Section Happenings COMPILED BY PHYLLIS WILBURN, CALIFORNIA
HISTORIC IRIS PRESERVATION
SOCIETY (HIPS)
Cathy Egerer, President
HIPS Starts Breeder Collections Program
Many iris lovers enjoy collecting cultivars from
a specific breeder (or two or three), maybe from
their local area. These collections are an important
element of iris preservation, but until now they have
only existed informally, and it’s hard to know who
collects what. We’re about to change that.
At its August meeting, the HIPS board approved
the creation of a program that would recognize
and encourage iris collections that are grouped
by breeder. Collections like this are a great way
to preserve historic irises in a manner that can be
tightly focused. And since iris lovers tend to be very
generous in sharing their irises, missing irises might
be located. These collections will complement the
Guardian Gardens program and the forthcoming
AIS National Collections (NC) program, which will
concentrate on the larger core class collections, at
least initially.
In a nutshell, we’ll encourage members to collect
and grow as many remaining cultivars as possible
from their chosen breeders. In the case of large
collections, sub-collections might be needed. Each
member will keep track of what they have and report
their irises to HIPS once per year. The data will be
shared with the Guardian Gardens and National
Collections programs. There is a new area in the
Members Forum on the HIPS website for discussion.
Interested in finding out more?
Visit the HIPS website at
historiciris.org. If you have a
collection, we’d love to hear about it!
SPURIA IRIS SOCIETY
Andi Rivarola, President
Newsletters Archived in the AIS
Encyclopedia
Spuria newsletters (as early
as 1956) will be added to the AIS
Library for archival purposes.
Darol Jurn, our faithful newsletter
editor, tells us, “I believe the old
newsletters should be archived
somewhere, not just on my hard
drive. If I leave this earth tomorrow
all my work compiling these historic newsletters
together will be lost.” So, slowly but surely, the older
SIS newsletters will be uploaded and added to The
American Iris Society Hager-DuBose Memorial
Online Iris Library.
Darol added, “It is a 4-step process, 1) create file,
2) attach newsletter file, 3) attach JPEG cover page,
4) create a link with the JPEG cover page linking it
to the newsletter file. I have only done the three of
the four steps which includes creating a file for the
newsletter and attaching the newsletter. I am working
on part three which is creating a JPEG cover for an
icon, then it will be adding the icon and attaching the
actual newsletter to the icon.”
Spuria Iris Wadi Zem Zem
“Wadi Zem Zem,” by Anna Cadd (Spuria Iris
Society VP), is a wonderful and entertaining read.
Anna first wrote the article for the Spuria Iris Society
Newsletter, and subsequently it was picked up by
the AIS blog editors, who re-published it online on
November 5, 2018. As a response to the blog post,
Jim Morris researched and dug up old Milliken Spuria
iris (and hemerocallis) catalogs, and guess what!
One of them, the 1953 edition, actually has ‘Wadi
Zem Zem’ on its cover, and additional information
inside for this now rediscovered old spuria iris. Take
a look and be surprised! The power of the wiki at
work (< wink> < wink>)—find it in the Catalogs of Iris
Specialists category, 1953.
Milliken Gardens Iris and Hemerocallis—1953 catalog left: cover; right: cover information
, jim morris
42 AIS Bulletin Winter 2019