AIS President’s Message JODY NOLIN, OHIO
Spring is finally here
after a very hard, strange
winter. I look forward to
the reticulata blooming
in the snow every year.
It’s great to see that little
flash of color just when
you need it. Next will
come the early dwarfs,
peeking out at the edge
of the gardens. I know
that spring has really arrived
when the tectorum
Jody Nolin
, NEIL D. HOUGHTON
start fighting with the
ferns for space. (I pick the fiddleheads to eat, holding
the ferns at bay.)
Spring is a time of new beginnings, new ideas,
and new adventures. Your board of directors has
not been idle this winter. This spring we have three
new things to tell you about: the Gerald Richardson
Award, new promotional bookmarks, and the new
AIS website.
Back in 2017, the AIS Board passed this motion:
“That AIS establish a convention award, the
'Gerald Richardson Award’ for the best integrated
privately maintained planting at an
AIS Convention garden as designated in the
convention booklet. The award to be given
annually to a privately maintained host garden
based on popular vote of convention
attendees. An integrated garden is defined as
a garden bed composed of iris and companion
plants that display the iris to their best effect
as a landscape plant.”
This year that award will be given for the first
time at the convention in San Ramon, California. It’s
an important award for two reasons. First, the host
gardeners at a convention spend a great amount of
time and effort to present gardens for us. Attendees
typically see their gardens for an hour or two at the
most. We don’t see the hundreds of hours that go
into that brief visit. This award will be kept by the
winning host gardeners as a permanent thank you
for all of that work. Secondly, the iris is such a versatile
plant that presenting it in long rows of only iris
doesn’t do it justice. The rows are certainly needed
to adequately evaluate irises, but the value of the
irises as a garden plant should never be overlooked.
The AIS membership development committee has
been looking into a number of ways to get the word
out to the gardening public about the benefits of
joining AIS. One of the ways that we’ve implemented
is a set of beautiful bookmarks to replace the ITJ (Invitation
to Join). The ITJ was expensive to print and
practically none of them came back to us with membership
information. The new bookmarks have the
AIS mission statement and directions to the website.
There are nine different types of irises presented on
them. We hope to have even more in the future. In
addition to being attractive, they are useful, durable,
and free to clubs. A set of bookmarks will be sent
out with club show supply orders. If you need more,
contact the storefront.
The ITJ will still be available on the website for
download if you choose to print your own.
Speaking of the website, thank you all for your
patience with the roll-out of the new website. We
hit some snags that have delayed it by about a year.
A group of folks are working now on the content
for the new website. It will have a different look and
feel, with entry portals for AIS members, everyday
gardeners, and hybridizers and growers. Much of the
same information contained on the existing website
will be brought over, in addition to some new content.
One of the big advantages of the new website
will be the ability for a group of people to keep it
updated and add new items. I hope you will like it as
much as I do.
I also hope to see you at the 2019 convention in
San Ramon, California. I would love to hear about
your garden and tell you about other new things
coming along this year. It’s going to be a busy year as
we gear up for the Centennial celebration.
Happy Gardening!
d
10 AIS Bulletin Spring 2019