Re: Re: AIS: AIS/TBIS:preview of gardens

>My whole point being that an organization is largely a reflection of its'
>membership. AIS promotes what its' members as a whole reflect their
>interest in.

And how, exactly, is the membership supposed to express its interest in 
any other type of iris when the only time the membership is asked to vote 
for its favorites, the ballot is restricted solely to TB candidates?  How 
does the membership get excited about other types of irises in a garden 
setting when all national conventions are set to showcase TB peak bloom 
to the exclusion of any other type or class that doesn't happen to be 
peaking at the same time?

I am not suggesting that other types of irises might be capable of 
displacing TBs as the most popular iris type overall (though we'll never 
know if we don't promote the others equally), but I feel strongly that a 
great disservice is being done to gardeners, hybridizers, and to the AIS 
itself by not actively promoting all iris types and classes.  As was 
pointed out earlier, not all irises grow in all environments ... not even 
TBs.  How can it be to AIS's advantage to promote only "the most popular" 
type?  

When I became seriously interested in growing irises a few years ago, I 
purchased a couple hundred TB cvs.  We had ample snowfall that winter 
followed by a nice warm spring, and I was thrilled beyond words to have 
about 50% bloom on first year plants - all irises I had never seen before 
- which left me completely awestricken. I couldn't imagine why everyone 
in northern MN didn't fill their gardens with these astounding beauties 
(the same 2 or 3 historic unknowns popped up around the area, but that 
was it), and I vowed to introduce their glory to this area.  But Ma 
Nature explained the void of TBs in this area very clearly over the next 
two snowless winters which killed off the vast majority of the 400+ TB 
cvs I had acquired to that point.  I now understand why there are so few 
irises in this area.  The people who have had any exposure to modern 
irises at all have generally only been exposed to TBs that rot and die 
here.  They have not only lost interest in modern TBs, but since they 
have never made the acquaintance of any other iris type (lack of 
promotion), they assume all irises are doomed here. Thus, no iris 
growers, no iris hybridizers, no iris clubs, no iris shows, no irises - 
no support for AIS whatsoever. I suspect the same sort of generalized 
iris disdain exists in other climatically severe areas of the country 
where TBs cannot flourish as well (parts of FL and TX and other 
excessively hot, humid locations).   

This is where promotion comes in, and I'm not talking about articles in 
the Bulletin.  The Bulletin is a fine, educational and promotional tool 
for existing AIS members, but those folks represent only the tiniest 
fraction of iris gardeners and potential iris gardeners worldwide.  If 
the AIS's goal is to promote irises beyond its own current membership 
(which I assume it is), then promotion must move well beyond Bulletin 
articles.

An easy place to start is on the AIS website to which the worldwide 
internet community has access - AIS members and not.  When an iris newbie 
is looking for iris info, they're likely to stumble across the AIS 
website.  On that website, newbie finds a link to "100 Most Popular 
Iris".  WOW!  Newbie now has a list of the 100 most popular irises on the 
planet!  Of course, newbie has no idea what a tall bearded is or that 
there are, indeed, many other types of irises not represented in the list 
(because newbie was so excited by the title of the link that (s)he never 
bothered to access the link titled "Iris Classification"), so newbie uses 
the list to shop from.  Unfortunately, newbie lives on the southern coast 
of FL, and all of those most popular irises quickly die.  Newbie has now 
wasted money, time, garden resources, and dreams of beautiful blooms and 
now hates irises and resents AIS for promoting such garden failures.  But 
it didn't have to happen.  

AIS could easily reprint ALL of the section symposium results on the AIS 
website preceded by brief descriptive paragraphs of the irises 
represented by each set of symposium results.  Now, newbie has several 
lists of favorites from which to choose irises for their specific growing 
conditions.  Newbie has been educated.  Newbie has been inspired to find 
out more about the different types of irises (you mean there ARE 
different types of irises???).  Newbie might even click on that "Iris 
Classification" link now.  Newbie grows and loves irises.  Newbie joins 
AIS and the sections of interest.  Newbie starts to hybridize ... 

It's not enough to have links to the other section websites available 
from the AIS site.  As anyone who has ever designed, or indeed used, a 
website knows, the more clicks it takes to get to the desired 
information, the less likely the information will be accessed at all.  
The AIS website is the first stop and the parent organization.  The 
primary promotional material needs to be there.

>And this begs the question....if AIS is mostly only promoting TB, then why
>is there a TBIS again?

I don't think this is the question as much as it is the answer to why the 
two organizations can't seem to get along with one another.  They are 
both trying to promote TBs, and they are apparently stepping all over 
each other's toes in so doing.  If the AIS would broaden its promotional 
efforts to include all irises in a more equitable manner, it wouldn't be 
in such direct conflict with the narrow promotional goals of TBIS.

Air's getting a little thin way up here on all these soapboxes.  Believe 
I'll climb down for a bit and take a little breather.

Laurie


-----------------
laurief@paulbunyan.net
http://www.geocities.com/lfandjg/
http://www.angelfire.com/mn3/shadowood/irisintro.html
USDA zone 3b, AHS zone 4 - northern MN
acidic clay soil

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