REGION 2 AFFILIATE REPORTS

 

 

CAPITAL-HUDSON IRIS SOCIETY

 

Chair:  Linda Knipper                                                    Vice Chair:  Dan Maier

Secretary:  Virginia Dorwaldt                                         Treasurer:  Donald Salhoff

Newsletter Ed.:  Euthemia Matsoukas                             Assistant Ed.:  Virginia Dorwaldt 

 

No report available at publication time.

 

 

CENTRAL NEW YORK IRIS SOCIETY

 

President:  Donna James                                              Vice President:  Helen Schueler

Secretary:  Polly Kinsman                                            Treasurer:  Jan Smith & Ron James

 

Central New York Iris Society has been very busy like everyone else. There is such a small number of us workers left.

 

In July, we had a beardless Iris Show at the Sandy Creek, Oswego County Fair. M.J. Urist and Joe Musacchia brought some Louisiana Iris to show. Everyone fell in love with them. Once again, Ron had some nice seedlings to enter.

 

Our auction, sale and picnic was small but OK. We placed an order with Ensata. Everyone bought up the beardless Irises. Dana and Sylvia Borglum donated some of his newer introductions. Our thanks go out to them! They are always so kind and thoughtful!

 

Ron and I and Jan Smith have been working hard on the Region 2 Fall Meeting at the Riverside Inn in Fulton. The Riverside is along the Oswego River, which was part of the Old Erie Canal System. Breakfast off the menu is included with your night's stay. Lunch, morning coffee and snacks are being paid for by Central NY Iris Society. We'll just need your RSVP's by the 15 of September.(Ed. Note:  See RSVP form, page 21).   This summer, Ron and I were honored as citizens of the year for 2011 for our town. We both are looking forward to having everyone come to our home and gardens for the Region 2 Bar-B-Que. We hope everyone brings their appetite. We have some new local wines for you all to try. Our NY State area has some great wineries!!

 

Be sure to bring items for our silent auction. Remember---this is Region 2's only money making function.


Happy Fall! -- Donna James, President CNYIS

 

Central New York held its Iris show during the Sandy Creek Fair in Oswego County on July 2nd. There were 36 beautiful irises on display in the horticulture building. M.J. Urist entered her first iris show, and won her first AIS silver medal. Janette Smith won Best of Show with a Japanese iris named ‘Crystal Halo,’ and she also received the AIS bronze medal. Joseph Musacchia from Gray, Louisiana won the Best Seedling award for Sdlng. 04-20-3.

 

Central New York would like to thank all of the exhibitors who brought flowers to the show. It is not an easy thing to keep delicate flowers from wilting in July's summer heat. But to their credit they stood up very well for the next few days that they were on display.-–Jan Smith, Show Chairman.

 

 

 

GREATER  ROCHESTER IRIS SOCIETY

 

President:  Donna Lowry                                               Vice President:  Cara Hutchings

Secretary:  Jacqueline Hyde                                         Treasurer:  Wesley Hyde

 

The Greater Rochester Iris Society has been busy the past few months.  At our March meeting we had a White Elephant (Iris) gift exchange, so everyone who participated went home with some nice iris-themed gifts.

 

In May, members participated in our road trip to the Canadian Province of Ontario. Our first stop was Chuck Chapman’s garden. Because of the cold wet spring weather, there were not many irises in bloom. But Chuck’s hospitality was warm and welcoming. Our next stop was to be the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. Unfortunately, the Laking Garden was closed for the year. Lesson learned; call ahead. Before we left Ontario, we had dinner in the restaurant by the Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls. The food was good, and the Falls legendary.

 

In July, Laurie and Kevin Burtner hosted our annual picnic. Their lovely garden was the perfect setting for lots of great company, great food and great prizes.

Members worked to produce a good selection of irises for our public sale. Three other plant societies also participated. We were lucky in that Mother Nature held off the rain until after the sale. We did have a pretty good turnout of buyers. But, everyone was looking for bargains. It’s hard to make money on $2 irises!

