A labeled window blind slat follows this trimmed group
of rhizomes around until the irises receive their tags.
The quantity of rhizomes are marked on the tag.
Cleaned, trimmed and labeled rhizomes are placed on a cart.
The cart rolls and is used to transport the irises to the mall.
sale have a picture of the iris attached to the flat holding
the rhizomes. The picture also includes the name, type,
SA, RE, year introduced, hybridizer and awards. Everyone
uses smart phones to take pictures of our pictures, so they
now have a record with the appropriate information. Our
former President Cynthia Wilson made the picture holders
by using two clothespins attached together with a popsicle
The cart and iris flats are wrapped in cellophane for transport to and
from the mall. It takes two men to lift the carts into and out of a truck.
Once at the mall, the carts are simply rolled into the building.
stick using wood glue.
The disadvantage of this method is that the rhizomes
have to be washed and bleached before the tags are
attached. It becomes a chore to keep the name of the iris
with each rhizome clump. We recommend that the name
of the iris be written on a few rhizome leaves and on the
bag used to bring the dug-up irises to the job site. Each
clump gets its own flat once cleaned. We also write the
name of the iris on a slat from old window blinds cut in
half. The slat follows the clump around until the labels are
attached.
The advantage is that the labels are made quickly,
providing they are on our worksheet. If not, I have to stop
and look up the information and add it to the worksheet.
It can take time. We ask club members to email me in
advance the iris names. The first few years we would print
out the labels in advance and then carry them to the job
site. It became a hassle trying to match the labels with
more than 200 irises. Sometimes we couldn’t find the
iris and sometimes we couldn’t find the labels. People
spent a lot of time searching, counting rhizomes and then
recounting the rhizomes. Last year we put a laptop, a laser
printer, my Excel program, and me at the job site. The
labels were created on the fly and that was much better,
though I found that people cannot count. “I need three
more labels of ‘Dusky Challenger’! Make me three more!”
I am responsible for making the pictures for the sale.
Code was created in Excel that saves me a great deal of
time. On one worksheet I create a list of irises for which I
need to make a picture. The code opens up a PowerPoint
file that contains a slide that has a text box and a 4˝ x 6˝
42 AIS Bulletin Fall 2018