Kathyguest's Excellent Adventure

From: <Irisborer@aol.com>

Last weekend it was my pleasure to attend the Region 6 Regional Meeting....
cleverly crafted so that it fell not only smack dab in the middle of Japanese
Iris season.... but also at Ground Zero for Japanese Iris - southwestern
Michigan!  I thought you fine iris folks might be interested in a trip report
- but fair warning.... I can be - ah - verbose and not everything may be about
irises.  It should be remembered too that as they say, the opinions expressed
will be mine and be worth precisely what you pay for them.

I received the information on this regional months ago from Jim and Jill
Copeland and I shared it with some members of my own region who I thought
might be interested.  When my intrepid friends, Don and Donna Lowry, invited
me to join them in their fancy conversion van... well, I'm like the family dog
- the car does not leave without me!  Although other folks were also invited
to join us, it didn't work out for this reason or that reason so the three of
us took off from beautiful Lewiston, New York on Friday morning and headed to
Michigan the fastest way for us..... through Canada.  We made only one stop -
at a hosta/daylily commercial seller called Schmidt (didn't buy but it was a
nice respite) and arrived at the hotel in Paw Paw, Michigan about 4 pm. 

Friday night, two things were planned.... a judges training (Tony and Dorothy
Willott on Awards and Ballots) and slides of iris futures by some of the
Region 6 hybridizers.  You should know at this point, if you don't already,
that some of the hybridizers that spring from this region include:  Tony and
Dorothy Willott (primarily bearded irises... and primarily dwarf bearded
iris), Bob Hollingworth (siberian irises... famous for things like CORONATION
ANTHEM (eligible for the Dykes this year), LADY VANESSA and OVER IN
GLORYLAND), John Coble and Bob Bauer (owners of Ensata Gardens... the largest
growers of Japanese irises in the US... famous for introductions such as
ROSEWATER), Hal Stahly (bearded irises... famous for BALTIC STAR among
others),  Jill Copeland (siberian irises and Japanese irises... CALAMARI is
hers as is PIXIE WON - actually a wide cross), Anna Mae Miller (siberian
irises.... LILTING LAURA is hers and a slew of others).  I'm sure there are
lots of others that I can't think of at this moment - but you can see why I
was so happy to be able to attend a regional here!

I took the judges training (tricky test) and then settled in for the slides.
Ensata Gardens is exploring multi-petaled siberians and we saw some
interesting slides of those including a wonderful pink with the garden name of
ROSE TORNADO.  IMHO, the jury’s out on the multi-petal siberians - since they
can look messy... but ROSE TORNADO has overcome that and is a true bridge to
a new form.

Hollingworth showed some of his futures, including a lovely lilac that he’s
calling LAVENDER FAIR that has that frothy form like STRAWBERRY FAIR and
BLUEBERRY FAIR, and a short siberian he calls BLUE PIXIE.  He’s working to
breed down a line of dwarf siberians for the front of the border.  

I have lots of other notes.. but nothing that I can make sense out of since I
was writing in the dark... and also I knew what I meant at the time of writing
- but I sure don’t now  (-:.

After the slides we went into the lobby to chat and pick up our nametags.  The
tags were done by Bob Bauer of Ensata and each one features a beautiful line
drawing of a JI... except for kathyguest!  When they handed me my name tag it
had a cartoon of a GOOFY guy on it that resembles a mutual friend..... it
struck me as hilarious and I cracked up every time I looked at it.  I still
have not gotten to the bottom of whose idea it was.... and they DID do a
‘normal’ nametag if I wanted it - but I loved the one I had and I’ll wear it
whenever I need cheering up.  

I saw Dorothy Stahly that night too and I mentioned to her what a nice write-
up she had in the AIS Bulletin.  Dorothy is the cutest woman alive - and also
the funniest.  She responded that she had no idea that the article was going
to be run and that, as a matter of fact, when she read it she thought she
might be deceased.

The following morning we all piled on the buses at the humane hour of  9 am.
Since I was alone, I shared a bus seat with Howard Hughes, RVP for Region 6,
who was also alone since Kim had family obligations.  Howard, for those who
don’t know, is also the person who SINGLE-HANDEDLY... and without provocation
entered every single blessed iris ever introduced into a database along with
hybridizer and registration year!  A remarkable feat and I worship at the
throne of Howard.  Furthermore, he has entered in backup information (color
and such) for 60% of those irises.  We’re talking about over 40,000 entries
here... and anyone who has ever juggled 10 registration books trying to find
an iris will also be bowing at this throne.  AIS is aware of this effort and
they will use it as a base for getting registrations into a full database.
Anyway... it was great to have some time to talk to Howard - a young, very
earnest and very capable RVP.

The first garden we hit was the YOUNGER GARDEN.  This is a gardener’s garden.
Greeting us as we entered the garden was an extraordinary pot of FOREIGN
INTRIGUE, a Bauer/Coble introduction, 6 F - dark blue and exquisite.  That was
to be the only JI at this stop, but this was such an extraordinary garden,
they weren’t missed.  The garden is on several levels - and additional
dimension is created with plant material, statuary and walls.  There is one
upper garden ‘room’ that is predominantly dwarf conifers set off by
hydrangeas.  There is a allee, many mature hostas, grasses and lots of
specialty plant material too.  The garden is arranged in such a way that there
are vistas to carry your eye, rooms to enjoy and plants combined for texture
and drama.  

>From there we headed for Anna Mae Miller’s new digs.  Ron and Anna Mae moved
from their extraordinary garden to an assisted living facility.  Ron has been
ill for quite some time, and Anna Mae needed a break ... and they’ve found the
best of all worlds here.  Not only is the setting beautiful, the homes
comfortable and the food pretty darn good too..... but they’ve also given over
the courtyard to Anna Mae so that she can continue to garden.

What a neat garden it is.... since this garden is surrounded on all sides by
the building, it’s very warm and Anna Mae is taking advantage of that by
growing some interesting tropicals - she has caladiums, calla lilies (one
white with a purple eye that was exciting) and a strange bulb called a
pineapple lily.  It’s a beautiful garden and I took lots of slides - and then
we were marched to another courtyard where lunch was served al fresco.  This
whole regional was organized differently than any other and this was a fun
lunch.

More on the next posting - Ensata Gardens & Copelands

You awake??????

Kathyguest - E. Aurora, NY

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