Missoula Iris Society

JULY 2005

Members: Hi, Gang! Here is the July Newsletter. We will be preparing for our big event this month, our iris sale. We need to get some volunteers for cashiers and for the marker table as well. We always need lots of help for digging and cleaning the rhizomes at the fort gardens to get them ready for the sale. We will be digging and cleaning at the fort gardens on Monday and Tuesday, July 25^th & 26^th. Please come and do whatever you can to help out. Any kind of participation will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

This months meeting is also the annual BBQ at Bob & Alvertas. Bob’s special hamburgers will be served, veggie burgers are offered as well. Need everyone to bring items that will go with hamburgers, such as potato salad, mac salad, cole slaw, desserts
Pete Addeo,
Webmaster & President Missoula Iris Society http://www.missoulairis.com

DATE & TIME: Saturday, July 9, 2005 at 6:30pm
PLACE: Home of Bob & Alverta Symes. Call 258--6649 for directions. Annual BBQ event. Bring food that will go with the entrée, salads, desserts, etc.
PROGRAM: Preparation for the iris sale. Volunteers needed for cashiers. Fort work party for digging & cleaning rhizomes at the gardens to prepare for the sale.

"FYI" NEWS:

Meeting Locations/Activities for 2005 - Here's the list for the rest of the year's club activities:

July 9th - Meeting at Bob & Alverta Symes', potluck, hosts to provide the best grilled hamburgers
July 30th - Annual Iris Sale, Fort Gardens, 9am - 1pm. After sale party at Billie Gray's
August - No Meeting
September 10th - Meeting at Gary Clark's, potluck, hosted by Ronn Dunn
October 1st - Meeting at Honk Meyer's
November 5th - Meeting at Billie Gray's
December 4th - Sunday - Annual Christmas Party hosted by Ken & Rose Mary Baier

It's Their Birthday!!....Let's Give 'Em a Cheer!!!
Happy day to Fred Frey – July 20th, Billie Gray, July 12th, Cindy Davis, July 5^th and Darlene Watkins, July 20th. Have a happy birthday and all the good wishes and cheers that go along with it.

New Members: We have another new member, thanks to Alverta Symes. Welcome to Elizabeth Friesz of Alberton. Hope to see you at the meetings.

Iris Sale: This is our most important event of the year and it is the one event that makes our group earn enough money to continue our operations for another year. If we don’t have a good sale, then our group will suffer for the coming year of events. We especially need help at the Fort Gardens on Monday & Tuesday, the 25^th & 26^th. We have lots of iris to dig up and clean for the sale.

We will also need help at Gary’s house on Thursday & Friday, the 28^th & 29^th for help in sorting and tagging iris for the sale. Gary will host a potluck dinner on Friday, July 29^th at 6:00pm. Help is needed after the potluck to load the collected rhizomes into the truck to bring to the sale Saturday morning. Please do whatever you can to help out. It’s your group too and everyone always has a good time getting together and working to get our annual sale to make money for the group. All members are encouraged to get there early (8:30am) to help set up tables and etc. After the sale, the garden party of pizza, chicken and beverages will be at the home of Billie Gray. We always have a lot of fun at this annual event.

MARKER TAGS WILL BE AVAILABLE
We will have marker tags available at the meeting for everyone who will be digging for the sale.

PLANT LISTS
Alverta Symes asks that you bring a plant list to the meeting of what you are planning to dig for the sale.

NO AUGUST MEETING
There will not be an August meeting due to the sale event. The September meeting will be on the 10th at the home of Gary Clark.

RHIZOME SALE GUIDELINES
The MIS Rhizome Sale is Saturday, July 30th at the Fort Missoula Gardens starting at 9am - 1pm. The Collection point will be at the home of Gary Clark. Rhizomes can be delivered to his garage beginning Tuesday of that week but no later than Wednesday by 9pm. Please read the Pre-Sale guidelines & Clarifications carefully. These guidelines were put together to avoid confusion during the sale preparations on Thursday and Friday.

1. Iris rhizomes shall be grown by MIS members only.
2. ALL RHIZOMES are to be WASHED, TRIMMED & LABELED as to variety and type PRIOR to delivery to the collection site. Trim fans to about 4 inches - 6 inches depending on type and roots to about 4 inches. MIS will provide labels. These labels should be stapled to the leaves. MDB's and SDB's should be in bundles of three rhizomes. IB's and MTB's should be in bundles of two rhizomes. Beardless iris are to be in clumps.
3. Iris varieties introduced 30 years or more before the year of the sale are to be labeled with year of introduction and separated from newer varieties.
4. Pricing of rhizomes is at the discretion of the sale committee. Age is considered but NOT color for setting the price.
5. All rhizomes are to be delivered to the designated collection site by 9pm WEDNESDAY preceding the sale.
6. Sorting, etc. will be done on THURSDAY and competed on FRIDAY. Chairperson to select committee of MIS members to assist in this process.
7. There are to be NO PRE-SALE orders.

PRE-SALE CLARIFICATIONS:
1. There is to be NO TRADING of rhizomes among members at the COLLECTION SITE. Members ARE encouraged to share or trade before bringing rhizomes to the collection site.
2. The sale chairperson shall determine which varieties may be traded/purchased by the MIS members. The trading/sale hours are Thursday, 6pm - 9pm and Friday, 9am - 12pm.
3. Members donating rhizomes may:
A. Take ONE rhizome for each variety donated (no matter how many of any one variety are donated)
B. Take LIKE variety donated (SDB for SDB, TB for TB, etc)
C. Take NO MORE THAN ONE (1) RHIZOME of any one variety.
D. May NOT choose from a variety that has fewer than SIX rhizomes in the box.
4. Members NOT donating rhizomes may purchase rhizomes (with the above restrictions)
5. Varieties 5 YEARS and NEWER from date of introduction will be so marked & priced accordingly. Fort Display Garden Chairperson has first choice of any varieties.
6. GRAB BAGS of iris rhizomes may be made up of unnamed or overstocked varieties at discretion of the chairperson by Friday.

