IRISARIAN WINS PRESTIGIOUS AWARD
Congratulations to Kelly Norris, director of
horticulture and education at Greater Des Moines
Botanical Garden, manager of Rainbow Iris Farm
in Bedford, Iowa, and former editor of IRISES, on
winning the Emerging
Horticultural
Professional award
from the American
Horticultural
Society in June.
The AHS states
that “Norris began
his horticultural
career at age 15,
when he talked his
parents into buying
a nursery, Rainbow
Iris Farm, which he
still runs. He then
earned bachelor’s
and master’s degrees
in horticulture from
Iowa State University in Ames. In his current position
at DMBG, Norris is responsible for design, curation,
programming, and management. He also regularly
writes for gardening magazines such as Country
Gardens and Fine Gardening and is a contributing
editor for Greenhouse Grower. His first book, A Guide
to Bearded Irises, published by Timber Press, won an
American Horticultural Society Book Award in 2013.
He followed up with Plants with Style (Timber Press,
2015). He received the Perennial Plant Association’s
Young Professional Award in 2011.”
NORTHEAST MINNEAPOLIS MUNICIPAL
IRIS GARDENS
Last summer, The Iris Society of Minnesota, in
cooperation with the Minneapolis Park Board, planted
11 extensive iris gardens at Columbia Park (3300
Central Ave NE., Minneapolis).
NEMMIG serves the public as a free facility
dedicated to education, preservation, and research for
the genus Iris in all of its forms. Specifically, to research
which iris species and cultivars grow and rebloom
well in Zone 4 Minnesota gardens, and to collect
and preserve historic iris cultivars, with a focus on
Bulletin Board
Minnesota iris introductions, past and present.
The following businesses kindly donated most of the
irises in the gardens: Breezeway Iris Garden, Sutton’s
Iris Gardens, Iris Sisters Farm, Schreiner’s Iris Gardens,
Plantation Point, and Mount Pleasant Iris Farm.
Bloom begins in late April with four varieties of
bulbous iris, followed by an extensive dwarf selection,
the Medians, Tall Bearded, Louisiana, Siberian,
and Japanese. And with a little luck, there will also be
rebloomers in the fall. To learn more and see pictures
of everything blooming there, visit facebook.com/
NEMMIG.
—Tatiana Allen, Iris Society of Minnesota president
Columbia Park, Minneapolis, MN
, tatiana allen
HOW IS YOUR CLUB?
As a vital part of the American Iris Society, we
would like to hear how your club is doing. I know many
people do not like surveys, so we have tried to make
this simple. There are only five questions and we will
tell you the questions and some of the answers beforehand.
1. What is the name of your club? None is an
acceptable answer.
2. How is your club doing? (choose one of
these answers)
o Awesome
o Above Average
o Good
o At Risk
o Defunct
o No Club
Kelly Norris
, ivory house photography
continued on next page
Summer 2018 AIS Bulletin 9