REPORT: 1st Iris Show

Hello all:

I attended my 1st Iris Show on Mom's Day -- the High Country Iris
Society-sponsored dwarf & median show at Denver Botanic Gardens. This is
only the 2nd year for this show & while I was told that entries were a
bit reduced from '97 (weather, but also extreme busyness of some members
who are madly working in their Convention host gardens), there was still
a very tasty assortment of blooms to enjoy, especially SDBs in an
amazing range of color & pattern. And I finally got to see some ABs "in
the flesh", not just in photos -- wow! I am definitely in love with
these exotic beauties, many of which bloom (here at least) with the tiny
guys & the IBs, tho from what I understand, some ABs flower later in the
spring/early summer, at least here along the Front Range of Colorado.

Here's a list of the 1st Place winners in the various show catagories --
sorry, but I don't have hybridizer & registration year on most:

MTB  -- JIFFY (shown by Lowell Baumunk of Iris-L, who also is a '98 host
gardener)

SDB  -- SOPHIE'S JEWEL (shown by Rob Stetson, who swept all the other  
awards except for artistic arrangement)

[I forgot to note the colors of the above two, just remember that they
were charming minis of exquisite form.]

A/AB -- ANACRUSIS (Rob Stetson) This AB bloom defies my descriptive
powers but is stunning in red-violet & brown tones.

IB   -- AVANCELLE (Rob Stetson) This lovely white self also won BEST OF
SHOW. It is from 1977 by Jones & the show stem appeared perfect to this
novice viewer, with good branching & many buds. (Our John Jones, who is
not the same 'Jones' as the hybridizer, has an example of this iris at
http://members.home.net/jijones/)

SEEDLING -- #AB-N87C (shown by Rob for Sam Norris of Owensboro, KY) This
has a huge bloom with palest lilac standards veined violet & creamy tan
falls with all-over veining of coffee-wine & a slightly darker signal of
the same color. I think ABs are difficult to describe without making
them sound simply garish, but this is a gorgeous flower.

ARTISTIC -- "Light of Dawn" (David Thomas): a delightful arrangement in
a small iron kettle of SDBs in warm shades of yellow, peach & gold.

The DBG gave High Country an excellent location for its show tables &
awning & there were tons of interested viewers. I "minded shop" for a
while, talking to visitors & handing out flyers on upcoming shows &
rhizome sales. Had a good time & as a bonus, I got to take a big bouquet
of irises to my mom when I took her out for Mother's Day dinner that
evening! I tried to persuade her that the flowers were from my mountain
garden, but since she lived in the hills herself for many years, she
didn't buy it -- we're still a long way from bloom at 7,400'.

Marte in the mtns	Zone 4/Sunset 1  Colorado -- I'd planned to send this
report late Sunday but our power was off for several hours (not unusual
during runoff season) & I haven't figured out how to run a computer on
kerosene... Monday I played in the dirt until dark & was too tired to do
more than stare at the boob tube til bedtime.
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index