Naming of Plants and Rambling

In a message dated 98-01-16 16:57:13 EST, you write:

<< Dear Graham: Your point is well taken, and we sympathize with you. I am not
 the most popular iris judge in America, (but hopefully not the least
 liked), because I am always ready to question the genuineness of an iris
 name. We all can make errors. But there should always be the will to
 correct them when they are pointed out. >>

VERY WELL SAID, Lloyd!  

In my own mind, this is where we should strive.  It's up to us to keep
confusion to a minimum and to keep our credibility intact.  I have personally
informed a nursery with whom we did a Japanese Iris show years ago, that his
JI's were incorrectly marked Kaemfari (sp??), and further, that the mass-
produced stakes that were in the pot called for alkaline soil!  The death of a
JI!  Although I thought I approached the nursery owner in a positive, helpful
way, he ignored me.  That was the last year we associated ourselves with that
nursery.

On the other hand, another nursery where we NOW do our Japanese Iris
Extravaganza each year has an attitude you have to love.  They seek to retain
their credibility by relying on us for information on sources and irises in
stock.  This is the best of relationships.  Furthermore, now they are
branching into hostas and so invited a hosta expert to the nursery and learned
they had some mis-names there.

When a nursery cares like this, everyone benefits (IMHO).  The CUSTOMER gets
the correct plant, the nursery retains an excellent reputation, and the
wholesalers who are casual about how they name their plants lose a good
customer.

There are few things more embarrassing than showing an iris under the wrong
name (OK, there was the time I wore a turtleneck to work inside out and
backwards, but that was years ago).  Unfortunately, right now there's no easy
way to know who's correct and who's incorrect.  I had a correctly named iris
disqualified for being mis-named and I didn't discover it until months later
when I was going through my show tags to throw them out.  It was not misnamed
- so there was a misinformed judge.

I envision the day when a judge questions and iris... and the person charged
with the task brings up the description - with accompanying photo - on their
laptop computer!

Yes folks, I too 'have a dream'

Kathy Guest... full of coffee and wandering QUITE off the subject, thank-you-
very-much - but still not OT yet.... till now   (:
in East Aurora, NY
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