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“PRAIRIE GOLD” MIS CONVENTION 2007 WAS GOLDEN!

By Rita Gormley

What happens if you throw an “Iris Party” and no Irises come???  Well, the people come anyway and a good time is had by all!!

The dread of all convention planners and garden hosts is “what if the weather is rotten – hail, freeze, wind, heat, cold….”  The Lincoln Median Convention Guest irises were spectacular in 2006 for the dress-rehearsal but the bad weather-witches descended on Lincoln (and most of the Midwest) in March and April 2007 leaving the beautiful gardens in tatters with heat/freeze/flood and gardeners in despair!  Well, did that deter anyone from having a great time?  Not on your life!

Conventions are more than Garden Tours and the Lincoln Iris Society outdid itself with the arrangements to celebrate the Median Iris Society’s 50th Anniversary and pay tribute to Allan Ensminger, their patriarch and Hybridizer Supreme!  Region 21 (Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota) has a long and distinguished iris hybridizing history.  From the Welcome Committee, who provided great garden gloves with their warm greetings, to the great program at the Sass Memorial Garden to the Awards Presentation at the final dinner, things were just exciting and perfect!

Terry Aitken conducted a very informative Judge’s Training in the White/Rader garden under clear sunny skies. The hospitality of all guest garden hosts and the meticulous care of the irises and gardens were indeed second-to-none!  Mother Nature did not deter them from providing the background for a superior Convention.

The lunch and program at Mahoney State Park, which is the home of the Sass Memorial Garden, included Mickey Schliefert giving the background of her father’s long friendship with Henry Sass and a wonderful display of Sass memorabilia including the many earliest AIS Medals.  Ron Crampton did an excellent informational history of the Sass Garden and the various places it was located before being established in this park, Amy Smith, president of Greater Omaha Iris Society, outlined the plans the Omaha group has for expanding the Sass Garden to include as many of the old introductions as possible. 

The Awards dinner was delightfully orchestrated with Fiddle entertainer Dottie Langman doing various selection of tunes from Fiddle Competitions-waltz, jig and “pick-your own”.  She involved the whole audience with many standard tunes they all knew and my favorite from childhood “Arkansas Traveler” and the lovely voice of this year’s Cosgrove Winner, Grace Farley, accompanied her in the rousing fun!  Gary White paid tribute to Allan Ensminger with a slide show of his introductions-many of them Award winners and tradition breaking colors, such as ‘Batik’.  Allan’s family-daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter and great-grandchildren were there to participate in the festivities.  Jean Morris recited, from memory, Allan’s tongue-in-cheek poem to his wife Gladys “Impossible, Impossible”.  MIS President, Perry Dyer, presented Allan with the 2007 Bennett C. Jones Outstanding Median Hybridizing Award in recognition of his long standing contribution to the Median Iris Society. 

Door prizes included a beautiful quilt completed by Twyla Sass after being started many years ago and I was delighted to be the winner of this great prize!!  There were two gorgeous “MIS 50th Anniversary” cakes for everyone to share. The Auction of the Guest irises, organized by Beverly and Bob Smith with Auctioneer Don Eisle, was a lively one and produced enough revenue for Lincoln Iris Society to generously donate over $1,000 to the coffers of MIS for which we thank them.

I know the other 125 attendees of this 2007 MIS Convention will join me in saying that this one of the very celebrations we ever attended and thank all the members of the Lincoln Iris Society for their wonderful job!