PRESIDENT'S PATCH

Well here we are in August. Can you believe this wonderful weather we have been having? July was the coolest month on record in St. Louis with only five days where the temperature reached 90 degrees. And August has started out very well also. It is a good thing as this is our busiest month of the year.

We will need your help if we are to be successful at our sales and auctions. Attendance at our Friday evening meetings had dwindled in 2008 so we switched to Sunday afternoons for 2009. That change has made it easier for our older members who no longer can drive at night as well as our Illinois members to attend. Attendance jumped. Our online preview in February of our new website (Add this one to your "favorites" list, if your haven't) www.stlouisirises.com fizzled as we could not access the internet at MOBOT because of draconian controls established by the MOBOT communications group. We adapted the program so the disappointment was lessened. Many folks attended the excellent "Gardening With Irises" program in March by book author Bill Shear.

It was most encouraging to see new participants in our midseason Iris Show on May 9. What a sight to see Camilla Kotrba come walking in with her first-time entries that she brought on a Metro bus! And Kim Peterson also brought many wonderful entries for the first time. Marilyn Ruemmler had a marvelous bloom season of her Ghio, Keppel and Blyth flowers and really had a good year at local shows with a Best of Show and Silver Medal.

Now it is time for our biggest events of the year our sales and auctions. The dates are all in the yellow GSLIS Calendar of Events booklet distributed to all members early in the year. We start this week with our Iris Digging Party Fri-Sat, August 7-8 at Bob Barker's iris & daylily farm on the outskirts of St. Peters. Irises from this dig and member donations are the only income from sales that go to our club. We need you to come even if you can only sit in the shade to label and clean irises. Call for directions.

Then we have the Iris Sale Labeling Party on the Hort Deck at MOBOT Sat-Sun August 15-16 followed by MOBOT/GSLIS Iris Sale at MOBOT Sat-Sun Aug 22-23.

It should be pointed out that all plants dug at MOBOT are for the benefit of MOBOT. We actually have an account there entitled the Missouri Botanical Garden Iris Society. GSLIS is considered the host of the MOBOT Sale. Therefore all the proceeds from sale of MOBOT plants accrue to them. GSLIS is allowed to sell our plants (with a different color label) which is our main source of income.

Please come and help in any way you can. Everyone is welcome. New faces are desired. Bring a friend. Or two. We'll provide refreshments and Iris Bucks to be used at our later auctions. You all come! Thanks.

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Things You Need to Know
About the 2009 GSLIS / MOBOT Iris Sale

1. Dates & places to pitch in and help:

Fri-Sat. Aug.7-8: Iris dig at Barker's

We'll try to start 8:00 am or so while it's cool. If you can make it, here are directions: (Call Nyla about car pooling - 314-961-6745)

Take 270 to 70 west, get off north on the O'Fallon exit (exit K). Go through the downtown, about two miles to Junction P, turn left and go 2+ miles further until you see a 6-8' tall versilock wall on the right. Turn right just past the wall into Royal Oaks Ct.; go through the subdivision, and just north of it on the left is Bob's acreage-101 Royal Oaks Dr.

Sat-Sun. Aug.15-16: Iris cleaning, clipping, labeling on the Hort Deck at MOBOT If it's hot, labelers can work indoors. We'll probably work all that week, too.

Fri. Aug. 21, 5-11 pm: Sale setup in Beaumont Rm. We need lots of help to get all the irises put out in baskets, add pictures, and arrange alphabetically!

Sat.-Sun. Aug.22-23, 8-5: Our largest iris sale ever! All hands on deck!

2. What's different this year:

SIZE: We expect to have 9,000 plants from MOBOT alone. We're digging nearly everything, to replant. That's a lot to handle, and we need your help.
PRICE: Because of supply, MOBOT has set prices really low, and simplified the pricing structure to only two levels: For medians, $3 and $5; for TBs, $3 and $8. GSLIS irises have to follow this pricing plan.