Section Happenings COMPILED BY PHYLLIS WILBURN, CALIFORNIA
NOVELTY IRIS SOCIETY
Bonnie Nichols, President
The Novelty Iris Society’s general meeting in New
Orleans was well attended and included a silent and a
live plant auction. The Novelty Iris Society will receive
all funds from the sale of a new FLATTIE introduction
named 'Wichita Falls' hybridized by the late Z. G.
Benson. The iris was saved by his granddaughter
for more than 40 years and we are very grateful for
her donation. Pictures of the iris can be found on
HillcrestIris.com.
The Novelty Iris Society publishes
two newsletters per year. We would
love to have more pictures to share
with our members. Please send to
nisnewsletter@yahoo.com.
We look forward to seeing you at
the 2019 AIS Convention in California
next spring. Please contact Novelty
President Bonnie J. Nichols (bjnhtn@
aol.com) if your iris club or region
would like a program or judges’ training
on Novelty Irises.
‘Wichita Falls’
(Benson/Rhoads 2018, TB)
, bonnie nichols
SPECIES IRIS GROUP OF
NORTH AMERICA (SIGNA)
Rodney Barton, Membership
Leftover seeds from the 2017 seed
exchange will soon be available to the
public on the Surplus Seeds Page of
the SIGNA web site (signa.org).
Sean Zera has agreed to serve as
the new Seed Exchange Chair. Please
contact him at signaseedex@gmail.
com or (734) 417-7264 about donating
seeds for the next exchange. Please do
save seeds for the exchange if you can.
Two director positions on the
SIGNA board are open for next year.
The director positions require very
little time commitment. The board
conducts most of its business by
email. We are also still in need of a new editor for the
newsletter. The editorship is a big commitment but
is critical to SIGNA. Please contact Rodney Barton
(rbartontx@yahoo.com) if you can help.
We don’t have enough material to fill out a summer
issue of the newsletter. Please share your knowledge
of species iris or the other irids by writing us a short
article. Send those to Rodney as well.
HISTORIC IRIS PRESERVATION
SOCIETY (HIPS)
Cathy Egerer, President
Not a HIPS member yet? Join now for priority
purchasing during next year's
members-only sale! We expect to have
up to 600 cultivars on our list this year.
TALL BEARDED IRIS
SOCIETY (TBIS)
Ron Cosner, President
Summer is a slow time for TBIS and
we don’t have much coming up soon.
Although I was unable to attend, I’ve
been told the Spring TBIS meeting
held in conjunction with Region 13’s
garden tour was a good time for
all. The auction, thanks to all the
hybridizers, Bob Skaggs, his team, and
all who bid was very successful. As
of May we only had four sets left to
purchase from this year’s hybridizers’
sale. And we are already starting
to make next year’s sale a hit for
everyone.
I want to hear from you. Any
suggestions on how TBIS can entice
you to join with us to continue building
for the future or any suggestions in
general would be welcomed.
Our next spring meeting is
scheduled to be held with the AIS
Convention for 2019 in San Ramon,
California. One of the attractions will
be the five gardens on tour at different
elevations. Stay tuned for more
‘Lent A. Williamson’
(Edward Bruce Williamson 1918, TB)
, phyllis wilburn
details.
In closing, we are always looking for budding writers
who would like to contribute to the TBIS magazine Tall
Talk, which is published twice a year.
continued on next page
12 AIS Bulletin Summer 2018