NEWSLETTER

MISSOULA IRIS SOCIETY POTLUCK MEETING

SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 6:00 PM

Gustafsons’ home, 3128 Eldora Lane

PROGRAM AT 6:00 PM:  Swede Gustafson will provide tours of his iris gardens, discussing the different types of iris in each one, how they are doing, etc. Questions and comments will be welcome. You will also see other flower gardens. We have many deer so you will need to watch your step.

POTLUCK DINNER AT 6:30 PM.

DIRECTIONS:

Head west on Hwy 93/Brooks to Wal-Mart. Turn left at the light onto Lower Miller Creek Road. Proceed to the roundabout and veer right onto Lower Miller Creek Road. Travel just past the golf course. Turn left onto Linda Vista Blvd. Proceed 2 blocks to Eldora Lane and turn left. Go another 3 blocks and Gustafsons' is on the left hand side.

Parking is available on Eldora Lane and also on Lori Court. We are on a corner lot bordered by Eldora Lane and Lori Court. If it is full in front of the house on Eldora Lane or you do not want to walk up the driveway, turn left onto Lori Court and park. On Lori Court you will cut across our neighbors' yard into our yard. We have many deer in the area so be sure to watch your step.

MEDIAN SHOW: We will not have a median show this year. We will concentrate instead on a member garden tour in June.

 GARDEN TOUR: SATURDAY,  JUNE 1: Members Fred Frey and Jim Sadler have volunteered their gardens to be on the tour. We need 1 more garden.  Please let Betty Ann Gustafson know, if you would like your garden on the garden tour. Contact info: swedeandba@gmail.com or 406-370-1696. Location and time for the tour will be published in the May newsletter.

63rd ANNUAL MISSOULA IRIS SOCIETY IRIS SHOW, SATURDAY,   JUNE 8: The  annual Iris Show will be held at the G. W. Marks Exploration Center Butterfly House and Insectarium Balsam Root Room located at the Missoula County Fairgrounds from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Set up will be Friday, June 7, from 2:30 PM to 5:00 PM. This year we will have a joint iris and peony show.

The peony show is sponsored by the Missoula Garden Club. Below are the artistic design themes so those of you who plan to enter can plan ahead. We hope many of you will try your hand at the designs.

                 ARTISTIC CLASSES THEME  'Monarchs, Swallowtails, Viceroy'

                      DESIGN CATEGORIES: 

Flit, Flutter, and Fly—A traditional line design

Stained Glass in Motion—A design showing rhythm or movement

Butterfly Haven—Designer's Choice

Emerging Beauty—Designer's Choice

Dainty Garden Ballet—Designer's Choice

Monarch Majesty—Designer's Choice

TREASURER'S REPORT:  as of March 23, 2024: 

                                 Checking account balance is: $1,426.54 

                                 Savings: $3,014.48

                                 Certificate of Deposit: $3,114.59 at 4.5 %

                                                         Renewable June 15, 2024

                     $2,000.00 was transferred from the CD to savings.

Expenses Paid:

Betty Ann Gustafson: Christmas Party Expenses - $31.00, Office Expenses - $22.72

Judy Blunt: All Purpose Soil Amendment - $47.00; Safety goggles to work on the rose bushes: 7.00. Printing of June Iris show schedules - $53.00; Fertilizer for the irises – $19.98

Swede Gustafson: Purchase of 150 garden wall blocks - $267.00; Fuel to deliver wall blocks from Lowe's Home Center to the storage shed at the Fort Missoula grounds, and also to take garden trash and rose canes to the compost site by north side Wal-Mart store - $30.19.

An audit of the 2023 financial records was conducted on March, 26, 2024, by Missoula Iris Society members Ron Dowell and Bowen Harris. The financial records were found to be in order.

Betty Ann and I extend a thank you for sending in the 2024 dues. An updated membership list will be sent in April. 

Swede Gustafson, Treasurer.

MISSOULA IRIS SOCIETY FORT MISSOULA IRIS GARDEN REPORT  

Judy Blunt and Swede have been busy at the fort iris garden.  Especially Judy.  She has cleaned most of the gardens, cleaned up the irises’ dried up leaves, and raked a lot of leaves.  She and Swede have rebuilt the garden walls about the southwest corner large triangular garden. 

The irises are showing some stress this spring. Judy did some research into the stress and found the weed barrier which was installed when the garden bed was constructed in 2018 was not placed at the correct level.  The barrier was asked to be placed at the top of the bottom layer of wall blocks to prevent the bindweed from the previous garden beds from infiltrating the raised garden beds.  Well, we did not check on its placement while the bed was constructed. Being at this 4 inch level does not give the roots of the irises much of an area to grow and obtain nutrients which results in poor growth and  just a few bloom stalks. Irises in the  lower perimeter level of the garden show the most effects of this weed barrier.

After Judy and I discussed the problem and various solutions, we decided to apply at least 4 inches of additional soil to the affected spaces. In order to add the soil, the exterior walls of the garden needed to be raised by the same amount to keep the soil in place. Judy and I spent the week of March 18 to 22 working on applying the new concrete wall blocks.  The new blocks are somewhat different in style than the existing ones so we took off the top row of blocks, put down a row of new blocks, then re-installed the older blocks on top of the new row.  As we set the fourth tier of blocks in place we applied an adhesive to the bottom of the block to lock the wall of blocks in place. 

It was a lot of manual labor but it should be worth the effort once we add the new soil on top of the existing soil and lift the rhizomes up by 4 to 5 inches. One advantage of this process is that the weed barrier stays in place and will reduce the chance of the bind weed growing in the garden. We still need to figure out a solution along the walkways to keep the dirt in place. There is also still some minor work to be done but the garden sure looks much better.

