AIS: OKC convention
From: Ellen Gallagher <e_galla@moose.ncia.net>
Hello,
This is a short, barebones post since I have gotten requests
from folks to tell them 'stuff'.
President's Cup (best in-region iris seen in the convention
gardens and voted on by the attendees):
RHONDA FLEMING, TB (Ron Mullin, ??)
Franklin-Cook Cup (best out-or-region iris seen in the
convention gardens and voted on by the attendees):
MR. CHARLIE, TB (Don Spoon, '99)
I inadvertently (honest) attended part of the TBIS meeting
since I was looking for my geek t-shirt and Joanne Jones had
them in the meeting. It took me a while to find her since I
didn't know her so I listened to Rick Ernest talk about tractors,
etc. I didn't join, BTW, especially after he volunteered that people
from New Hampshire plant irises upside down. I yelled out at that
one since I was representing the whole blasted state. And I WAS
going to even buy THAI ORANGE this year that he hybridized.
The little things that make a convention memorable: I was on the
Blue 1 bus that got termed "the bus with an attitude" and what a
motley crew we were. Our bus driver (we had two) and our bus
captain (we had two of those - no one could stand us :)) got us
lost three times. The best one was getting lost driving into the
OK Community College for lunch..we just couldn't seem to find the
right driveway. One other bus didn't have any lunch on Fri. - we
probably ate it all (no, there was an error made in numbers for
lunch).
When we got lost on Sat. trying to find the last garden (that we
had visited the day before), we voted to go back to the hotel to
get ready for dinner.
The only big disppointment for me was the almost total failure
of the growers to grow Siberians. The very few we saw blooming
(7 named varieties - there were 4 with no tags) were far shorter
than they should be and the bloom was not good. OK had a very
hot summer last year and the Sibes were planted in full sun when
partial shade might have helped. Mulching was not done to retain
water.
I talked to one of the garden owners, Mrs. Watson, and she did her
best but no luck. I termed the Siberian section in the gardens the
"graveyard" complete with grave markers.
Interestingly enough there was one gorgeous Sibe WALL STREET BLUES,
(Aitkin) growing in a border right in front of the house and it
was not a guest. The right height and showing good bloom and fair
foliage. This man did not use the 'Humore' (which is added to the
soil as an amendment all around OKC) which I was told by the sales
rep. at one of the gardens is intended for bearded irises. There
are several different formulas for sale and I didn't bother to
look at the bags. I suspect it is high in nitrogen and Ca (don't
know this to be a fact and it may be completely wrong and probably
is).
Cheers,
Ellen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ellen Gallagher / e_galla@ncia.net
Northern New Hampshire, USA / Zone 3
Berlin, NH in 'The Great North Woods'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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