COMP: Web Site

O.K.  So I got the site for McAllister's Iris Gardens re-registered with
Geocities/Yahoo's garden community and waded through the latest
instructions for GeoPlus members who want ad-free sites.  To have an
ad-free site, it seems that I must now REMOVE the very same code they
required me to add some months ago to accept members' banners in lieu of
ads.   I must not have been the only one unhappy with the change in rules
that took away the ad-free status we signed up & paid for!

Anyway, the URL is:

http://www.geocities.com/~smcallister

Please note that this is a non-commercial site.  There is NO online catalog
and there will be no shipments this year.  "Never say 'never'",  but it
will be years before we can possibly put out a catalog of any kind. 
Pleasure Gardens [Lu Danielson] handled this year's introductions.

The site does have pictures....  descriptions....  history....  I've tried
to include something for even those who've never seen an aril or arilbred
"up close & personal", and quite a bit for those who've seen and even grown
some but want to know more.  

Also breeding records & hybridizing tips -- the type of information I wish
I'd had when I switched from pollen-daubing to serious hybridizing some 25
years ago. 

Back then, a beginning hybridizer really needed at least one mentor.  I was
lucky.  Gene Hunt [whose ESTHER, THE QUEEN almost single-handedly changed
the gardenability of the halfbred gene pool] was my primary mentor.  In the
early days, I also learned a great deal from Tom Wilkes and John Holden
[both of whom had strong interests in the scientific aspects of
hybridizing].  I'll spare you the litany of those who helped me as members
of the old Robin Program, but there were many.  In short, I was lucky
enough to be in the right place at the right time to formulate my own
program by melding the findings of those with scientific bent with the
experiences reported by the pragmatists.  

But times change.  The Robin Program is dead.  The fertility barrier has
been shattered and once again "pollen-daubing" can be both enjoyable and
productive. The downside, of course, is that there is now much less
interest in the scientific aspects. 

On the personal front, I don't know when/if I'll be able to resume
hybridizing.  I have no specific protege and am not at all sure that
approach is even appropriate anymore because it places too much
responsibility for the future in the hands of one person.  In contrast, the
Web enables me to share what I have learned with an entire generation of
hybridizers -- not with just one individual, the members of a hybridizing
Robin, or even the readers of a societal publication.

I'll climb down from the soapbox now, but I realized we've probably picked
up a lot of new members since I last explained the purpose of this site....
 
As far as I can tell from a brief tour, tonight's fix got rid of all the
ads except those in the untouchable "Guest Book".  If you encounter one on
any other page that doesn't go away when you hit "Refresh", I'd VERY much
appreciate hearing about it.

TIA,
Sharon McAllister
73372.1745@compuserve.com
http://www.geocities.com/~smcallister

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