AIS: More OK
From: Irisborer@aol.com
On Friday, we all found our way down to the buffet breakfast and to the buses
bright and early. At an iris convention, time is at a premium so we try to
spend as little of it as possible with such non-productive activities as
sleeping. The bus I was on was good ole Blue Two. It was a great group,
once we got the seating straightened out. Our group consisted of Dave and
Marie Niswonger, Hal and Dorothy Stahley, Peter and me, Jay Hudson, Howard
Hughes, Jim Wilson, Carol Warner and Shirley Pope, Tom Abrego and I'm sure
there are others. Terry and Barbara Aitken were on the bus somewhere... and
so were lots of other neat people. If you're going to drive endlessly and
aimlessly, I can't think of a better bunch of folks to do it with. We amused
ourselves with such things as using our hands to portray a state (Michigan is
easy.... it IS a hand, Oklahoma is simply a hand pointing... the square
states are easy too... we have a VERY low amusement threshold). Dorothy
Stahley keeps a running comedy going and my seat partner, Jay Hudson, was fun
to get to know.
Our first garden on Friday was the garden of Helen Jones. Helen lives in a
metro area and has a small city lot that is artfully planted. She also has a
privacy fence that she had a friend paint with irises. Of course, we ALLLLL
had our pictures taken with the fence. There were also huge iris cutouts....
I got a good picture of Carol Warner with one of those (Carol's
wonderful..... if you tell her to do something, she just DOES it... we got
her halfway into a water feature on stepping stones before she realized we
were waiting for the big picture when she slipped into the drink...)
This is the first place I took pictures (irises were kinda tattered the day
before). My notes say Seedling 9543A, Hooker Nichols, pink lacy standards
with lilac falls, space age. Lots of space age in this convention.... tons
of horns and flounces and spoons and waxed mustaches. Interesting that
they're coming into their own (and COOL that George Sutton will be our
banquet speaker this year).
I loved Keith Keppel's SMILING FACES everywhere I saw it (another gotta for
the stately guest mansion). This is a yellow amoena (white standards). The
falls are darker at the rim and they stand straight out with a nice, crimped
ruffle.
After Jones, we headed for the SCOTT garden/nursery. Now, anyone who knows
me knows that I have little resistance to plants. Peter and I saw the
interesting line of polyhouses in the back of the property and... after
seeing a wonderful tricolor hydrangea, that's where we headed. Lots of cool
stuff there (but no hydrangeas), some of it too big for plane travel. I did
end up with a foliage plant ... don't have the botanical name but the
nickname is rice paper plant and it has huge lobed leaves that are going to
look great with my ligularias.
Next was the Will Rogers Park. Will apparently came from Oklahoma (since
everything is named Will Rogers this or that), and the park is a joy. The
TB's were a tad past bloom and shrunken for some reason. Some folks thought
it might be too much weedkiller, but the manager assured us that no
herbicides were used. I took a few shots of spurias there. This is an iris
type that I'm not personally too successful with, but I do like them and hope
springs eternal.
The park includes a stream full of mallards (only males..... very odd) and
turtles (of course, we wanted to get Carol to slide down the bank to get her
picture taken with the turtles.... couldn't find her). There was a wonderful
bridge that led to a fabulous rose garden... very formal and very beautiful.
Some TB's I liked there included DARK PASSION (Schreiner '98) a velvety,
ruffled black. Schreiners has long been known for blues... but I'm here to
tell you that their blacks are in the TDF category too.
BOOGIE WOOGIE was stunning here too.
Next on the agenda was the Hawley garden. The thing that immediately caught
my eye was the oil well in the backyard. These are studded throughout the
landscape and are very eerie to see. This monsterous rocking machine....
reminiscent of the perpetual drinking birds... that silently pump away. Of
course I took Carol's picture with the oil well.
The guest irises were in a long series of beds and my notes say (two stars)
ALMOST HEAVEN (Niswonger /97), pale lavender standards, greyed,
diamond-dusted falls (for those who don't know, this simply means there is a
sparkly sheen... like glitter), and a wonderful blue beard.
UNCLE CHARLIE, that icy blue was stunning everywhere we saw it, and this was
no exception.
BOISTEROUS (Black /98) a BB with lavendar standards and 'red' falls
The final garden of the day was the Woodruff Garden, where we saw our first
successful siberian irises. Siberians are not terribly happy here, so it was
a joy to see BLUEBERRY FAIR in all it's splendor. I made more notes on
SMILING FACES (gawjus) and I was impressed with a few enormous clumps of
KALEIDOSCOPE, which I THINK was hybridized around 1929. I'm not a big fan of
historics, but this one is a beauty.... looks like a Jackson Pollock
painting.... all manner of splashes.... and it has that classic MTB form.
Then back to the hotel for the long-awaited GEEK DINNER. I won't bore you
with the planning because I already inflicted it upon the list for weeks,
but even so... some folks were not aware and once they heard about it at the
convention, we began to add people. We ended up with over 55 fine iris
folks...most with nametags. Folks provided their own wine and sweets, plus
many people brought door prize items and even auction items. John Jones had
solicited some gift certificates from hybridizers and it was just great.
Peter and I handled registration - handing out raffle tickets and checking
off folks as they came in. Dinner was lasagne - excellent and plentiful.
And John and Joanne had purchased chips, pop and other goodies to round it
out. Someone (whose name I didn't retain) made this EXTRAORDINARY plate of
cookies in the shape of Illinois (do you sense a state motif here?) with an
iris on each one. That was a wonderful dessert to end the meal.
It wasn't long before the noise level was up (as the wine was cracked open)
and then John took the podium to start the handouts. People were thrilled
with their door prizes (although Rusty DID win a bottle of wine... and word
got to the Youth Chairman within the hour....). Then Peter got up to handle
the auction. Peter is funny and a wonderful auctioneer. He can get his
hands in the pockets of the tightest iris person and everyone is happy. Two
outstanding results of the auction was Kathyguest herownself getting RUBY
ERUPTION (smuggled in by Maureen) and Rosalie Figge paying $51 for a $50
Sutton Gift Certificate.
Great fun. Then folks had to bolt for judges training... leaving a few of us
to make sure no wine went to waste. Then Peter grabbed the rest of the
cookies and went through the hotel like some bizarre Johnny Appleseed,
handing out iris cookies in the shape of Illiois.
The final event for the night was the Computer Chatroom, conducted very ably
by John Jones. John had prepared overheads which illustrated what's
available on line for iris folks and walked us through it. In the meantime,
we set up a bank of laptops in the back of the room and Howard Hughes
demonstrated the iris database that he's worked on for two years (fully
searchable by all kinds of fields.... this is a wonder). And then John
kicked back in by logging on line and conducting a live chat. A very
electronically stimulating evening.
Debriefing in the Bombay and off to bed.
Kathy Guest - who has to go to work now but will try to finish up by tomorrow.
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