Welcome to Y.I.P.

As a mom, I spend a lot of time thinking about how I impact my children. My mom and I once talked about how our impact on our children echoes through generations, and nowhere is this more clear than in Two Step Iris. 

When I watch my two-year-old daughter in the iris beds with my mom, I see the way my grandmother’s irises now impact my own young family. I wonder if I had never spent my mornings and summers in the garden with my parents, would have majored in Rangeland Ecology? Would I have worked as a biologist? Would I be a genetics specialist now? 

And when I look around at an American Iris Society convention, I see, mostly, older folks. At 29, I tend to be the youngest in the room. As the North Plains Iris Society (our local AIS affiliate) plans our upcoming show, I mentioned casually that my 12 year old step-son wants to show an iris this year and is very excited. My mom looked at me and said, “well then we need to get more kids in the show, or there won’t be enough youth for that division to have awards”. 

And we realized, there aren’t enough youth. 

Kofi Annan said, “a society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline”. I see our lifeline severed in the iris community. The youth are not here. 

When we started Two Step Iris, we started with a bigger goal than “sell irises”. We started with the goal to spread irises. We had a goal to educate others, to remove fear from new gardeners, and to preserve knowledge and passion for irises. 

To that end, we are starting a special blog called YIP – Young Iris People! Our goal is to raise awareness for opportunities for youth in the iris community and to spotlight youths! 

If your society or young people are doing something special in the iris community, we want to hear about it! Send us photos and stories and let us spotlight the young people that truly are the lifeline of any community. 

My daughter, Sophie, in the Two Step Iris beds.