 

Our attempt to gain more members by moving our meetings from Sunday afternoon to the evening of the fourth Thursday of the month has not produced the results that we had hoped for. We have lost senior members who do not drive at night, and have gained only one new member. The gain of the new member was unrelated to the change in meeting times.

 

Our next meeting is scheduled for September 22, 2011 at 7:00 P.M. in the auditorium of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County, 429 Highland Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620. Program to be determined. Everyone is welcome. Please come!

 

Our annual meeting with election of officers will be held on October 27, 2011 in the same location as above at 7:00 P.M. Again, everyone is welcome.

 

 

HUDSON VALLEY IRIS AND DAYLILY SOCIETY

 

President:  Jim Robinowitz                                            Vice President:  Georgette Martin

Secretary:  Perla Kaufman                                            Treasurer:  Frank Sorbello

 

No report available at publication time.

 

 

ONTARIO IRIS SOCIETY (formerly the Toronto Region Iris Society)

 

President: Terrance Laurin                                                   Vice President: Jinny Missons

Secretary/Editor/Webmaster: Kate Brewitt                           Treasurer: Lyn Hickey

 

 ‘Get the Jump on Spring’ at the Toronto Botanical Garden (TBG) in February was the start of the 2011 iris season for ONIS. Horticultural societies, garden clubs, environmental organizations and nurseries from all over Ontario gathered together to give winter-weary gardeners a preview to the season.  We had a very successful day talking about our favourite plant and selling potted irises.

 

ONIS participated in two other spring garden trade shows this year. In April we had a booth at the‘Peterborough Garden Show’ in Peterborough, ON. This 3-day event is always well attended and this year was no exception. Visitors to our booth were interested in all types of irises. This year for the first time we offered some Louisiana irises and sales of these were brisk.

 

In early May we had a booth at the Ontario Rock Garden and Hardy Plant Society annual sale at the TBG. Again sales were brisk as gardeners scooped up potted irises.

 

After the early start to 2010’s iris season, the 2011 season seemed like it would never start. As we headed into the week before our May flower show members wondered if they would have any bloom as the only thing in abundance were buds! Surprisingly members managed to gather enough bloom stalks from their gardens for us to have a small median show.

At this year’s May 23 President’s Open Garden there were over 100 clumps of irises in bloom. The day was cool and rainy which brought out only the most avid gardener. This year’s top iris in bloom, as voted by our visitors, was SDB ‘Absolute Joy’ (Aitken ’06). This is the second time our visitors have voted it as their favourite iris.

 

In August ONIS was back at the TBG for our annual Iris Rhizome Auction and Sale.  Participants bid on a wide selection of irises including an assortment of bearded irises, Siberians and Spurias. After the auction was over people took advantage of the large number of rhizomes offered through the table sales. The Southern Ontario Orchid Society was also in attendance at the TBG this day, and a large number of their members took advantage of our sale as well.

 

Our annual meeting is in the planning stages for October 2011.

 

 

SOUTHERN TIER IRIS SOCIETY

 

President: John Colley                                                 Vice President:  David Blake

Secretary:  Dorothy Stiefel                                            Treasurer:  EJ Mattson

Newsletter Editor:  Vaughn Sayles

 

The Southern Tier Iris Society has had a busy year.  Two of our members were able to attend the AIS convention in Canada and will be presenting a program on this at our November meeting. Our membership has slowly increased and we have a great group of workers.

 

We held an early show this year due to the convention. It was mainly a median and arilbred show.  Best of show went to Vaughn Sayles arilbred entry ‘Omar’s Stitchery’.  Vaughn also won the Peckham award for his entry of the SDB ‘Blue Denim’. Dorothy Stiefel received the AIS silver medal for most blue ribbons and John Colley received the AIS bronze medal for second most blues.

 

Our October 2010 meeting was highlighted by a presentation on Japanese Iris by Ron and Donna James.  In November, Dorothy Stiefel presented us with a slide program on the Madison, WI convention. December came and we had a nice Christmas party with plenty of food and a gift exchange.  We took a winter break for January and February. 

