By Andi Rivarola
Hot off the presses, here's the Spring Edition of IRISES, the Bulletin of The American iris Society. On the cover, irises and more irises from The Joyce Lockatell Memorial Garden, Cosby Farm, Virginia.
The Spring 2015 issue of the AIS Bulletin is now available for online viewing within the Emembers section of the AIS website. Note: to access this area you must have a current AIS Emembership. AIS Emembership is separate from the normal AIS membership. Please see the Electronic Membership Information area of the AIS website for more details.
A fantastic edition, as usual, with information and articles varied for all to delight.
Our AIS President Jim Morris writes an extensive opening statement that includes details about his recent trip south of the Equator -- to Australia and New Zealand. A lengthy article with lots of interesting pictures is published later in this issue in the section, Irises Down Under, Australia. Besides all the gorgeous irises from local hybridizers we have come to know and enjoy such as Blyth, Grosvernor and Taylor, I enjoyed the pictures of the Proteaceae family hybrid called Warath, and Echium candicans 'Pride of Madeira.' Gorgeous beauties.
I hope Ken Walker, from Northern California is preparing a digital program because if it is as interesting as his articles in the last three editions of IRISES, I wouldn't want to miss it. This one is Iris Parts: Diversity in the Genus, Party 3 -- Flowers, starting on page 19.
It was fascinating to read starting on page 30, about the collaborative efforts of the Missouri Botanical Garden botanical staffers Kyle Cheesborough's and Jason Delaney's exploration and plant collecting in the Altai region of Southern Siberia, Russia, a UNESCO World Heritage Center. What a thrill to know that this exploration and work has been sponsored in part by the Greater Saint Louis Iris Society.
Everything you need to know about the 2015 Portland, OR National Convention of The American Iris Society, is on page 32-33, and by the way, hope to see you there.
I read with much pleasure the article by Katherine Cook about the Franklin Cook's Iris Garden, and its history along with a touching biography of her dad, Franklin Cook. Yes, the same person for which the AIS convention award is named: The Franklin Cook Memorial Cup. Here's a sneak peek: To either side of the tool house, double French lilacs, mixed with singles, heavily perfumed as they can only be in a moist midwestern spring. Following the white picket fence perimeter south, to the west corner, and coming west to each side of the barbecue, were crabapples of several varieties, from white, pink, double, to deep rose, framing the center beds of iris displays. From there, my mother made jelly each year.
If you are interested in reblooming irises, you must read the article: Gibson Plicatas, Create Modern Rebloomers, by Mike Lockatell, on pages 40-41.
There's so much to see in this edition of IRISES, either in digital or print formats. I hope you are an AIS member because that means that you will receive the print edition soon, or if you are an e-member, then that version is already available online as mentioned above.
Happy gardening!
