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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! |