, I probably have
1500 square feet of flower garden.  I'll keep the list up to date as the
flowers bloom. One last thought, iris is one of the few flowers that the
herd of deer do not bother.  Happy to be on the list.


Well I've been lurking since this list started and will probably go back
to lurking after this.  My knowledge of Irises is small, but I love
them.  My experience is also small.  I garden in New Mexico, ~7500' in a
Ponderosa/Pinon/rock area, zone 4,5 & 6 depending on where you are on
the property.  There were a few bearded Irises here, planted in the
shade when we moved in.  I've watered them and sprinkled wood ash on
them for the last three summers, and fertilized once in a while.  They
do better each year.  I bought 6 new irises last fall and they arrived
as we were leaving for a two week trip, so I potted them quickly in pots
and got them planted about a month later.  They seem to be doing well
also, but I'll find out this spring/summer.  I have them planted in the
zone 6 bed.

I find myself wishing I had a horticultural dictionary around, but I know
that I will soon start understanding what everyone is talking about.  In
going through some of the message regarding what the list is for, there
seems to be some confusion.  It is my understanding this is a discussion
list for all people interested in Irises, not just members of the Iris
Society.

I'm not a member of the Iris Society, and at this time I am not ready to
join because my interest in Iris is not that focused.  I'm glad that this
list is here and I hope it continues.  Thanks Tom.  I'm sure there are a
lot of newcomers to the Iris world out on this list that are lurking the
same as I am.  It would be wonderful if someone would explain about the
different types of Irises, I understand Siberian, and Japanese and
Bearded, but some of the others leave me baffled.

Thanks everyone.

Meg


Hi. Since I suggested introductions, I suppose I'm obliged
to provide one for myself.

I got actively interested in irises as a teenager, at one
point having about 1300 different varieties in out backyard
(my mother was very tolerant!) I started breeding them,
getting involved in iris societies, and so on.

Then my education and career got in the way for a few years,
as I traveled from place to place and was forced to lead
a gardenless life.

About three and a half years ago, my wife and I "settled
down" here in northern New Mexico, and I started a garden
again. We're renting and have very limited space, so the
irises now number less than 200. We're in the mountains,
so even though people thinking of New Mexico as hot and
dry, my garden is in Zone 6a, and the last frost comes in
mid-May here. The tall bearded irises bloom in June.

I grow _all kinds_ of irises (space permitting), and lots
of other ornamental plants too.

I'm currently the yearbook editor and acting president
of the Aril Society International (empahsis on *acting*),
an iris society devoted to the exotic aril species of
the Middle East and their hybrids.

If you have access to the world wide web, you can learn
much more about me than you could possible want or need
to. (The URL is in my signature.)

Thanks to everyone who's already subscribed to the list.
We seem to be getting off to a great start. I must admit
that it was a little scary at first ("What if they had
a mailing list, and nobody came?").

Best wishes and happy irising, Tom.

Tom Tadfor Little at Telperion Productions
Los Alamos, NM
telp@Rt66.com  - - -  also at tlittle@lanl.gov

--> on the web at http://www.rt66.com/~telp/


I am in NW Arkansas, zone 6b.  Have been interested in plants all my life.
Several of my family have nurseries in Louisiana, so it is inherited I
suppose.  I have some Siberians, several Japanese & a miserable
assortment of beardeds. Also love bulbs, esp. Amaryllidaceae.  I am
serving my first term in the Arkansas House of Representatives and I am
on email thanks to the University of Arkansas.  It makes communicating
with them so much simpler.  Sue


I just realized I had sent my first post to the list prior to any sort of
introduction ... I'm Steve Marak, living in NW Arkansas, USDA zone 6b. My
plant interests are too wide for my budget, and one of those is Iris, as well
as other genera within the Iridaceae (arguably, I'm told, making me a
complete Iridiot).

I have a couple of beds of TB hybrids, some Louisianas, a couple of
Siberians, some of which I have names for and some of which are
hand-me-downs from
relatives and are grown for mostly sentimental reasons. I have had one brief,
disastrous affair with a couple of oncocyclus which ended in heartbreak (they
pined away, I was heartbroken).

While I like hybrids very much, I find species fascinating and am trying to
expand my knowledge and collection, mostly via seed from seed exchanges and
an internet friend who has shared his extras.

The most common native species here is, of course, Iris cristata, nearly
everywhere in moist areas. (A quick question: I've heard that the white form
of I. cristata is less vigorous than the usual - in my case, the white form,
a propagation from a local population, is not only vigorous but completely
overwhelmed the normal form within a few years. Anyone else seen this?)

