2017 EVENTS

2017 Dig and Sale at the Arboretum

The annual dig on August 12, and the sale on the weekend of August 19-20 was very successful.
A big THANK YOU to all of the great volunteers. We had a very good response and many willing hands.
There are photos from the dig on the Iris Society of Minnesota facebook page.

2017 Iris Show at Bachman's, June 3, 2017

SHOW UPDATE: We were advised that a seedling could not be voted Queen of the Show. The judges consulted and selected Jenn Lanz' I. Tectorum alba as the Queen!   The ISM sponsored another successful iris show on Saturday, June 3. The Queen of the Show was a seedling (2013-01-03), and it is very unusual for a seedling to attain this honor. Congratulations to Alicia LaMunion, who, in addition to her seedling, had several award winning irises in the show! And congratulations to all who participated. Here are a few photos, and ISM member Holly Johnson will be posting many more to our facebook forum site. Holly is also posting photos of irises that are blooming this year at the Landscape Arboretum.
Tatiana Allen, Show Chair; Bob Reed; and Holly Johnson
Historic TB iris Anointed (top) and TB Western Edge, just two of many fine irises entered in the show. See our Forum page for more.

Art in Bloom 2017
Minneapolis Institute of Art, April 26-30, 2017

Holiday Party at Richardson Nature Center
January 14, 2017

Linda H	Connie W	Tatiana A
Alicia L	Jack W	Marte H
Jon S	Bill T & Holly J	Tim & Gerry M

Jack & Jan W	Andrea L & Michelle D
Stacy M & Bill T	Cindy & Jon S

Photos by Katarina 2017

2016 EVENTS

2016 Regional Meeting Presentation
November 6, 2016 at Bachman's
by Holly Johnson

Jan Sacks and Marty Schafer

November 6th, 2016 we were fortunate enough to have Jan Sacks and Marty Schafer, hybridizers of Siberian Iris, and owners of Joe Pye Weed’s Garden presenting. There were a total of 22 attendees to the presentation, two from as far away as Iowa. Marty and Jan have been honored by the American Iris Society by being presented with the Hybridizer Award in 2007. They have also won the Morgan-Wood Medal nine times from 1999 thru 2015.

Marty and Jan live in a 19th century barn house. They have many companion plantings of perennials among their prized iris. At current time, they have officially registered 138 new varieties of Siberian Iris. They have also officially registered 21 Species iris, and 5 Species Hybrids.

During the presentation, Jan and Marty displayed a picture that showed the starting point of a new year of growing their hybridized Siberian Iris. The picture showed about 60 seedling trays with 144 cells per tray. If all the cells were actively growing would equate to 8,640 new plants. I noticed that in the foreground, some trays that were cut off in the picture, so this is not necessarily all the seedlings for that year.  That is a lot of new iris plants! They mentioned that the biggest threat to the seedlings was rabbits, as they like to nibble on the new seedlings. They stated that it takes about four years, from the time the seeds are first planted, to when they have enough stock to sell any extras. During that time, there are many crosses that do not make the cut.

Schafer and Sacks seedlings

The soil in their area is mostly a sandy loam, which is very stony. In order to conserve moisture, for their Siberian iris, they mulch between the rows with chopped leaves or Pine needles for mulch. They use wood chips only for paths, as they draw out too many nutrients from the soil, when breaking down, to use around the plants.

In 1976, Currier McEwen had hybridized a yellow Siberian iris, ‘Butter & Sugar’, for the first time. Before this there had been no other yellow Siberian irises. Even though this variety was officially registered with the Iris Society of America, and was awarded an Honorable Mention in 1978, the Morgan Award in 1981, and the Morgan-Wood Medal in 1986, it was considered by Jan and Marty as an inferior plant, due to the color being a pale yellow and the fact that there were only 2 buds per stalk. Jan and Marty set out to see if they could have any luck to improve upon this yellow Siberian. They had noticed that most hybridizers were trying to cross white irises with ‘Butter & Sugar’ to try to get better yellows, but they were not having very good luck at improving the color. Marty decided to go the other direction, and cross ‘Butter & Sugar’, and later other yellows, with his best blues to see what kind of results he could get with these crossings.

Marty and Jan had very good success with crossing the blue irises to yellow ones, and have since introduced many new varieties because of these crossings. ‘Tree of Songs’ is one of their varieties, officially registered in 2006, which was awarded the Franklin Cook Cup in 2010, an Honorable Mention in 2010, an Award of Merit in 2012, and the Morgan-Wood Medal in 2014.

While they were crossing their best blues with yellows, they noticed that some of the yellows they were getting were looking like they were overlaid with the blue. Some of their hybrids even had a gray coloring to them, to which Marty said something to the effect of, “never describe a flower color as gray, as they won’t sell, instead say the color is Heather, or something similar”. During this time, they also produced their first bi-colored iris, ‘So Van Gogh’, a variety with yellow falls and blue-violet standards and style arms.

