We decided to have our 1970 spring show in a shopping mall. Such audacity! Now they are doing it throughout the AIS. That first show at Thomas Mall in 1970! We shall never forget it. We had to make tablecloths and holders for the horticulture entries. We had radio and TV coverage, newspaper publicity, and lots of hullaballoo for fewer than 200 horticulture entries and maybe a dozen artistic entries. There were a few members of the other society who were friendly toward us and entered our show to help us out. One by one, knowledgeable growers and arrangers joined our ranks and helped put us on the map. Many of the oldtimers in our current membership joined within the first three or four years while we were all learning together the difference between tall beardeds, spurias, lousianas, and learning how to grow them. Others have come to Phoenix from other parts of the country, bringing a higher level of expertise.

It has been fun. It has been work. It has been rewarding both in our sense of achievement as a club, gratifying to individual gardeners as we have gained knowledge of the world of iris and enjoyed growing them in our gardens, and also in some close and lasting friendships which have been formed over the years.

Sun Country has had its ups and downs, it triumphs and disappointments, its competition for medals, ribbons, and trophies, even competition for office. And yes, some cleavage as we have just been reminded. We are not going to have that happen again, are we - - no matter how the vote goes. There have been those who couldn't stand the heat and had to get out of the kitchen. There have been those who lined up to buy irises at bargain prices for their own yards and soon dropped out. There have even been those who apparently joined in hopes of professional exposure. But there has also been an ever growing corps of dedicated, hard working iris lovers who bought and planted and raised as many irises as they could and contributed their surplus to the club rhizome sales to enable the club to promote the club's aim to make Phoenix aware of irises - - big, bold, beautiful and growable irises for the Sun Country. And finally, there have been those who went absolutely all out to hybridise and plant and grow and introduce even better irises. These are the aims of the American Iris Society and the aims of the Sun Country Iris Society. As stated by our By-Laws . . . . .

The sole purpose of the Sun Country Iris Society is to stimulate and encourage the culture of iris in the area known as the Sun Country area. The Sun Country Iris Society is not organized to become a self sufficient entity in itself, but is designed as a means of implementing the principles and ideals of the American Iris Society in the Sun Country area.