Re: AIS: More OK


From: "Glenna R. Chapman" <irislady@worldnet.att.net>

Kathy --
I am enjoying your reports about the convention so very much.  I appreciate
your willingness to do this.  Wish I could have been there with you -- with
Okla. is so close to Colorado.   I think my garden and I are still
recovering from last year's tour here - nary a bloom in the "north 40".
Cheers-
Glenna
-----Original Message-----
From: Irisborer@aol.com <Irisborer@aol.com>
To: iris-talk@onelist.com <iris-talk@onelist.com>
Date: Tuesday, May 11, 1999 5:38 AM
Subject: [iris-talk] 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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