Well, Lori, did you go? What did you get?

I did go and I did get:

Sheer Ecstacy
Florentine Silk
Wish Upon a Star
Good Guy
Royal Sterling
New Day Dawning
Protocol
Shoptalk
Silver Dividend
Double Shot
Saturday Night Live
Tiger Taffy
Gypsy Romance
Amber Amulet
Kindhearted
Cranberry Cordial
Bold Encounter
Gracious Curves
Naumkeag
Medici Prince
Morning Mood
Night Hawks Dream
Brussels
Darcy's Choice
Slovak Prince
Celebration Song
For a total of $91.00 - not a bad haul.

Now for the funny part of the trip!

The lady running the calculator when I was checking out sounded so familiar when she was talking...I told her to keep talking so I could figure out where I knew her from.
Turns out she was my college algebra prof. 15 yrs ago. You just never know who you are going to run in to!

Anyway, I will be joining the North Central Iris Society this week...the dues are a whopping $15.00 for a 4 yr family membership. They are having a picnic in Sept. and will have their "new intro" auction then as well. I am excited!

Wow! Not bad at all! Plus it sounds like you had fun, which is the most important part. Can't wait to see what you get at the new intro auction.

That looks like a great list any you decide not to keep and have not been spoken for send me an cmail, PLEASE

I will be inviting DH to the picnic of course, I am sure he will decline to go along. At least I hope he declines...I won't be bidding much if he attends with me; solo I can bid like crazy.

By this time next year Doris, I should have some to share!

Great Choices....great bargains...think of how much fun bloom season next spring is going to be. Our sale was yesterday. I bought Beauty Becomes Her, Adriatic Seas, Puff the Magic, and was given a start of Stop Flirting which I've wanted. I also received A bag of medians from one friend and another bag of TBs from another. To many for the room that I have so I'll sort through them, choose a few, and give some to a friend. We sold a lot but had quite a few left but a local nursery will give us $2 for each of those. Its good when a club has some money to buy iris and fund activities.

The club here said they struggled to have enough rhizomes to even have the sale this year. I didn't get there until about 11 a.m. and it started at 9 a.m. I was told I should have been there earlier; there were more choices then.
Good grief, it is a good thing I wasn't there early! We wouldn't have grocery money this week!

I can't wait to see what they have at the auction in Sept., it will be a fun time I am sure!

Sounds like you had a great time -- and I hope for your sake your DH declines next weekend! I know the Monterey Bay Iris Society is having sales on the next two Saturdays, and how I WISH I could be there!

jackieshar, probably shouldn't have chimed in, but can't stop myself sometimes. its all that teacher and tutor training and being the oldest of four. if it is a subject of interest to me, HAVE to try to help--even if not asked.

mitch is right about water and prayer for top notch care and such. and from what i can find, it looks like the answer to the iris question depends on what you want to accomplish.

i'll stop now.

http://www.medianiris.com/why_...
http://www.irises.org/About_Ir...
http://www.klru.org/ctg/blog/?...
http://forums.gardenweb.com/fo...
http://www.flower-gardening-ma...

Great list. I can't wait to tell hubby about 'Naumkeag'. I wonder how it got to OK as it is my husbands plant. Luckily i only has 2 iries from yesterday MDB 'Wee Harry' (Schmieder'08) & TB (don't laugh) 'After Eight'. That one is good for this area as it was hybridized by Hal Stahly from Michigan.

Wasn't it fun to meet people? I bought lunch to save myself trouble of carrying it & picked up small utensile pkg. & found no spoon. Had to eat my chocolate pudding with my fork.

Part of the fun of growing iris is meeting other iris people and sharing iris talk. I also grow hosta and we have a newly formed hosta society here in Utah. They did their first annual tour yesterday and visited my garden. Formerly I had one friend to talk about hosta with. Now I have several.

I don't know how it got here! But it is, or at least that is how it is marked.

I hate those little plastic packs - you never know what is going to be missing! At least you had the fork and didn't have to try and eat it with the knife!

Any chance of seeing a pic of Naumkeag? It only says white standard blue fall with white beard, sounds pretty! They have J. Burton, 2005 SDB marked on it as well.

Is there anyone out there that knows about one of these sales in Illinois? I did not have much success in trying to locate any close iris societies close to me. The website seems out of date, perhaps I am looking in the wrong place. I would surely like to meet people in the clubs close to me and also be able to purchase iris. I can c-mail you if you would like to contact me personally with more iinformation.

That would be the plant. I looked in our slide collection for it & found that we have never taken a picture. Have to correct that next spring. Poor Naumkeag. The blue spot on the falls is quite large with a rim of white. It came off a bee pod from 'Split Decision'. Wider falls but if you find Split Decision in plant files it might give you an idea of appearance. We both love the standard dwarfs. Our members only (but you can bring friend) is next Sat. The ordered plants come in here so we just have to keep track of them.

This is a link to iris society affiliates in AIS region 9 (Illinois).

http://www.irises.org/About_AI...

Oh, the poor little orpahn that landed in Oklahoma!
Thanks for the info, I will look that up.

Good luck with your sale Sat...wish I lived closer! (Probably a good thing I don't!).

doglover, where in Illinois are you? I'm kind of between Peoria and Bloomington. Jerry, thanks for posting that link! I know where New Salem, IL, is, but have never heard of Salem, IL. Looks like I need to brush up on my geography! Glad to see other IL gardeners on here!

Salem sits about 80 miles due east of St. Louis, MO., at the junction of U.S. 50 and I-57. Iuka is about 10 miles east of me and Centralia is about 15 miles west of me so I am in the middle of Mid/Southern IL iris country. Ernie Henson of Iuka does some hybridizing but I am not familiar with his work. I am not a member of either local society since I prefer to garden in a totally disorganized fashion.