If you weren’t able to attend the national iris conventions this year, not to worry. You still have a chance to see the irises. Gary White was there for all three conventions (American Iris Society, Society for Louisiana Irises in Dallas, TX and Society for Siberian Irises in central Michigan) and will be presenting a talk, complete with photos, to the Lincoln Iris Society on Monday evening, September 30, 2013. Growing 
Siberians and Louisianas is a challenge here on the prairies, so it’s great to see them in gardens in other parts of the country. For more information on the talk and directions send a note to lincolnirissociety@yahoo.com.
The upper photo is a Siberian iris, ‘Painted Woman’ (Marty Schafer, Jan Sacks, 2007). The lower photo is the Louisiana iris, ‘Red Velvet Elvis’ (Kevin Vaughn, 1997).
While I’ve reported some on the Region 21 Fall Meeting, the banquet that was part of this meeting deserves its own thank you. The food, catered by Mangia, was great. I should have taken some pictures of the desserts; however, I was too busy enjoying them.
Our Greater Omaha Iris Society hosts provided everyone with a Sass rhizome! I believe they were all either ‘Midwest Gem’ or ‘Pretty Pansy’. And from the Sass Memorial Iris Garden. On a coincidental note, ‘Pretty Pansy’ was subsequently featured on the World of Irises blog in a posting: Iris Classics: “Pretty Pansy” which includes more of its history.
Ron Crampton prepared the amazing centerpieces. I’m not even sure my picture does them justice.
And, as I mentioned earlier, our speaker Bob Hollingworth expanded our horizons speaking on A World of Irids.
Thank you to everyone for a most enjoyable and remarkable evening!
The Greater Omaha Iris Society‘s newsletter Iris Gleanings for September is now available. Included is their next meeting, September 9th, with Jim Hedgecock of Comanche Acres on Iris Spuria (which counts as 1 hour of Judges training).
To see the newsletter, go to our Newsletter page and follow the 2013 33 Number 6 link to download or open the PDF of the newsletter.
The Region 21 Fall Meeting hosted by the Greater Omaha Iris Society began Friday evening with a social get-together. Then Saturday, August 10th, we met at Mammel Hall for a great meeting.
Our first speaker was Judy Kiesling, the AIS immediate past-president, discussing AIS Awards and Ballots. She covered a number of timely aspects of the Awards which were announced just a week later.
Robert Hollingworth covered Siberian Irises and what to look for and what to look out for. (When the Awards came out, it was apparent his Siberian irises have the desired attributes – he won both the Morgan-Wood Medal for ‘Swans In Flight’ and the Walther Cup for ‘Judy, Judy, Judy’.) He was also our banquet speaker describing A World of Irids with examples from South Africa, Israel, and Japan.
Thank you to our host group for a great meeting!
[Note: The Iris Auction and Business Meeting notes will be added later.]
Each year the judges of the American Iris Society vote for the top irises based on the irises performance in gardens. The 2013 winners have just been announced!
Beginning with the Dykes Medal Winner – ‘That’s All Folks’ by William Maryott, a list of the winners and all the votes can be seen on this Iris Encyclopedia page. In addition to the Iris Medal Winners for all 15 classes, the list also has the Walther Cup (where all classes are eligible) and has the Honorable Mention and Award of Merit irises in each class.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Region 21 Notes: The Walther Cup went to the Siberian iris ‘Judy, Judy, Judy’ and the Morgan-Wood Medal for best Siberian iris went to ‘Swans In Flight’ both by Bob Hollingworth who we just heard speak on Siberian Irises at our Fall Meeting in Omaha! Also, if you did not receive the AIS Newsletter News & Notes announcing these winners, please let me know (wrmesser@gmail.com).
James Ennenga, a hydbridizer who was active in Region 21 before retiring to Knoxville, TN, died August 2, 2013 at the age of 90. He had been RVP for Region 21 as well as a member of the Greater Omaha Iris Society. His registrations at the Iris Encyclopedia included Border Bearded, Standard Dwarf Bearded, Tall Bearded, Siberian, and Species Iris.
An obituary can be found here. Our condolences to his family.
Update September 7, 2013: The latest Greater Omaha Iris Society newsletter has a remembrance of him which includes more of his iris activities. It is on page 2 of the 2013 33 Number 6 newsletter.
'San Francisco' - from the 2012 auction
Reminder – the Region 21 Fall Conference is August 9th and 10th hosted by the Greater Omaha Iris Society. If you have not had a chance to register yet, see our earlier post for all the details. Hope to see you there for a great meeting!
If you are in the Lincoln area this weekend, stop by the LIS annual iris rhizome sale and auction between 10AM and 4PM. The sale will be located at St. Andrews Lutheran Church at 1015 Lancaster Lane in Lincoln, Nebraska. This is a new location for the sale, second year at this site. Directions to the sale are from 70th and Vine St, then 4 blocks east on Vine, take 1st left past the school, onto E. Avon. Church is on the left.
This year, there will be a very large sale of a huge selection of cultivars. Included will be a large number of historic iris rhizomes, especially Sass irises. Lots of other newer irises will be available, including Dykes Medal winners and a number of Allan Ensminger hybridized irises. Expect to find irises from most of the bearded iris classes including Standard Dwarfs, Intermediate, Miniature Tall, Border, and Tall Bearded irises. Every year there are some interesting surprises on the sale tables and that will undoubtedly happen again this year. In addition to bearded irises, there may well be Siberian irises for sale. And, there will be a limited number of Daylilies for sale, usually cultivars that are not found at local commercial outlets.
An auction of newer cultivars, primarily Tall Beardeds and mostly 2012 and 2013 introductions, will take place at 11 AM. Most of the auction irises this year come from Superstition Gardens (Rick Tasco and Roger Duncan) in California and from Mid-America Garden (Paul Black and Thomas Johnson) in Salem, Oregon, though there are a few late model introductions from other hybridizers as well.
Finally, there will be demonstrations on dividing and planting bearded irises. Information about growing irises, the Lincoln Iris Society, Region 21, the American Iris Society, the Historic Iris Preservation Society and other iris Sections will also be available.
For more information about the sale, contact Gary White at (402) 421-6394 or (402) 432-1550.
Lincoln Iris Society Show Results – May 25, 2013
The 2013 show was smaller than in previous years; but, every bit as interesting. This was the year for historic irises. Historics won Best of Show (Miss Aravilla), Best Bicolor (Gracchus), and Best Youth Specimen (King Midas). The season was late; but, the selection 
ranged from SDB’s to Siberians. There were two firsts in this show: 1st and 2nd runners-up for Best in Show were chosen by the judges and we offered a pre-sale option as part of our annual sale. The absolute best thing is that we had twenty people enter the show this year, which may be a record high!
Congratulations to all the winners!
Judges for the show were Carolyn Lingenfelter and Marjorie Jansen of Norfolk, Nebraska.
A big thank you to our Popularity Vote tabulators, Eunice Cernohlavek and 
Sally Schrader, for their expertise in handling this portion of the show!
Congratulations to the Lincoln Iris Society and everyone who entered! You can see the complete list of winners LIS_ShowResults-2013 (PDF).
AIS Region 21 