Re: HYB: AIS: Trial Garden Idea

In a message dated 8/27/05 4:55:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
rpries@sbcglobal.net writes:

<<  Trial gardens really serve two groups of people. First hybridizers in 
deciding whether to introduce a cultivar; Second gardeners who wish to know if an 
introduced cultivar does well in their area. Ahners plan would work well for 
the first. But the Second group has a need for test gardens also. >>

None of this is what I am talking about, Bob. And that is not because I don't 
get it, it is because I am rethinking the traditional presumptions which you 
have articulated, and am putting forth a new and different idea entirely, this 
towards meeting goals which are meaningful to me.  

I am discussing an idea of deliberately limited scope, which is brokering 
individual support for hybridizers, providing a simple but practicable means for 
them to obtain useful information from experienced iris gardeners, putting AIS 
members with a common interest in touch with each other, this towards 
fostering entry into the market of irises of enhanced beauty and "gardenability."   

<<In this case it is necessary for information to be gathered and dispersed 
not just to a hybridzer but to people across the country.>>

But not in all cases. Not every piece of information is fodder for 
publication. A hybridizer gets to have some privacy, some private conversations, while 
developing his/her introductions. Nor is a person who is interested in helping 
out perforce obliged to have groups of people tramping all over their gardens 
in season, or to write reports for public consumption, or to get bogged down 
with opinionated committees of rhetoric mongers to be making a meaningful 
contribution. 

If you freight a program with too many goals, all of which are dependent upon 
too many folks coming through, and too many pieces falling into place just 
right, I doubt it will fly long or fly high. 

Your concept is idealistic, and there is nothing wrong with that per se, but 
it is also enormously complicated, and enormously resource dependent. My 
experience leads me to believe that simple and clearly defined goals are more 
likely to be successfully met, especially when resources--- by which I mean money, 
willing and competent manpower, and the capacity of a group to sustain 
purposeful action toward a clearly defined goal---are in real short supply. 

You are certainly welcome to promote your vision, indeed I like visions, but, 
as I said, in this instance you and I talking about two entirely different 
things.  

Cordially,

A-N-N-E-R Whitehead
Richmond VA USA

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