I. brevicaulis, I. fulva, I. verna, and I. virginica also occur within the
state but (with the possible exception of virginica) are much less common.

I. pseudacorus (which I resolutely refuse to pronounce pseu-DAC-orus, to the
amusement and irritation of the truly knowledgable) has escaped near my home,
and since the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department propagates it
every year (by mowing it in late summer, and uprooting large clumps) I've
established a nice stand of it as well.

I've been haunting gardening lists on the Internet for years now, but have
seldom seen one start up and reach a steady stream of postings as this one -
congratulations to Tom, and thanks for starting it.


-- Steve Marak
-- SAMARAK@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU or SAMARAK@UAFSYSB.BITNET

My name is Margaret Maurer. I am a librarian in Cold and snowy
northeastern Ohio. We just bought a house sitting on 2 acres of
overgrown under-irised hard pack clay.  We're really looking forward to
planting
lots of flowers, vegetables, and of course, irises.

I have to admit I really don't know much about irises but got interested
in them when a neighbor of mine handed me some unidentified rhizomes.
They turned out to be a type of short iris - the flowers kind of peek
out of the shortened green foliage.  They're quite prolific, and will grow
under almost any conditions.

I am quite impressed with the credentials of some of the people who have
joined this list.  Hope I also have something to contribute.

Thanks for starting this list.

Margaret


Hello everyone,

I'm Jim McMillen, I grew my first Iris when I was about 3 1/2 years old.
I'm a hybridizer as well as an AIS accredited judge for the past 8 years or so.
Currently I live in an apartment so have no place to grow any Iris except
for a couple of species which adapt well to pot culture.

Might be going to Sacramento, not sure yet.  I try to go to all the
conventions to visit with all my iris friends.

Talk to everyone soon

jim


Hi,
I grow dwarf, median, historic, louisiana and siberian in upstate NY, near
Albany.  I have 3 boys, ages 3,7 &12.  And a husband who keeps our computer
working, so I really do appreciate him, even if he doesn't garden.
When I joined I'd planned on just lurking, but since I passed out about 8
pots of Iris uniflora "Carcina" at a Regional meeting in Oct. I guess I have
to jump in.

Kathryn Mohr
kemohr@aol.com


Hi everyone,

I live on the eastern end of Long Island. I think this is zone 6. We rarely
go below 0 F or above 100 F. I had this house built three years ago.  It
sits on about 1 acre of wide open land. Except for the handfull of trees
that I have planted there are no trees with 1/4 mile at least in any
directrion. This provides great views, but the WIND.:(

My basic interest is in gardening in general. I do grow some vegetables but
I have in truck farming country and the farm stands are so near that I
really should not grow too many vegies. If I was inclined (which I am not)
I could walk about 200 feet and pick the nearby farmer's corn or pumkins!

I have put in many shrubs as starting landscaping and alot of lawn (ugh!).
Most of my favorites in this group (the rhodies) have had a very hard time
of it because of the winds.

The last two years I have started a perenial bed, a rose bed and an Iris bed.

I am hoping to expand on these beds this year.

As far as Irises are concerned, I have about ten plants last year, mostly
bearded Irises. I hope they all come back this year for we were very dry
last summer and extremely cold this winter. The last three mornings we were
at 0 or -1 F.

Looking forward to participating in the list!

John Packard
Calverton, NY
jpackard@emapnet.com


Dear iris friends,

        It's very nice that there is an iris list, now, and I'm looking
forward to some pleasant conversations on it.

        I've been growing irises since I was a teenager in the 1960's when
I lived in Michigan near Grand Rapids.  I tried my hand at breeding irises
there including space-age irises, siberians, and spurias.  After moving away,
I didn't have a garden for some time.  I was a graduate student studying
mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelpha, and later a
professor at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and I'm still
here, but for a few years lived in an apartment in town.
        About nine years ago, my wife and I bought a new house in the
nearby town of Spencer on a nice but relatively shady lot.  Immediately
we planted irises of various kinds, but only the siberians and cristata
irises flourished.  A couple of years ago we squeezed some tall bearded
irises into the vegetable garden, the sunniest space we have, and they're
doing well.

        Last May, I started an iris web page at

http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/iris/

If you have a web brouser, please check it out.  There are references to
other iris pages on the web and various other things.  Should you know of
anything I've missed, please let me know.