After the block work was completed Judy and Swede worked on cleaning up the rose bushes by clearing away a lot of dead wood  and large ugly canes which were cut and put in Swede's pickup. Judy also trimmed up several of the flowering shrubs and tied the clipping into bundles.  The Memorial upright spruce tree at the northwest corner of the garden plot had four damaged limbs from deer rubbing horns on them, lawn mowers trying to gain access to cut the lawn, and/or people trying to clear weeds and debris from under this tree. We could see the damage was getting larger each year so Judy and I made the decision to cut away the 4 damaged branches so this spruce tree would not die.  I noted a small 1-inch in diameter branch about 6 feet up on the southeast side of the tree was twisting itself around an adjoining branch. I made the quick decision to cut away this problem branch.  I also found two branches on the southeast side of the tree had fallen down and were growing straight southward which made them being supported by the tops of a flowering shrub directly adjacent to the tree.  I made the decision also to cut away these problem branches.  Then I walked about the tree looking at it from long and short range and said that the tree now looks much better.  Hope you all agree.  All this debris was loaded into my pickup and delivered to the composting facility.  

PATIO TREE IN THE FORT MISSOULA IRIS SOCIETY GARDEN

     In 2022 Judy Blunt and Swede became concerned about the split which was forming between the twin trunks of the decorative tree in the center of the patio in the iris garden.  Therefore, Judy contacted  Missoula Tree Preservation.  Emily, the owner of Missoula Tree Preservation, came out to the garden to view the tree. Emily studied this tree for a while and drew these conclusions and opinions for  the best treatment for this beautiful decorative tree.

She said the west side trunk of the tree is falling away from the upright east trunk and would eventually would fail and fall away from the east upright trunk.  This could occur at any time and possibly injure someone. Therefore, Judy and I hired Emily and her crew to remove the west branch as soon as possible.  Emily and crew completed the removal early in the 2023 growing season.  Emily said there is too much growth in the east side branches so these should be thinned out before leaves form in the spring of 2024 when she can view the branches. Emily explained this variety of  tree does not grow the strong branches which will support the large number of smaller flowering branches.  

MINUTES OF MISSOULA IRIS SOCIETY MEETING OF MARCH 2, 2024

The March meeting, the first of the new year, was at the Immanuel Lutheran Church. There were 20 members in attendance.   We welcomed two new attendees this evening, Marv Vinion and Rob Taylor.  Minutes from the last formal meeting held November 11, 2023, were in the January newsletter, and were accepted as printed. Since there were no formal meetings held after that, no new minutes were reported.

Treasurer’s Report for March, 2024:

Checking account balance: $1,650.73       Judges fund:  $562.32

Savings account balance:  $452.14

The 3-month $5,000.00 CD opened at First Security Bank will come due March 15.  We will gain approximately $56 interest on that CD, as we did in December of last year, both amounts to be deposited into Gary Clark’s Judges fund (Cindy Davis noted she will be dropping her judging duties after this year).  Swede will take up to $2,000 from the matured CD balance to be used for the Fort Iris Garden, upcoming shows for the year, and other expenses.  The balance would be rolled over into another 3-month CD.

There was specific discussion about repairing four damaged wooden rose arbors at the Fort Garden.  Jim Sadler mentioned he has successfully upgraded similar arbors in his backyard using inexpensive metal panel lattices, and Swede said he will look into it.  Jim made a motion to approve of the above financial allocations, and Cindy Davis seconded.  The motion carried without discussion.

Program:  There wasn’t any old business since the last meeting, so we jumped right into new and upcoming business.   Betty Ann asked whether to consider having a median iris show this year.  The first chance to have one would be May 18 (between Mother’s Day and after Memorial Day), which depending on the weather may be too narrow a window of opportunity.  As an alternative, she proposed having a walk-through tour of three to four member gardens on June 1st, right before the main iris show the following week.  Fred Frey mentioned he was thinking of opening his yard/garden the first week of June for general viewing, which might complement or conflict with other tours.   She asked us to think about these options for a decision during next month's meeting.

This year we will collaborate with the Missoula Garden Club to organize a joint peony/iris show to be held Saturday, June 8 at the new Missoula Butterfly House, as other venues were ruled out due to expense and limited space and accommodations.  Rob Taylor, a new society member and horticulturist from the Butterfly House, highlighted the new venue features and advantages for our show.  Anne Bowman provided some event previews and introduced the exciting teaser show main title - “Butterflies on Parade.”  More detailed information will emerge once plans are ironed out and are finalized at future meetings.

Betty Ann mentioned the American Iris Society has introduced a new “single blossom entry” category for good blooms where the stalk might be damaged, or other flowers on the stalk are not presentable.  These would not compete for awards in main show categories.

Gary Clark will give an Iris presentation to the Missoula Garden Club Tuesday, April 9 at 1:00 PM in the Community Room at the First Christian Church (2701 S. Russell Street, just west of the fairgrounds).  Iris Society members are invited to come to participate and answer questions if they wish.  It is rumored they always provide good snacks!

Ron Dowell and Bronwen Harris agreed to help Swede audit the society books for 2023.

Fred Frey won the presidential rhizome raffle for this month.

Respectfully submitted, Mitch Hall (MIS Secretary)

SATURDAY, MAY 4:  Next meeting

RHIZOME WINNERS:  October: Cindy Davis, November: Al Ledford, December: Carol Addeo, January: Marie Nyquist, February: Jim Sadler, March: Fred Frey

Upcoming events:

Saturday, May 4 - Monthly meeting

Saturday, June 1 - Garden Tour

Saturday, June 8 - Annual June Iris and Peony Show

Saturday,  July 26, 2024 - Annual Rhizome Sale