Re: CULT: Humore - & convention gardens

Morning from totally ice frozen OKC... _________________________

>>Earlier last week I wrote: but I prefer HUMORE as it > is so much more 
controllable and easier to apply 
> without the problems associated with the 
> rabbit/alfalfa pellets.  

>> Then, Nick Zentena wrote:  Can I ask what Humore is? >  Or is that a 
joke-) 

>> Later, Gerry Snyder wrote: At a recent AIS
> convention Humore, perhaps used excessively, 
> <<seemed to be>> >responsible for foliage growing 
> mach larger than normal, but with stalks as usual.
> Not a pretty result. >>

Humore is about the best amendment I have found so far.  As with ANYTHING 
(herbicide, pesticide, fungicide), if you don't follow the instructions and 
overuse or abuse it, then it will not work right and our environment suffers. 
 That is why we lose so many of our good bug drugs off the market.  People 
use too much of something, someone gets a pimple from it, and BAM! it's 
banned from our shelves.  Like the little kid who suffered brain damage from 
drinking the Miracid  liquid, or some such nincompoopery I heard recently.  

I had heard rumblings here at OKC that one garden had used too much Humore.  
Between the May '99 tornado and my hastened - yet delayed return in the midst 
of it all from Florida Daylily World & my heavy pre-convention involvement 
with the AHS Daylily Natl' here the next month, I did not get to see every 
single iris tour garden here the week of the AIS Nationals.  I did, however, 
see the one in question, no doubt that Gerry speaks about.  He was the one 
responsible for getting everyone the HUMORE to begin with.  His soils were 
pure-d clay and treacherous.  The fact he had bloom whatsoever in those 
horrid conditions amazed me.  It was beautiful bloom and better (more 
prolific) than  anywhere else when I saw it on Saturday May 8th.  I did not 
break out the ruler and would have had trouble noticing anything like 
oversized foliage with the wonderful bloom he had.  

All the other gardeners also used HUMORE.  As did all the AHS National 
Daylily tour gardens.  The daylily bloom was spectacular.

If I recall correctly, MANALFA, then HUMALFA, then HUMORE came from our own 
Oklahoma business in Shattuck, Oklahoma, where HUMORE is mass marketed today. 
 It comes in four different flavors and is sold by the 40 pound bag for about 
$7.98, occasionally on sale as cheaply as $5.98.  Our gardeners got a pretty 
good price break as long as they agreed to plant the little HUMORE sign that 
they were using it.  

Before the tornado, I bought mine directly from one of that Humore gardener's 
partners who lived down south in OKC and owned a pea farm.  He sold it by the 
front end loader full ($50 for a pick up truck load full, hand delivered and 
wheel-barrowed wherever I wanted it) right to my house.  That was BEFORE the 
tornado...  His place was totally wiped out.  Then his wife decided a divorce 
was in order...  I still don't know if he or the pea farm and humore outlet 
ever got back up on their feet.  

Now, this is just my opinion or my take on the situation... I got in trouble 
a couple weeks ago using the wrong word about hybridizers wanting all their 
plants returned.  This should have gone without saying (but didn't) that if a 
variety was being discarded or not introduced --- it should be destroyed, or 
sent back if they didn't trust the gardener to destroy it themselves.  Our 
guest iris chairman was meticulous about noting every single thing that 
happened to that plant coming and/or going and any note to such effect would 
have negated any question as to why the plants all had to go back...  The 
part about "cheapskate" (okay, so that was a poor choice of words) came from 
some of the comments we heard about how badly the plants were grown or that 
they'd been killed, or something the gardener had done wrong to them.  
COUPLED with the astronomical costs associated with (unreimbursed expenses) 
of having an iris convention garden on tour --- I don't know how most 
can/could  afford to do it.  

I know folks here spent from many hundreds to many thousands and more getting 
their gardens ready for the convention.  And, no one I know at the moment has 
any intention of doing it again.  I'm sure they'll find other gardens by 
2007.  And I hope they have some Rockefeller blood in or behind them.  I for 
one could never have afforded it and there is little I will stop at when it 
comes to my garden.  However, there are three things I will not do to have a 
garden on tour:  Mortgage the house, nor hold up on making house and car 
payments.  

Now, I didn't have my asbestos shorts on the day the posts full of fiery 
reverberations arrived.  Hopefully after a brisk skate on the ice into the 
office this morning "today" I am more prepared.  You guys really can be 
pretty brutal when/if someone mispeaks...  

Kath in OKC....  AIS Region 22,  USDA Zone 7 =^..^= 

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