OT: Breathing New Life Into An Old Club

Patrick,

If the club only focuses on TB iris you might try introducing medians, ABs, species, siberians spurias or whatever other iris will flourish in your area. Growing the same thing for over three decades might get a bit ho hum for members who are not particularly interested in hybridizing. It is always interesting to visit other members gardens when they are in bloom and it encourages the grower to take a good look at the iris they grow and also at what others are growing. That usually leads to more questions and discussions which in turn can produce ideas for new presentations at the next meeting or meetings. As the members age they may be more interested in seeing and visiting with old friends than growing new iris so enter into the social portion of the meeting and then you might ask if they would like to visit your garden and if a car pool would be helpful to them. Do not stop there, ask them to bring a child or grandchild with them to some event such as a hands on potting session with the plant each one potted going home with them. That might get new, young members. Our world is changing. School activities, TV, autos for teens, videos and DVD all call out to the younger people. Young adults generally go to college, have a demanding career, get married, have a family and large houses. They do not have the desire to work in a flower garden for pleasure as much as they enjoy the electronic activities which allow them to relax in a temperature controlled room while sitting in a chair. I am a senior citizen and I find I spend some of the time I used to spend working with my flowers at the computer enjoying photos of other peoples flowers, enjoying discussions about some of the other varieties of iris than TBs. I still enjoy the TBs but some of the time I used to spend adoring them is now spent checking out Spurias, LAs, ABs, Species and I am particularly fond of the pumilas. I do not consider myself unique so I believe many people might want to expand their flower world too.
Patti
Arid snow and ice covered Cascade Mt. Foothills in USDA zone 5.

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