Re: LA-AD: surprises await in Little Rock

J. Michael, Celia or Ben Storey wrote:
> 
> Mark your calendars, La-lovers: May 14-16, 1999. Little Rock: City of Iris
> Surprises.
> 
> The Society for Louisiana Irises convention committee met last week in one
> of the ever-so-tastefully decorated board rooms of Little Rock's posh
> Doubletree Hotel, to trade notes on our progress toward the upcoming SLI
> convention. We talked and we talked, and we laughed and we howled, and then
> Taskmaster Tom Dillard informed us that if we didn't stop chattering we
> would not be allowed to tour the gorgeous mirror-clad ballroom the hotel
> has assigned us for the convention.
> 
> You should see it. A very nice place.
> 
> I don't know when I've had so much fun planning a boatload of work. Otis
> Young, the boss of our garden tour bus routes, started to ask for
> volunteers for bus captains but changed his mind at once when every hand in
> the room began flailing. A chance to boss an entire bus of iris people! We
> all want to do it. Only the most articulate and trustworthy will be chosen,
> of course. Only those with that inborn sense called comedic timing, that
> unique poise, that charismatic modesty ... . Someone like ... me! Me! Me!
> Pick me!
> 
> Sorry. Went away for a minute but now I'm back.
> 
> And the gardens. They're already looking so incredible. This one woman
> belongs on the cover of Southern Living. I swear. Another garden looks out
> across two peaceful ponds, and another garden fronts a silvery cypress
> lake. Think of it, cypress knees and cicadas humming, flights of Canada
> geese. Oh, to be in Little Rock when all the elegant LAs planted around
> that lake burst into bloom.
> 
> Tom reminded us of a surprising truth we tend to forget: Our city has a
> rich tradition of Louisiana hybridizing, from Frank Chowning and Richard
> Morgan to Henry Rowlan and the younger hybridizers he's inspired. And all
> around us, in the woods and along creek beds, quiet stands of wild fulva
> and brevicaulis bend and blossom as they have since time out of mind.
> Little Rock is truly an iris destination.
> 
> We hope all of y'all will join us to celebrate our common love of an
> uncommon flower. For more details, write Tom Dillard at
> 
> tomd@cals.lib.ar.us
> 
> celia
> storey@aristotle.net
> Little Rock, Arkansas
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