Welcome to the sixteenth regular issue of the AIS News & Notes.  Please let us know what you would like to see here.  And if you have notes you would like to add, or you would like to become a reporter, please let us know!  You can contact either Bob Pries or Wayne Messer with your comments or interest.

 

 

How do you find out about events happening in the world of iris?  There are the Irises Bulletin, the AIS website, the AIS Facebook page, and many Section, Regional, and Club websites and newsletters.  And News & Notes does its best to keep you informed.

Even with all this, it can be difficult to keep up.  As far as I know there has been no central place to find what is happening.  To help, we have created a page in the Iris Wiki for a calendar.  You can see it here.  And we need your help!  Please add other events and deadlines - it's a Wiki so you can - or send them to wrmesser@gmail.com for inclusion.  Links are especially appropriate for this.

Many of the events are ones that we would normally remind you about.  For example, in October's list is a reminder that Regional Fall Meetings are continuing and a notice that Aril Society International members can now order in their seed sale.  Then there is the Board of Directors Meeting in November, which all members are encouraged to attend, the TBIS Fall Meeting, and SIGNA Seed Exchange donation dates.

Check it out and let us know what else you would like to see!

Again the Iris Encyclopedia comes through if you seeking an iris cultivar celebrating the season.  For Halloween there are 13 cultivars with the word Halloween - one IB and twelve TBs.  Four of these, 'Halloween', 'Halloween' by Sheets, 'Halloween Party', and 'Happy Halloween', are cultivars that really need your photos; they do not have any at this point.  And the others could use additional photos.

 

These irises also illustrate how duplicate names are handled in the Iris Encyclopedia.  Yes, there are not supposed to be duplicates.  But, quite a few pre-1940/1950 names have been used for later registrations.  Because the Iris Encyclopedia will not accept duplicate names for cultivars, we are using the file naming convention that you see with 'Halloween' and 'Halloween' by Sheets:  the latter has HalloweenBySheets in the file name.  Another example of how the wonderful worlds of irises and computers interact!

 

The British Iris Society has a new website at their same web location.  You can find it here.  It has information about irises, the British Iris Society and its parts, and even their Seeds for Sale.  You can also see their latest blog articles, both on the front page and as a separate list.

As with The American Iris Society (links on the left in this newsletter), you can also find the British Iris Society on Facebook and on Twitter.

One way I find iris topics I don't know - as in have not heard of and have no idea what they mean - is looking at the Iris Encyclopedia Index to General Iris Information Topics.  This has over 300 topics and probably many more links than that.  In addition to mainly helping you with the Iris Wiki topics, it has links to topics on the AIS website and other related websites.

 

This time my unknown topic was the Color Class Glaciatas.  Unfortunately for my learning, this is one of those topics needing help.  However, searching the Iris Encyclopedia for glaciata in articles led me to the Bibliography of Hybridizing (in AIS Bulletins) which referenced a 2003 AIS Bulletin article - "Plicatas, Luminatas, and Glaciatas - Based on Postings Originally Made on Iris-Talk" by Keith Keppel, Oregon.  And, Emembership to the rescue, I was able to read this online.  So now, when you check the glaciatas topic, it has what I was able to understand from the discussion.  And links to a couple of examples in the Iris Encyclopedia.

 

In addition to finding topics in the Index, as a Wiki you can edit it!  This means you can add topics needing an entry or cross-reference.  Topics on other AIS websites can be linked to and may need their own Wiki topic as well.  All of this means that with your help the Iris Encyclopedia will be more useful for you and for everyone to use.

 

This month I know what the iris is because I was able to include the label.  It's the Siberian 'Snowy Egret' which I saw at the Iowa Arboretum in June.  They have a good collection of Morgan-Wood Medal winners as well.  Again there are two version of the puzzle, the Standard version (which some people refer to as the easy one), and the Harder version with twice as many pieces.

For those of you who would like further variations, I learned something about the website.  Where it says Play As above the puzzle, the drop-down menu offers pieces from 24 to 300 for the puzzle and custom allows you to change the number of pieces, their shape, and whether rotation of the pieces is allowed.  My times became phenomenal when I reduced the number of pieces to 20!