Thoughts From A Young Irisarian
Hooker Nichols
It has always been the purpose of the AIS Youth Committee to guide our youth and young adults during their initiation into the iris world. Over the years, we saw an ever-increasing number of teenagers and young adults flocking to the iris shows and conventions around the country. They go there because they are interested in finding the realism that nature has to offer. Many of you remember the blue, off-white, yellow and purple iris that grandmother grew. What the young people see today is the accumulation of over forty years of hard work by some of the most versatile iris connoisseurs of recent times. When I was growing up, I did not see just the old iris that my grandmother knew as a child, I saw the wonderful iris that made garden visitors stand and gasp when they came into bloom.
It has been a number of years since I was the little boy who played in the iris garden during bloom season much to the dismay of my aunt. As I became older, I started asking my aunt questions regarding the iris and she gave me some guidelines which enabled me to learn to appreciate the iris. Here are some of the guidelines she gave to me. I have found them most useful when I have taught other people how to grow iris.
1. During the bloom season when you are hybridizing, always be ready to stop with your work and answer questions put to you by an interested or curious youth or young adult. Make him know that you truly have taken an interest in what he wants to know more about. Take him to an iris and show him how to hybridize, write the tag, remove the anther from the flower and place it on the stigmatic lip. After all, you might be teaching someone how to create a future Dykes Medal Winner.
2. The bloom season is always a good time to show the aspiring youth just what makes up the parts of the iris flower. Give him an explanation of the stalk, branching, bud count, the various parts of the flower itself and compare that flower to that of a variety nearby and ask him which one he likes the best.
3. Later that summer, show him how to dig and transplant iris. This is an excellent time to give him a couple of sacks of iris to take home and start a garden with. His face will light up when he looks at his sacks of iris and discovers that you gave him that very special iris he thought the most beautiful iris in the garden that spring.
4. Why not give him a gift membership in the American Iris Society? The pages of the bulletin offer valuable information to the budding irisarian.
5. The AIS Robin Program can be valuable during his initiation into the world of iris. The Teens and Twenties Division offers a splendid opportunity to the new youth member to get to know other people and enjoy and share new views on iris through the robin letters.
6. If you have a local iris society, take the youth with you and allow him to take an active part in the society. We all know what some new blood can do for a society.
The above six guidelines that I have mentioned are but a few of the many ways the AIS can get new members.
Some people sitting in the audience hold the highest positions that any person may attain on the national, regional and local level. The forefathers of the AIS sought to lay a firm foundation that has withstood the trials and tribulations of our recent times. The American Iris Society needs her youth members. Since the future of this great organization depends upon each of us, the attitude we show toward our youth members should always be constructive. The youth members need your guidance.
(Reprinted from Sooner State Iris News, March 1975)