Re: AIS: The Iris Show..Some Thoughts

From: "John Bruce" <jbruce@infinet.com>

Time to beat that dead racehorse a bit more <G>

Iris shows, in my experience, are more than just
competitions. They are advertisements. We hold
our shows at center court of a mid-sized mall. 
There is a large amount of human traffic that passes
through the area in a day-the show is there from 
mall opening until 6 PM. 

The comments are most often on the order of "Wow!
I didn't know these came in all these colors! My grandma
had some old purple ones in her garden , but they didn't
look like this! Are these as easy to grow? Where do you get these?"

Then they notice the tables with medians, siberians, and species.
More comments and questions follow, and folks learn about 
beardless irises. Our last show had 166 varieties displayed-
110 TB, 22 medians, and 34 species and siberians. This was a
good cross-section with which to educate people.  There would even 
have been an arilbred at the show had not the bloom folded that
morning...........

My take on shows is that they are an opportunity both for gardeners
to show the payoff for their hard work, and a way to increase knowledge
and exposure of all irises, TB included <G>. It works in our area.

Shows are a lot of work, and if it were for competition only I would not
bother. They are just a competition for many or most entrants, but
the results are still the same-increased exposure for irises. 

It is not the "gardener" who would have found out anyway we are 
looking for-it is the potential gardener of the future. If one person 
starts because of a show, it is well worth the effort. Attending a show
might even prove that folks grow more than TBs!

Just my opinion, I could be wrong. 

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