        Dave

--
David E. Pane-Joyce                             Dept. Math. & Comp. Sci.
djoyce@clarku.edu                               Clark University
http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/home.html      Worcester, MA 01610-1477


Hello Iris lovers;  Since I am joining the list I will give this
introduction.  My name is Bob Pries.  I garden South of St. Louis in
Zone 6.  At least it used to be zone 6 until this last cold blast.  I
grow every type of Iris I can, even tall-beardeds.  My favorites are
miniatures and species.  I like to think of myself as a rock gardener.
The smaller Iris fit best in that setting but with an acre to work
with I do large plants also.  A friend of my says I never met a plant
I didn't like, so count me out for saying which are bad.  Some are
just better!


Hello There! I trust I am now speaking to the truly addicted, to irises
that is. We are relatively new gardeners - 6 years - and only 4 years into
irises, with this year representing the first committed to increasing our
collection extensively. Unfortunately, we are terrible at keeping variety
names straight and though I am working on it, it will take time to change
my ways. Many of the irises we have, mostly tall bearded, were gifts from
friend's originally and a good number were given to us by an iris breeder
as his rejects. I'd guess we have about 150 bearded clumps and a few
siberian, Japanese and dwarf varieties. The new ones this year will all be
reblooming irises, which in zone 5 will probably not be the success they
are in warmer spots. I'm particularly interested in knowing more about the
rebloomers and anyone's experience with them. TIA

Cheryl, in the fabulous Finger Lakes of New York - Zone 5
schaefer@epix.net


I thought it was time I tried to introduce myself, instead of just lurking.
Kathy Guest, ol' Iris Borer, herself, knows me from the Daylily Robin.  I
started with Bearded Iris and had about 200 but think I brought some disease
in or the old NW wet weather did it's thing, but I was doing so badly I got
into Siberian, Pacific Coast, Spuria, Louisiana, and Ensata.  Planted about
25 new ones of those this year.  I'm new to Spuria, but have had all the
others bloom at least once.  Slugs don't bother them, nor disease (so far, my
fingers are crossed, though!)  I really love the Beardeds but they don't like my
garden, yet.  I don't like to spray, but may have to, though with all the
spring rain, it might not help much.  I am going to try mulching to see if
that keeps leaf spot from developing and going to try something drastic to
cut back on slugs!

 The dwarfs did real well for me even when the TBs were not, but they didn't
bloom much last year.  And I can't keep any kind of bulb iris for long as
mice eat all bulbs except daffodils.

 Janis Whitcomb, Auburn, WA

Hi everyone
I've been lurking all week-decided to introduce myself
I'm fairly new to Iris growing.  I live in Tucson, Arizona and started 4
years ago.
I grow 90% TB's.  The fall before last I put in a dozen Spurias, followed
this past fall by another dozen.  Spurias do extremely well in the desert
southwest, as do tall bearded.  I'm currently growing about 300,almost all
TB's, which is  about all I can comfortably grow at this time, you see, even
though I'm growing them in Tucson at my house, I work in Phoenix 120 miles
away, and only make it back to Tucson weekends. (This is only temporary-I
retire in 3 years)
My iris have slowly started to bloom, with about a dozen in various stages of
bloom or bud..
The peak in Tucson will be mid march to mid april - a far cry from May and
June in northern and eastern states.
I attended the AIS convention this past spring in York, and intend to be in
Sacramento for the AIS convention late April. .
We have active iris clubs in both Tucson and Phoenix; I'm a member of both.
My favorites:  Skating Party (a huge white), Merry Madrigal, Heather Blush,
Before the Storm (my first year for this near-Black TB-it was a big 'hit' in
York last spring), and  Persian Berry.
The Phoenix Iris Club (Sun Country) had a wonderful speaker this past week,
Dr. John Weiler, hybridizer of 'reblooming' iris.  In case you're not aware
what they are-they are iris that generally bloom not only in spring, but at
least once more, usually summer or fallor winter, and some of the newer
reblooming iris are really spectacular.  Some even bloom for months on end.
They need additional water in the summer, however, but after seeing his
slides, i'm going to place an order this summer for a 'reblooming' area of my
garden.
The Tucson Area Iris Society has it's monthly meeting Feb 10 and the speaker
is Keith Keppel, who will speak on 'The History of the Plicata Iris'. I'm
fortunate that the Phoenix meetings are on a weekday and the Tucson meetings
on a weekend-I can attend both.

Sam Wymer in Tucson AZ
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