With their success of producing yellow iris that they felt were better in form, and had better bud production, they decided to try their hand at producing a better pink iris. They used one of their seedlings, ‘Pleasures Of May’, as a base to build on, and crossed pinks with yellows. One of their latest hybrids, ‘Wynne Magnolia’ is a resulting offspring from one of these crosses, and Marty and Jan feel that this particular variety will make a good parent plant for subsequent crosses, as it produces many flowers of good substance. Because Jan and Marty felt ‘Wynne Magnolia’ has a lot of potential as a parent plant, they brought several starts of to give out as door prizes. Even with it being so late in the year for planting, they recommended that those who received them, after planting, cover them with a brick to keep the seedlings from frost heaving. Then in the spring uncover them to allow for growth. They found that this method has worked well for them when planting late in the year.

Door Prizes

Marty and Jan found that when hybridizing iris, it takes 3 years for a plant to develop into its full potential. The first year of growth is spent on the plant developing from seed. During the second year the flowers that are produced give the hybridizer a “peek” at the possible potential of a flower. During year three, the flower production should have stabilized enough to decide if it is truly worthwhile to pursue to registration, or to add it to the compost pile.

Over the years, Jan and Marty have grown some Siberian iris that have had re-bloom potential, but they have found that the flowers that are usually produced during the second bloom, are susceptible to Japanese Beetle damage. When talking about the Japanese Beetles, they mentioned that their area had had problems with Japanese Beetles for 20 years, and during the later part of this period, they noticed that the beetles were getting white spots on their heads. They found that this was a virus that was infecting the beetles, and since have started to have less of an infestation problem with the beetles. They also found during this time that a type of annual Knottweed, that they grew, seemed to deter the Japanese Beetles. This type of Knottweed is known as ‘Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate’. Something else that they found out about repeat blooming Siberians was that during years of  cooler weather there seemed to be more repeat blooming.
When starting out their seedlings after transplanting, Jan and Marty will water them often, until the roots take hold. One will know when this happens when there is resistance when tugging lightly on the leaves of the seedlings. After the roots have locked into the soil a bit, they cut back on the watering to weekly, then bi-weekly, eventually stopping all supplemental watering except in the event of a drought. They recommend the use of pearlite or similar substances, so you can water the plants often, but the plants won’t be sitting in water for extended periods of time. Even though the growth of Siberian Iris is better in moist soil, they do not like sitting in water logged soil, especially over the winter.

After their presentation on Siberian Iris, Marty and Jan had an additional presentation on Species iris. There are many different species of Iris that grow wild throughout the states. When on a trip through Exeter, New Hampshire, they found Iris prismatica growing wild. These I. prismatica were the first that Schafer & Sacks grew, and they later registered them as the variety ‘Exeter’ due to the location they were found in. Even though Siberian iris are more favorably grown on a straight stem, they found that I. prismatica does not have a straight stem, and many other species iris commonly have bent stems too. They think this occurs because the plants are stoloniferous (growing from runners), instead of growing from a rhizome.
They mentioned if you have an area of shade that you want to plant iris in, but have not been successful, a good Species iris to plant would be Iris gracilipies. Other Species for partial shade would be Iris chinenses, and Iris cristata. They found that it takes about 3-4 years for these species iris to grow into a good sized clump. For iris to plant in wet areas, I. versicolor is known to do well. This plant naturally blooms over the water, when able, so that the seeds can naturally disperse by floating away.

Jan and Marty felt that for those of us who want to improve upon our bearded iris, we may want to introduce a species iris into our hybridizing program. One that has shown a lot of success crossing with bearded iris would be I. aphylla. This species tends to add branching and hardiness to bearded iris. However, this iris is a little unusual, in that the leaves of I. aphylla die off completely in the winter.
If anyone is really interested in finding species iris, but not having luck doing so, try contacting Jan Sacks or Marty Schafer at Joe Pye Weed’s Garden. They may be able to help you, as they grow many species iris in their own perennial beds surrounding their home. I would like to thank Jan and Marty for two very informative presentations.  They definitely have a passion for creating new, more improved, varieties of iris!

