'Royston Rubies'

While the Irises Bulletin will have reports from the recently concluded 2015 AIS Convention, you can see some early photos and news online. 

Start by checking out the American Iris Society Facebook page.  They have posted photos and shared those posted by others of gardens and irises.  Among these you can see the Lloyd Zurbrigg-Clarence Mahan Cup winner, Adam Cordes, and his winning seedling 'Royston Rubies'.  (I should point out that you will have to scroll past more recent photos to get to the Convention photos.)

The convention also made it into newspapers with photo galleries.  The Oregonian had a report on the visitors, growing tips from the Greater Portland Iris Society,  and a gallery of photos from the Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm.  See them all starting here.  The Columbian also has a gallery and interviews that you can see here.  The Camas-Washougal Post-Record also has interviews and photos from the visit to Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm.  Start here for the article and click on the individual photos for larger versions.

'Beverly Ann' - HM 2012 Photo Contest

The 2015 AIS Photo Contest has been underway for some time. And between your irises and the Conventions and Spring garden tours you have some great iris photos.  So now is the time to choose your best photos and submit them!  Before midnight June 30th.

The form you need is available online.  You can find all the details on this page.  The six categories this year are
1. Irises in a landscaped garden.
2. Irises in a field or home garden.
3. Events, tours, a person or people (at iris location).
4. Close up of an iris or irises.
5. Iris photos- art effects, macro of bloom segments.
6. Photos of pets, wildlife or garden art with the irises.
Adult and youth entries in each category are judges separately.

That page has the link to the PDF form you need.  Or you can load it directly here. 

'Logo'

 

While the AIS Centennial  Anniversary does not occur until 2020, some of the preparations have deadlines much earlier.  One of these is selection of an AIS 2020 Centennial official logo.  The deadline for submissions is June 30th, 2015.  You can learn all about the details in the Winter 2015 Irises Bulletin on page 25.  Submissions must be by email
to ais2020centennial@gmail.com which is also where you can direct your questions.

While you're checking it, you can also learn about plans for naming a Centennial Celebration Iris.  This will be chosen in 2019 from the irises not yet introduced, but present, at the 2019 AIS Convention (in Region 14).  Details are on the same page in the Irises Bulletin.  Watch for the calls for guest irises in 2016 and 2017 for the 2019 Convention.

'Clear Choice'

 

The Tall Bearded Iris Society has an annual competition to choose the America's Choice Irises.  TBIS members may vote for up to 10 TBs.  However, they must be irises that are being grown in their garden!

TBIS members should have received their ballots with the Spring issue of Tall Talk.  They can be submitted either by regular or email.  You can see all the details and the 2014 winners, with photos, here.  June 30th is the deadline to vote.

Note:  You must be a TBIS member to vote.  AIS members will have their opportunity later in the year to vote in the Tall Bearded Iris Symposium.

'In The News'

The Bluegrass Iris Society has some exciting Convention and iris news items.  Their president, David Cupps, was video-blogging from the Convention.  Short interviews with hybridizers.  You can find them on their Facebook page - look in the left hand column for videos.  They also have earlier videos there including a television appearance before their iris show and various tips on growing irises.  (You can see all their videos on their Facebook video page; but, you should also check out their regular page for photos.)

BGIS also received an award for the most new AIS members of any local society over the past year at the Convention.  Congratulations!

Neil Houghton of the Greater Rochester Iris Society also has video interviews from the Convention.  You can see him at Mt. Pleasant Iris Farm with Gerard Heemskerk and interviewing Terry Aitken.  Also, see the Region 2 homepage for photos of Convention winning irises.

 

This is an iris that came to me as a noid.  Presumably is a tall bearded.  The first bloom was May 22nd.  You can find the standard difficulty puzzle here and the harder puzzle here. 

Do you know what it could be?  Please send you thoughts to wrmesser@gmail.com    Thank you for your help.  And enjoy the puzzles.  Please let me know what else you would like to see as well.