Let’s remember our first trip.

The board of  UIS  congratulates all iris admirers with the end of the season 2011. This year season was quite successful for the majority of regions, the weather was favorable to good plant growth and flowering. And in the activities of our iris society he was also successful. We  organized a traditional iris exhibition  in the national botanical garden, as well as the first congress of Ukrainian Iris Society. Pleased to note that the pioneers in this business was our talented youth. Svetlana and Vladimir Yakovchuk  invited kindly colleagues to visit their garden in Vorozhba Sumy Region. All and foremost the owners were a bit worried. But it was not as scary as it seemed. It was difficult to determine the date of the Congress. Some like Irina Lukava from Lviv had to travel thousand kilometers because Vorozhba   is almost on the Russian border. In the Yakovchuk’s iris garden gathered 12 people from all over Ukraine. The garden was gorgeous – beautiful garden paths, small lakes and a wide variety of plants. The garden was well prepared for visit. All flowers had labels with names. Svetlana and Vladimir are  breeders of new plant varieties. Their seedlings are at three large garden beds.  There were also many varieties of foreign selection. Everyone really enjoyed  acquaintance with the iris collection. Svetlana  gave  kindly a master class on iris pollination. All have seen how hard the work is to grow an iris from seed to variety. I caught myself thinking:  We should  visit the gardens of our colleagues  as often as possible to share experiences,  because irises growing  goes on, develops a frantic pace. A pleasant chat with like-minded, questions, answers and all this among the diversity of colors and shades iris garden – 3 or 4 hours passed away suddenly. Time to go home. As a keepsake  we got cups with symbols of  our meeting.  We got also another surprise – Svetlana  gave to each a bag with irises own selection. So we started and decided to meet us each year, to exchange experience, to discuss our achievements and failures. Our trip ended unexpectedly. The journey to Kiev ran through Chernigov and we used the invitation of  Nicolay Yakimenko family to visit their iris garden.  Although we had 40 minutes, we managed to see and to assess the size of the garden, its cleanliness and good condition of flowers. I think  Yakimenkos  invited us to visit their garden, but it’s in perspective. We are sincerely grateful to Svetlana and Vladimir Yakovchuk for their tireless work, for the created  unique beauty and wish inspiration for many years.

On the picture:  V. Yakovchuk, S. Yakovchuk, L. Tchesnokova, L. Dyatchenko, M. Konovalenko, K. Lyashenko, N. Tryhoob.

In front:  I. Lukava, A. Tshernogooz.