COMPILED BY BRUCE FILARDI, OREGON International Iris News
NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA
We extend our congratulations to Michael
Barnes, who is assuming the role of president of the
Australian Iris Society. Good luck, Michael!
We have just received the results of the last two
Australian Dykes Medal competitions. The awards
are a tribute to the efforts of the great hybridizer
Graeme Grosvenor and include his 20th Dykes
Medal win this year.
2017 Australian Dykes Medal Results
1st ‘Our Man Buck’ (Graeme Grosvenor 2015, TB)
2nd ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (Graeme Grosvenor
2010, TB)
3rd ‘Mansfield Park’ (John Taylor 2014, TB)
4th ‘Northanger Abbey’ ((John Taylor 2014, TB)
5th ‘Gentle Guardian’ (Judith Evans 2010, TB)
2018 Australian Dykes Medal Results
1st ‘Marie’s Love’ (Graeme Grosvenor 2011, TB)
2nd ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (Graeme Grosvenor
2010, TB)
3rd ‘Bannockburn’ (Graeme Grosvenor 2011, TB)
4th ‘Mansfield Park’ (John Taylor 2014, TB)
5th ‘Johnny Blue Eyes’ (Graeme Grosvenor 2011, TB)
International Editor’s Note: I delayed this report
because I wanted to check if it was an error that
their past issues for sale only get one or two takers
in a year. It is never a profit maker and does little
to promote the group. But those newsletters in the
library get many more viewers. They truly build a
better image for the individual society and likely gain
a member or two.
One exciting new addition to the library is Maretta
Colasante’s recent book on Iridaceae in Italy. It would
be great to have more contemporary books (that
otherwise would be under copyright for years) added
to the site. Because of copyright issues, the online
library will always have more historical than current
literature. But the times are changing and more and
more science literature is becoming open-access. As
fewer things are actually printed, society runs the
risk of losing the digital records that are not archived.
Walter Isaacson, author of biographies of Steve Jobs
both ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and ‘Mansfield Park’ are
listed in the results for both 2017 and 2018. Michael
Barnes kindly explained: “Each cultivar is grown in
each of the Dykes Medal trial gardens for four years,
being judged in the second, third and fourth springs.
They are removed after their fourth spring, or if they
win.”
Also from Australia (Maria Rosa Taylor):
Something that may be of interest to members of
the AIS is the process for sending seed to Australia.
There are many iris lovers, hybridizers, and iris
growers who have made crosses for people here in
Australia and then sent the seed via the normal mail
without its being intercepted by our Bio Security
Department. As a result, the process for sending
seed to Australia has become a strict and somewhat
costly operation. A phytosanitary certificate needs to
be issued and paid for in the United States, then the
seed is inspected and charged to the receiver when
it arrives in Australia. Of course, there is also the risk
that a Bio Security officer could make the decision
that the seed poses a high risk to our bio security,
decides to destroy it, and charges the receiver for
the destruction.
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and Leonardo Da Vinci, noted, “The more than 7,200
pages now extant probably represent about onequarter
of what Leonardo actually wrote, but that
is a higher percentage after five hundred years than
the percentage of Steve Jobs’s e-mails and digital
documents from the 1990s that he and I were able to
retrieve.”
In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys the
online library, even though it will always be under
construction. Certainly everyone can help in getting
more literature online. If you can scan a document,
you can help there. If you edit a newsletter or
website, you could create a PDF file for the library.
The better the library becomes the more usable it is.
Please join us in creating this resource.
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Winter 2019 AIS Bulletin 15