About Us

We are Jim Landers and Ken Fuchs. We have been partners since March 1983 and live in Temple, Texas.

Following a visit to Ken's uncle, the late Rudi Fuchs of Denton, Texas, in April of that year, Jim began his first iris garden. Rudi Fuchs was an art professor at the University of North Texas at Denton, and following his retirement in 1972, he devoted the majority of his time to his 1-1/2 acre iris gardens He was delighted when Jim accepted some rhizomes from his garden, and for us, the rest is history.

Since 1988 we have been very active members of the Iris Society of Austin. Jim served as the editor of IrisAustin, the newsletter of the I.S.A. for fourteen years.  He has been the editor of the Region 17 (Texas) Newsletter for the past ten years. Jim worked at Sherwin-Williams in Temple and retired in 2002. He now devotes most of his time to iris-related activities. He is also a regular member of the Belton and Waco Iris Societies as well as numerous other specialized societies. He especially enjoys cultivating tall bearded and Louisiana irises. Since 1993, he has attended fourteen A.I.S. national conventions.

Ken is a retired high school English teacher -- Temple High School -- and he enjoys working with computers and taking digital pictures. Both interests led to the creation of the Iris Society of Austin's website and his own personal website. Since his retirement in 2000, he has attended the A.I.S. conventions in 2002 (Memphis), 2003 (Falls Church, VA), 2005 (St. Louis), 2006 (Portland), and 2007 (Oklahoma City).

The Iris Society of Austin hosted the 2008 A.I.S. National Convention in April.  Jim served as Co-Chair of the Convention Committee and Ken served as Registrar and editor of the Convention Handbook.

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