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AIS Region 7 -- KY & TN

Winter Meeting at Lake Benson Retreat Center February 22-23 (Bon Aqua, TN)

TBD. We will post details as they become available.

Spring Show and Meeting TBD

TBD. We will post details as they become available.

Overview

American Iris Society - Region 7 spans Tennessee and Kentucky, with USDA climate zones that range from 5 to 8, from mountains to valleys, plateaus, and the Mississippi floodplain. Soil types range from clay to gravel with wonderful loess in the western part of Tennessee. Weather is everything and anything; the only thing we know for sure is that it can change abruptly from drought to deluge and back again in summer, and from subfreezing to balmy in midwinter.

Before the big commercial iris gardens on the west coast dominated the iris scene, the region was a center of top notch hybridizing, producing several Dykes medal winners in the 1930s and 1940s - Dauntless, Copper Lustre, Mary Geddes, and Chivalry - and, in 1978, Bride's Halo. The iris is the state flower of Tennessee, although we aren't exactly in agreement as to which iris!


iris garden