South Canterbury Iris Group An out-of-season lily flowering profusely at a local property caught the eye of South Canterbury Iris Society members during a visit. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

After driving through the fog we arrived at Temuka to meet with fellow members.

Firstly we held a minute’s silence to remember Pam McLelland who died recently.

Last month we had discussed about giving irises to schools which would encourage children to care for plants.

President Louise McRae has done just this, giving irises to Waihao Downs School staff who will encourage their pupils to care for them.

The irises came from our display garden at Makikihi where we have held several working bees to have the garden rested before the winter.

There is still some more work to do there.

Some of the irises there are potted up for sale at the annual New Zealand Iris Society Conference, this year being held in Cromwell.

We were given the programme for the year.

We meet in towns including Fairlie, Geraldine, Oamaru, Waimate, Timaru and Temuka.

Also this year we plan to visit other iris society members in Dunedin and maybe Ashburton.

Each month we have a display table, a sales table, a library table, plus entries to the monthly competition.

After lunch we visited group treasurer Janya Lobb who lives in Levels area. She and her husband live on a 5ha block and had built a special passive-style house.

Janya’s garden is created into special themes.

I liked where they had three roses with names belonging to the names of schools family had attended.

I took a photo of a lovely lily flowering in a pot certainly out of season but looking happy.

The next two months we shall be going out for lunch.

Will be interesting to see if we will have irises flowering, as Iris unguicularis is already flowering in some gardens. — Heather Sell