HOPE TO SEE EVERYONE AT THE SALE AND DON'T FORGET TO COME AND HELP SORT ON THURSDAY AND FRIDAY AT GARY’S BEFORE THE SALE!

ANNUAL IRIS SHOW REPORT by Ann Violette
Congratulations to all the winners of our Annual Iris Show. It seems that Gary has taken the show again this year. That’s 2 years in a row! Congrats, Gary. Here is a listing of the Iris Show winners and their entries:

Horticulture Awards

Best Specimen of Show was " Petite Ballet" an IB Exhibited by Roger Muir and also won Best Plicata, Best IB and Best Median
Best Seedling R-3 and R-1 TB won 2 EC.'s by Wayne Richlie
Silver Medal for the Most Ribbons: Gary Clark with 10 Blue and 9 Red
Bronze Medal for second Most Ribbons: Roger Muir, with 10 Blue and 3 Red
First Princess was Cindy Davis with "Transcribe" an SDB
Best Siberian: Claudia Brown with "Blue Burn"
Best White/ Best TB: Swede Gustafson with "Titanic Nemesis"
Best MTB, Roger Muir: "Reminiscence"
Best Space Age / Best Purple: Elloie Jeter, "To the Point"
Best Color Break, Lynn Weger: with "Gnus Flash"
Best Novice, Ron Dowell: with "Snowed In" a Tall Bearded
Best Pink/Best Border Bearded: Alverta Symes with "Lenora Pearl"

Artistic Awards

Most Blue Ribbons in Artistic Advanced ....Jim Sadler
Best Design of Show Intermediate ... Donna Dowell
Class #1 "Interpretation of Theme "...Jim Sadler, Advanced Judge
#2." Silent Screen Sirens"... Ron Dowell, Beginner Class had some great competition!! Well Won !! KUDO's Ron
#3. "Diamonds are a girls Best Friend"... Ann Violette, Beginner Class had a 3 way tie for a Blue with Jim Sadler and Donna Dowell each in separate sections
#4 "I want to be Alone"...Jim Sadler, Advanced Judge
#5 no entries
#6 "White Christmas" ... Jim Sadler, Advanced Judge
#7 "African Queen"...Donna Dowell, Intermediate Class. Donna Won Best of Show!!! Hands Down blowing away all other competition with a great winning Design. Well Done !!
#8 "Some Enchanted Evening"...Jim Sadler, Advanced Judge
#9."Happy Trails"...Connie Plaissay, Beginner Class from Charlo, with a blow down iris from Fort Missoula. Well Done Connie for your second Blue

TO ALL who helped, Clerks, Ernie, Honk, Ronn, To a great Crew of Judges many thanks. Job Well Done. A Special Thank You To our arrangement Judge Cheryl Carroll. Sincerely Ann Violette

Minutes of the Missoula Iris Society Meeting, Saturday, June 4, 2005:

The meeting was called to order by President Pete Addeo at 8:00 p.m. at the home of Ken and RoseMary Baier. Minutes - The minutes from the May meeting were approved as they appeared in the newsletter. Treasurers Report Treasurer Swede Gustafson reported no change in the balances. Checking Account Balance as of April 1, 2005 $585.29 Savings balance: $6,519.03

OLD BUSINESS:

Iris Show - The annual iris show is to be held Saturday, June 11th at Southgate Mall; the theme is "Hurray for Hollywood". Gary Clark reported in the absence of Ann Violette and Jim Sadler. The after show banquet will be held at the Cracker Barrel. Set up of the show will be Friday at 8:00 p.m. Gary passed out tags for entries.
Fort Gardens - Billie Gray reported there is lots of bloom. She encouraged us to go see the bloom and take care of our weeds. Bob Symes and Honk Meyer planted 320 marigolds.

Median Show - Gary reported there were 70 entries. He thanked Ron Dowell for taking pictures. Claudia won Best of Show for her SDB; Claudia also won the most ribbons with 13. Donna Dowell won for best design. Honk won 7 ribbons. Congratulations.

Rhizome Sale - President Pete asked for volunteers to chair the rhizome sale in July; no volunteers were forthcoming, so Pete volunteered to chair that event. Sorting will take place at Gary's house. Volunteers who offered to help sort include Ernie Lucera, Bob Symes and Cleo Swanson. Cleo Swanson has a canopy to help provide shade. Bob reported that 30 tables have been reserved. The after sale party will be held at Billie Gray's as usual.
NEW BUSINESS:

Jim Sadler - Condolences were expressed to the Sadler family who lost a son. Flowers were sent to Ohio. A local memorial service will be held June 18th at First Christian Church.

Sale Work Party - Volunteers are needed to help dig, clean and trim iris at the Fort Gardens for the sale. Digging will be in the mornings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, July 25th thru July 27th. Clipping and cleaning will take place in the evenings.
Presidential Rhizome - The June winner is Hazel Richlie.

The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m. followed by a program by Alverta Symes on staging iris for the show.

Respectfully submitted,

Carolyn Addeo
Secretary