Well, this
is it. A couple of years of planning and we still feel as though we've
been taken by surprise that June 2006 is here already and we need to
have all our ducks in a row. Please come to the June 3 meeting to help
where you can.
Our show is June 10th, our tour is June 17th and our Big
Celebration banquet is the evening of June 17th, beginning at 5:00 p.m.
at the Fort Gardens. If you have not paid for your banquet dinner yet,
please get your check for $25.00 per person to me by June 5, 2006. We
need to reserve the numbers of diners for the caterer.
By the way, get out to the Fort Gardens this week if you can. If
you don't, you'll miss the bloom. We should call this year the year of
the "Early Iris Bloom". Who every heard of our bloom being over by the
end of May, but this record heat in May has really made the iris
happy...the Fort Gardens is a sight right now! And the gardens are
looking wonderful...the absolute best I have ever seen them, thanks
mostly to Billie Gray and Zona Lindemann, who were the only ones to show
up for the May 7th work party.
In doing research for a historical booklet, I discovered that not
only is our Iris Display Garden at Fort Missoula celebrating 25 years of
showing iris, but our Missoula Iris Society is about to celebrate 50
years of growing iris. The Society was created in 1956, according to
written documentation I could verify.
I like to call it: "50 years of growing, 25 years of showing"
Everyone who attends our celebration banquet will receive a copy of
the historical booklet. I hope you enjoy it, because it was a joy for
me to research and write. It will take us from the origination of the
Society back in 1956 when the "ladies" of Missoula met at each other's
homes, about 10 of them, and enjoyed spicy desserts like rum cake to
today's celebrations. It will have tidbits of information on all the
members in the past 50 years, their contributions, officers who have
served over and over again, humorous excerpts from our newsletters, a
listing of all the show themes for the past many years and lots of other
interesting stuff.
Long time members who were there at the beginning of the gardens
should really enjoy the walk down memory lane. I sure enjoyed learning
so much about how the traditions started years ago and the importance of
their contribution to the life of the Missoula Iris Society. |
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