The Region 21 February 2024 Newsletter (pdf) is now available. It contains news about new Region 21 hybridizers, clubs’ news, members we’ve recently lost, and, of course, details of the Region 21 Spring 2024 Meeting.
The 2024 Region 21 Spring Meeting will be in Madison County, Iowa May 24th and 25th. Just southwest of the greater Des Moines area, is where the gardens we will be visiting are. This map shows their location along with other Madison County highlights.
The Siouxland Iris Society is hosting the Region 21 Fall 2023 Meeting this year August 25-27. Howie Dash will be our Judges Training and after-dinner speaker. Howie is a hybridizer of Arilbred and Tall Bearded irises. He is the 2nd Vice-President of the American Iris Society and President of the Aril Society International. He was also the Co-Chair for the AIS 2022 National Convention in Las Cruces, New Mexico where his ‘Chihuahua Night’ iris won the President’s Cup (photo above).
The meeting hotel is the Stoney Creek Inn & Suites, 300 3rd Street, Sioux City, Iowa. We have a special rate for rooms during the meeting.
Complete information including room reservations and the registration form can be found here. Send your registrations to:
Region 21 Fall Regional
%Michael Becker
509 3rd Ave SE
Le Mars, IA 51031-2407
Saturday, May 13th is your opportunity to see, and to participate in, this year’s Omaha Iris Show: “In My Mother’s Garden”.
Show location: St Andrews Episcopal Church
925 South 84th Street
Omaha, NE
Entries accepted from 8:30 to 10:15 a.m. and the show is open to the public at no charge from 12:30 to 4:00 p.m.
See the complete show details (pdf). Also, some tips on preparing your iris for a show.
Learn more about the Greater Omaha Iris Society at their website: https://www.greateromahairissociety.org/
The Lincoln Iris Society will be hosting the 2023 Region 21 Spring Meeting with 5 Garden Tours! There will also be in-garden Judges Training by Andi Rivarola, AIS President. Sunday, May 21st, there are 3 open gardens to visit on your own.
The April 2023 Region 21 Newsletter has details. And the brochure has the registration form.
Note: The deadline for making hotel reservations at the special rate is May 5th.
Everyone is invited to the American Iris Society Region 21 Fall Membership Meeting! We will be having presentations from iris hybridizer Hooker Nichols on Tall Bearded Irises and on Louisiana Irises, two of the many types of irises he has hybridized. Join us Friday evening August 12 and all day Saturday August 13, 2022
Details and the registration form were mailed to all Region 21 members last month. In case they did not reach you, here are copies (pdfs).
Hope to see you there!
Pleas join us for the Region 21 Fall Meeting Saturday, August 13, 2022 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Our speaker will be Hooker Nichols presenting Judges Training on Tall Bearded and Louisiana Irises. More details and invitations will be coming soon.
A reminder that there is still time to vote in the 2021 Tall Bearded Iris Symposium. The ballot was included with the Spring 2021 Irises Bulletin and is also available online here (PDF). Everyone, member or not, is eligible to vote for up to 25 of the 447 TBs on the ballot.
Your votes should reach the Region 21 RVP (Wayne Messer – wrmesser@gmail.com) by September 15th. A list of your choices and their numbers would be great.
Complete details on how to vote are available. You can also see results from previous years voting there.
Thank you for your participation.
Reminder – This year’s Region 21 Fall Meeting is virtual! Please join us Saturday, August 14, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. Central Time (9:00 a.m. Mountain Time) on Zoom for Judges Training by Bonnie Nichols on Novelty Irises. Bonnie is the AIS Judges Chair as well as president of the Novelty Iris Society. Note: This is a new Judges Training available for credit even if you have already participated in the JT Bonnie presented as two AIS Webinars last year.
Registration (free!) is required. Please send your name and email to Wayne Messer wrmesser@gmail.com so we can get a count and send you the details for attending.
There will also be a Region 21 Board meeting at 9:00 a.m. Central Time (8:00 a.m. Mountain Time) and a Region 21 Business meeting following Bonnie’s presentation. Everyone is invited to attend and participate in both meetings. This year the business meeting includes the election of a first-year director. Please consider volunteering for this position.
This year’s iris sale by the Monument Valley Iris Society will again be outdoors at the University of Nebraska Research and Extension Center. On June 5th and 6th they will have a “showing” and the sale at its garden area. Complete details can be found here.
Allan Ensminger of Lincoln, Nebraska, a Region 21 hybridizer, was known for his work on variegated, broken color irises. Among these was the 1992 Knowlton Medal winner ‘Batik’ and the IB ‘Hubbub’. In 2007 he won the Bennett C. Jones Award for Outstanding Median Hybridizing from the Median Iris Society. Other awards include the AIS Distinguished Service Medal in 1983 and the AIS Hybridizer Award in 1994.
You can see photos of his irises in the Iris Encyclopedia starting with this page. That is of many of them; there are a considerable number that do not have photos. To help remedy that, this is a page listing his irises that need photos.
Can you help provide photos? You can either add them to the appropriate page in the Iris Encyclopedia or contact me and I will be glad to add them. Wayne Messer wrmesser@gmail.com .
Thank you!
AIS Region 21 