Iris Sisters has also reduced her inventory as the physical work is too much. A lot of our favorite people are feeling the pains of advancing years.
Tom, I am not criticizing Mid-America nor anyone else for failing to keep certain iris in stock. Of course no one can possibly manage an infinitely growing list of iris.
It is one thing if they keep a clump to use in hybridizing, and quite another to grow enough of each variety to be able to list it for sale. Brad's post in which he describes having to delay introduction because he doesn't have enough for something to be listed to the public brings home the realities of the process.
This why I think it will have to be iris lovers like us who have to take up the slack, perhaps with the assistance of a non-profit like the iris society - maybe a good start is making a database of what might be for sale that is more robust. This could include not only commercial growers but say club members who'd be willing to sell something from their garden.
A lot of us trade or give iris away to members here (thank you) or to friends offline. But some of us don't want to be bothered with that. Someone may want an iris, but can't find a trading partner because the other person hasn't anything available that they want, etc.
I don't know, but it seems to me that AIS membership may be declining. Perhaps creating a program like this as a member benefit might help increase membership and deal with preservation. A club might want to sponsor a specific database, such as "older iris by Joe Ghio" or some other category that allows some group to bite off a manageable piece of the task. All this is just brainstorming on my part, because it is helping me procrastinate doing work. :)
The reason I mention a role for the iris society is it is a non-profit and could do some sort of fundraising to pay people some sort of stipend to manage these databases. The good thing about it is that this involves mainly computer work/communications rather than physical infrastructure or hands in the dirt effort.
All these iris one might be looking for are someplace - maybe even someone's local garden store that doesn't sell online. Or some gardener that doesn't even know this forum exists. I think a major help is to network knowledge or where these iris are actually growing for those who are seeking them.
With non-profit backing, a local school could get students involved to help and promote interest in iris with young people, for example. They'd get database management as gardening knowledge - all useful things to learn.
The biggest challenge is coordinating the resources and because the AIS is so connected all over, it seems like a project that might invigorate the organization and expand membership to people who are not looking to go to meetings in person, or do shows or many of the traditional activities of the society.
tveguy3 said: The first one, 20-133 (17-69A x 16-83B Star Turn X 13-50B (Just Witchery X Magical) A
and the Last one, 21-161 (19-84E X Musicality) Really grabbed my attention. Once again, I'm short on time to more carefully assess them right now and I'm sure I'll will find more that I'd want when I have more time.
Lyn, Iris Sisters seems to have a lot of the older ones, and I think they take on many of the Keppel irises that he moves out to make room for his next season of irises. I learned long ago that as much as I'd like to keep every iris that I see, that there are limits to what I can keep. Those limits are shrinking as I age and have to accept that I just can't do as much as I used to.
A large company like Mid America that makes their total living from selling iries, can't hang on to varieties that they don't have a viable market for. They need to have stock in the ones that they can sell. I'm sure that they have a few of their favorites that they keep on hand for their own personal enjoyment, and some for breeding stock for hybridizing, but they are in business and have to make decisions on what they keep and what they discontinue based on good business sense. Those of us who only have an emotional involvement in irises, can hang on to the ones we're attached to, as we're not making a living from them. What happened to that iris finder link that was useful in helping us find rare or hard to find irises? It would be nice to have that updated. Also there is a forum on here for finding sources of irises to trade, I haven't seen that active in a long time.