Region 8 RVP Tim Moore

2016 Iris Society of Minnesota Show. June 4.

2016 ISM iris show Queen and section winners:
Queen of the Show: TB Hopeless Romantic, entered by Jack Worel.

QUEEN OF THE SHOW: HOPELESS ROMANTIC

Gerry Moore and Katerina Bergeron

Holly Johnson and RVP Tim Moore

Best in Sections:

Best BB: Dance Gypsy Jenn Lanz	Best MTB: Smarty Pants Jenn Lanz
Best Versicolor Michelle Dreier	Best Historic: Sixpack Alicia LaMunion
Best Seedling: 0218 Jack Worel	Best Siberian: Shall we Dance Alicia LaMunion
1st Place Special Horticultural Awards:
Nuclear. Jenn Lanz	2013-10-01. Alicia LaMunion
Super Ego. Michelle Dreier	Silverado. Tim Moore

FROM AN EMAIL FROM TIM MOORE, REGION 8 RVP

This file is the region 21 announcement of their whirlwind garden tour on May 21,2016, leaving from the greater Des Moines Botanical Garden. They are doing a registration at 8 o'clock on the Saturday morning of the event and vans/buses? will depart at 8:30.  All next years convention gardens are included.   There is supposed to be a judges training during lunch at the Iowa Arboretum near Ames or in the garden right after lunch.  I think this may be of special interest as the iris in these gardens should grow in our gardens in Minnesota and Wisconsin if they grow well in Iowa.  

If you plan on attending, please fill out the registration form before May 11th making checks out to Region 21 and mail it to Pam Messer, P O Box 64, Huxley, IA 50124.  Also please email Katerina Bergeron to let her know you plan to go as she is coordinating things for Region 8.   Pam Messer suggested we look at motels in Ankeny, IA to stay on Friday night.  She says there are a lot and plenty of restaurants.  Their directions on the announcement for Westbound on I-235 will get you to the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden where the tour begins and ends.  

2013-15 EVENTS

ISM President Michelle Dreier and Region 8 RVP Tim
Moore with Siberian Iris 'Swans in Flight' at Schreiner's
Iris Gardens, May 21, 2015. 'Swans in Flight' won the
Franklin Cook Memorial Cup at the 2015 AIS convention.

2015 Convention Welcome Dinner. From left:
Jan and Jack Worel, Ramona Keller, Gerry and
Tim Moore, Michelle Dreier, and Alicia LaMunion

Elladan McLeester and George Bacon	Gerry Moore, Michelle Dreier and Alicia LaMunion

Art in Bloom at MIA April 30-May 3, 2015

ISM once again sponsored Cindy Soule's entry in
Art in Bloom. This is Cindy's interpretation of
George Segal's "The Girl Friends"

Cindy Soule and Beverly Nesser

Annual Holiday party and Awards dinner

The holiday party and awards dinner was held Saturday,
January 24, 2015 at PF Chang in Edina. Members enjoyed delicious food and good company. Alicia LaMunion and Jack Worel (in absentia) were presented with AIS medals.

Some of ISM members at Annual party and Awards Banquet

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2014 Iris Dig at Holly Lane Gardens
Saturday August 9, 2014

A lightly overcast day was perfect for digging, labeling, and washing many fine irises at Jack Worel's home and gardens. Thanks to Tim and Gerry Moore and Jack and Jan Worel for organizing the proceedings. Elsie Riggs did a great job arranging for a superb lunch. Thanks to her and the others who brought food: Lucy Joyce, Jan & Jack, Katerina Bergeron, Gerry, and Cindy Soule. The dig volunteers were: Cindy and Jon Soule, Wally Doehne, Jenn Lanz and her son Devon, Marte Hult, Tony Luce, Judy Clayton, Tatiana Allen, Anne Gillespie Lewis, John Sautner, Toni Fundingsland, Lucy Joyce, JoAnn Metling, Katerina Bergeron, Bob Reed, and Tim and Gerry's granddaughter, Ailsa Schmidt. Several people also brought irises for the sale and we will list those along with the volunteers after the sale. As Gerry said in her email to the volunteers, "Many hands make light work (although I wouldn't say it was light work.)" We are well on our way to having a great sale!!

2014 ISM Iris Show at Bachman's

Judges in midst of judging	Jack Worel, Elsie Riggs, Barbara and John Sautner
Katerina Bergeron and Tim Moore
	Queen of Show High Stakes — Robert Reed
Blue ribbon and special award to novice Tatiana Allen	Other blue ribbon winners
Top photo by Tim Moore. Other photos by Gerry Moore List of winners on News & Views page

The Iris Society supported Cindy Soule in her exhibition at the 2014 Art in Bloom event at MIA. Cindy's arrangement:

Dedication of New Iris Bed at the Arboretum

ANNUAL IRIS DIG AT THE ARBORETUM
SEE UPDATED SITE CHANGE INFO IN NEWS & VIEWS

August 9, 2014 (dig)
August 16-17, 2014 (sale)

Because of a wedding at 4:00 pm, we must be finished with
the dig by 2:30 pm on the 9th. We will need MANY volunteers!

© 2014 Iris Society of Minnesota
Last updated August 26, 2017