Re: Re: Iris recognition: Viewpoints [etc]

Neil:

My garden (even at its worst) is always open to any iris people who want to
visit.  I have offered it a site for a club visit; I don't have the space to
host guest iris for a region trek.  I have had a couple of friends who are
also amateur hybridizers visit.  Never a single AIS judge.  I can understand
the seemingly amazing lack of luck with your test garden.  There is a lot of
personal reward, but not a lot of outside interest in sharing the benefits of
your hard work.

John Reeds, in lovely San Juan Capistrano, California
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Neil A Mogensen
  To: Iris-talk
  Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 1:13 PM
  Subject: [iris] Re: Iris recognition: Viewpoints [etc]


  A few years before I was named as a judge I pulled together a "Regional
Test
  Garden" for Region 11--Montana, Wyoming and Idaho--at my home garden in
  Fruitland, ID, at the extreme western side of a very large region with a
very
  small number of judges.  Only two of the region's active judges lived
within
  sixty miles of my home but the only route between Salt Lake and Portland
  passed within a mile of that garden.  Numerous accredited judges made the
trip
  toward Salem and the large gardens there on that route.

  Over the years the test garden was active there were exactly two visits by
  judges to the garden, despite the widely advertised fact of its presence in
  the region.  A substantial number of varieties originating in Region 11 had
  been collected together and planted there.

  One of those visits was from Wilma Vallette who lived five hours from
  Fruitland.  Wilma also was the only hybridizer within the region who made a
  serious effort to have most of her current introductions and pending
  introductions planted there.

  After I became a judge I spent a lot of money, tire-rubber and time getting
  around to growers in the region, including those in the Caldwell, Boise,
Declo
  (Wilma Vallete's), Pocatello, Missoula and Coeur d'Alene areas, as well as
  going over the Blue Mountain range to Opal Brown's in Milton-Freewater, OR
and
  to Gordon Plough's Eden Road Iris Garden in Region 13. I also made some
effort
  to have some of my own things planted in places where they could be seen.

  Out of all that over nearly twenty years I gained one EC, one HM, a
  substantial drain on my personal resources and had an enormous amount of
fun.

  Part of my distress arose from the nearly impossible geographical problems
a
  judge faces in Region 11.

  I have more recently discovered Region 4 has its own share of geographical
  issues.  This western side of the region has a few judges who are worked to
  the bone.  There are zero judges in Asheville, two in the general area of
  Hendersonville, a few in Charlotte, and then one is looking to draw someone
  from High Point, NC, Knoxville, TN or from South Carolina if area gardens
are
  to be seen or shows judged.  It simply doesn't happen easily.  I have an
idea
  the Charlotte area iris judges are as overworked as ours are.

  I once thought Regional Test Gardens were the answer to the problem of
judges
  spread too thinly to be effective.  After experiencing the issue of
  maintaining such a garden I changed my mind.  There is a lot of cost, time
and
  responsibility involved I wouldn't wish on anyone.

  I don't have a solution.  I see a lot of judges' names on the roster.  I've
  met only two of them in the few years I've been involved in irises here.
  Those are the two who live closest, one of whom grows JI's almost
exclusively,
  the other interested in Siberians and generally unfamiliar with recent
bearded
  introductions.

  My own plantings are the only ones I know of in the entire western end of
NC
  where recent and new introductions can be seen.  No judges have visited
here
  yet.

  Neil Mogensen    z 7  in mountainous western NC--between Asheville and
  Hendersonville.

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