Re: Cyberspace Pop Poll and Symposium
- To: i*@onelist.com
- Subject: Re: Cyberspace Pop Poll and Symposium
- From: <H*@aol.com>
- Date: Sat, 8 Aug 1998 19:09:39 EDT
From: <HIPSource@aol.com>
Donald Eaves said:
<< I won't cast any votes for the Symposium since the percentage of TBs in my
own garden relative to the list is so small and my experience for growing
cultivars over a period of time is limited to grandmother and gimmee irises
for which I don't know the cultivar name.
As for the Cyberspace Pop Poll, I know Mike Lowe encourages a vote, but
shouldn't I have more experience with a named cultivar before casting any
votes?
It's true that several of those which bloomed here last spring did well and
I clearly had preferences even among those which did well. But is one
season enough to make a reliable judgement?>>>>>>>>>
Donald, here is what I think.
There are many irises on the 1999 symposium list that I have never seen. There
are even more that I have never grown. Some I've seen or grown and could not
vote for. My ballot count does not approach 25 votes, nor has it ever done so.
But I can in good conscience vote for a few that I have seen growing,
occasionally even in my own garden, and which think are fine plants. And that
is what matters most.
Remember that this is a very broadly defined annual survey, and people change
their appraisals of things for many reasons as time moves on. If a listed iris
did well for you this year, that is fine for this year's vote. If it does not
do well next year, don't vote for it next year. If something does better next
year, vote for that one and drop the first one. Sounds fickle you say?
Possibly. The Poll is an imperfect measuring instrument, but, if enough people
vote with integrity some information not otherwise obtainable about which of a
limited and pre-defined group of irises performs well "throughout America," as
the ballot says (right above the bit about the overseas members having more
time to turn it in)-----may be assembled. If people fake it, well, we will
have fake results which measure something else altogether.
That said, I will observe that if I could not myself vote for any of the
listed irises because I thought did not have enough experience of them to
speak comfortably to the question, I would still sign my Symposium and mail
it in.
Anner Whitehead--who voted for twelve
HIPSource@aol.com
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