 

We started 2011 with our March meeting and a beautiful slide show of the NY Botanical gardens presented by Dorothy Stiefel.  For April Melissa Jane Kitchen from Cornell University presented a fantastic program on “Unusual Bulbs and Perennials”.   May gave us an excellent program on Louisiana Iris by MJ Urist.

 

In July we held our annual picnic. All had a great time and the food was plentiful.  In August we held our annual plant sale… in the rain.   Sales were way down this year, but we sure had a good time.  Luckily we were under a tent so we didn’t get too wet, except for Aaron, who was working in the potted plants in the rain.  Thanks, Aaron!

 

This year we will be replanting the leftover iris for our sale next year, hopefully this will save money in purchasing rhizomes next year.

 

We also resurrected the Siberian Iris Garden at the Binghamton Zoo at Ross Park. 

 

WESTERN NY IRIS SOCIETY

 

President:  Judy Tucholski-Zon                                     Vice President:  Pat Kluczynski

Secretary:  Marilee Farry                                              Treasurer:  David Baehre

 

Western New York Iris Society members spent most of 2010-2011 preparing for sales, shows, judges training, and promoting new memberships.

Early April was digging time and Dave Baehre had cold, wet ground loaded with Siberian iris. Members potted over 75 containers. Folks who came to our June Iris Show at the Eastern Hills mall viewed iris growing in pots in full bloom. Selling them was easy.

May had us in the garden for a Judges Training session with Joanne Bassett.  Joanne has all types and sizes of iris on her beautiful property in East Aurora, New York. This training concentrated on median iris, with some tall bearded and Siberian iris.  Early growth of all types of iris pointed out the importance of growing iris for bloom from early May through mid July.

June was show month. The Eastern Hills Mall in Williamsville, New York again hosted our Tall Bearded Iris Show, “Kaleidoscope of Iris”.  Dave Baehre placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd thereby making him the Horticulture Sweepstakes winner for 2011 and capturing the Blenis Award for the second time in three years. Best Specimen of Show was a tall bearded iris, ‘Wishful Thinking”. Best Design was entered by Judy Tucholski-Zon, and Joanne Bassett created a very informative Educational Exhibit of “Color and Color Patterns in Bearded Iris.” As a special treat the Buffalo Chapter of Ikebana International also presented several of their unique designs which were well received by the viewing public.

July brought the Japanese Iris Show, “Spectacular Elegance” to West Seneca, New York. Enough of our members are now growing Japanese or Spec-X iris and have enough bloom stalks to present a fabulous show.  The people who came to view this show were fascinated by the distinctive nature and look of these flowers.  Designs were created by our own members and the Ikebana International ladies again came to do arrangements in their own particular style. Joanne Bassett placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd thereby making her the Horticulture Sweepstakes winner for the 2011 Japanese Show. The Japanese Iris ‘Classical Charm’ was selected Best Specimen and Joanne will receive the WNYIS local Wurtz-Rettig Award for 2011.         

Awards and Ballots Judges Training was a very important part of our July meeting.  Judy Keisling, AIS national president, was kind enough to send WNYIS the four-part program for Judges Training on Awards and Ballots. This serious of slides, tests, test answers, and information sheets enabled six of our members to complete this judges training.  We are proud to announce that Marilee Farry has successfully completed the requirements for garden and exhibition judging status. 

Our Annual sale was held on August 6th and 7th.  The very hot days did not bring out the number of customers hoped for and our group will be moving the sale to another venue for 2012.  Our plan is to continue to promote all types of iris, but the beardless iris seem to grow and respond to ourWestern New York climate with greater vigor than the bearded iris. This season, several members grew the Siberian iris successfully in larger containers.  This may create a new group of customers for this very delicate iris.

As the season moves to a close, WNYIS will hold an Awards Dinner and Annual Meeting on Sunday, October 16 and begin preparations for Iris 2012.