OT-CHAT: Rick Tasco's talk in Tulsa, Ok. 3-9-2000

From: Glenn Simmons <poppies@worldspy.net>

Dear Members,

Barbara Johnson knew that Glenn and I went to the regular Tulsa, Ok
meeting this last Thursday and she asked me to write to all of you on
what I had  learned from the talk that Rick Tasco gave on Historic
Iris.  There are a few things that  before I start I want to say to
you.   If any of you have a chance to go listen to Rick Tasco at any
Iris meeting anywhere close to you, then I would really suggest that you
make an effort to go.  It will be a genuine treat to go listen to Rick
give a talk.

There are two things that really impressed me about last Thursday night
that had nothing to do with the talk.  One was Rick himself.  I was
really impressed in that I don't think anyone that was there at the
social hour, before the meeting started, missed having a chat with
Rick.  He moved around the room talking to each one of us for several
minutes.  It didn't matter if the person had just bought their first
Iris this last  year or if the person had been in longer than Rick
himself.  He gave everyone of us individual attention and made us all
feel at ease with him.  Anybody that wanted to talk to him had the
opportunity to do so.   I was very impressed with this.

The second thing that impressed me was the Tulsa Area Iris Society
itself.   There was no monopolizing of Rick's time.   No single person
or group of people took more than their fair share of Rick's time,  he
was shared equally among everyone there.     There is not one single
member of that club that I don't like.    I love everyone down there in
that club.  I cannot say enough good about that club and anyone out
there in Iris Talk that live near Tulsa ought to contact Fred Smith by
e-mail (fjsmith@webzone.net) and go visit them and join.  This club is
so strong that they put 2 shows on in the spring.  That Thursday night
Paul Gossett was missing and he had never missed a meeting before.    He
was very sick  with strep throat and everyone should give him some
e-mail to make him feel better (pwgossett@aol.com).  I know that it was
a big disappointment for him to miss Rick Tasco's talk.  Everyone in the
club had said how much Paul had been looking forward to it.

Now, on to the talk that Rick gave.  Rick covered a lot of ground in the
time that he had to talk.  Rick even got Glenn's attention as to some of
the species Iris that Rick had slides of.   I cannot possibly write even
a tenth of what Rick talked about.   I know that Barbara  Johnson wants
a detailed report and I really do not have the expertise to do this by
myself.   I studied and studied last night (Friday)  trying to get all
the names straight as far as spelling goes.  (Spelling is NOT my strong
point).  Rick gave so much information that if I tried to cover it all,
I would still be writing this next week and I have promised Nancy Price
that what I have to do for her will be done this weekend.  By the way
Nancy  has just brought on line the new Region 18 web site and here is
the address if you all want to go there. (www.region18.com).  It is
really neat  and Nancy has done a lot of work on this.  So as you all
can tell, I have to get done with this letter in order to turn my
article in to Nancy.

Oh!  Gee!!  Now I really have to get down to this report.  I will start
by saying and I know that the HIPS people will be laughing at me when I
say this, I found out that my ignorance is far greater  than I thought.
When Glenn and I went to the meeting, what I thought was going to happen
was, I guess, the recent stuff like 30 years old.   Rick started by
talking about the really old stuff like,  you know, the 1600's.  Of
course when Rick showed a slide of Germanica Alba.   It was beautiful!
A very good slide of Germanica Alba.   It is a white and a very pretty
white it is.   He talked about Germanica (the purple) that was collected
in the 1600's  and being in Van Gogh's painting.
He explained that  Germanica is a natural hybrid.

Rick showed Iris Trojana and explained that it was an tetraploid.  Glenn
even flipped over the slide of this one even though he couldn't  care
less whether he ever grew any historic Iris.  Glenn made sure that I
wrote down the words "very pretty"  about this Iris on my notes.   Rick
talked about how the hybridizers were getting discouraged at breeding
Iris at the beginning of the last century  and how the tetraploids were
the revolutionary Iris.   He talked on the early Iris hybridizers and
their best Iris that they produced during their time.  He talked about
the Iris that were important breakthroughs as to color,  pattern, finish
or texture.  As far as texture, you should have seen the slide of the
Iris "Elizabeth Huntington"  introduced in 1928 by the hybridizer
Huntington .
It is a blue sport of Zua, the crepe paper Iris.   It was absolutely
gorgeous!!!   I have never seen anything like it in real life or in a
picture that comes close to the texture of this Iris.  I am surprised
that more people don't have this particular Iris in their garden.  The
people out there that like broken color in their Iris or Variegated
foliage  or other unique Iris should like this  particular Iris very
much.

Rick gave at least 4 excellent plugs for people to join the HIPS
society.  He had the HIPS membership forms there so that people that
were interested could join HIPS.  He talked about joining HIPS so that
we could learn more about  the historic Iris.

Rick talked about a lot of Iris and a lot of them are not in his
catalog, but I have seen them in different catalogs.  For people like my
husband, give some of these historics a chance in your garden.  Now I
have to go and fight with Glenn about getting some of them this year.

I would like to restate  a couple of points.  I would like to encourage
anyone on Iris Talk that has the opportunity to hear one of Rick's
presentations, please make every effort to do so.  Also, if anyone is
near Tulsa on the 2nd Thursday of each month, try to make arrangements
to attend one of the Tulsa club's monthly meetings.  If you contact me I
will either meet you at the meeting or have Fred Smith and his wife
Aline to do so.   Good luck to all of you this growing season.  If
anyone has any questions concerning Rick's presentation, please contact
me privately.
I repeat, I am not the best person to do this.


Linda

--
Glenn, Linda & Matthew Simmons
Springfield, Southwest Missouri, USDA Climate Zone 6,  USA

p*@worldspy.net  (Primary)
G*@juno.com  (Secondary)
G*@netscape.net  (Last!)


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