Re: Digest Number 490

From: "Perry Dyer" <pdyer@flash.net>

Carryl:

Thank you for your kind comments regarding my new garden and the things I
have coming down the pike.  Miss Kitty (who turned 75 years young the last
day of convention) and I look back at what we've done out here the past 2
years and still shake our heads in disbelief.  Still have a long way to go.
But at least we've got one national convention *behind us*.  Watching that
killer come through the neighborhood on Monday night put a *lot* of things
in perspective, like convention guests that didn't survive, didn't bloom, or
a few tattered blossoms.  Not to mention a miraculous car wreck (Perry,
8/28/98), a severely shattered wrist (Perry, 11/13/98), major back surgery
(Perry, 1/17/97), and heart problems (Kitty, Winter 1998/9).

Oklahoma City is hosting another national in two-thousand-something, being
sponsored by the other major club in central Oklahoma (the Oklahoma Iris
Society).  Too soon to pick gardens, and I haven't been approached yet to be
on tour.  But chances are, I will be.  Hope to have my breeding program
firmly back on track again by then, with a huge seedling patch in the back
where you saw all the weeds, and maybe even some companion plants in the
display gardens.  I'll never have a garden like my buddy, Nancy Fernandes
(isn't she -- and her garden -- something else), but I'm learning.  After
row upon row of monotonous monoculture for 30 years, this landscaping stuff
is new to me.  BTW, 2 years ago, Nancy, along with Tom Johnson from
Mid-America Gardens came down on a cold blustery day and helped design the
convention bed and others on that side of the driveway.  I was in bed most
of that day, recovering from very serious back surgery at the time.

I chuckled at your delicate comments regarding the weedpatch in the back.
Too bad y'all can't see it now.  Mario and I have it *all weeded* (a week
too late!) and the bloom back there is spectacular.  You're apparently not
the only one that "braved the elements" back there -- Dave Schreiner himself
came up to me and commented on how good their Yaquina Blue looked.  I was
embarrassed for a good 15 seconds, but quickly got over it.

FYI, 90-194A is being chunked.  Iron Butterfly and Love By Candlelight will
be released next year, along with the dark maroon, Remington Park, some more
medians, and at least 2 things from Bianco.  Ghost will probably be 2001, if
it keeps performing the way it has thusfar.

And thanks for the vote for Poetry in Motion.  I was disappointed that it
wasn't more "visible" in both my garden and the others.  But I'm certainly
not disappointed in what won the President's Cup.  Ron Mullin and I are very
good friends (for 30 years) and I have been President of the Rhonda Fleming
Fan Club since before its introduction date (go back through the old
Contemporary Views writeups and you'll see I awarded it my
Pick-of-the-Litter Best Seedling Award one year!).

Here, I'm definitely on the downslope on TB bloom.  Spurias and Louisianas
are just now -- finally -- starting to show good bloom.  And, crazy year, I
have about a dozen SDB's in bloom, including that blue reselect seedling up
by Remington Park, Chuck Chapman's Autumn Ember, Learn (Innerst), What Again
(Ensminger-Weiler), Lovin' Spoonful, and a tan Chubby Cheeks reselect
seedling.  I have a hard time referring to this type of bloom "rebloom" so
early in the season.  Instead, I call it "repeat bloom".  But you can bet
I'll be watching these for summer and fall true rebloom.

Haven't made *any* crosses since convention -- too pooped.  Hope to get my
shots in this weekend, if it doesn't rain again.  Although, you probably saw
the 260 pots in the back yard, waiting for me to line them out.  Plus all
the SDB pods from this year's tinkering.

I'm gonna corner the ballot-counter and find out how many voted for Kitty
Dyer for the President's Cup.  Those of you that didn't attend won't
understand this comment.  But I'll let one of the other conventioneers
relate the stunt my mischievous mother and I pulled in our garden regarding
her namesake.

G'night, all,
Perry Dyer
Blanchard, OK


>From: "Carryl M. Meyer" <carrylm@bigsky.net>
>
>Hi Perry--
>cannot really tell you how much I enjoyed your garden--as a matter of
>fact-your whole yard!!! The first time, I wound up out back in the way
>back--along with the weeds--but really like to see an area like that--the
>tougher ones survive there.
>>Really do like your 90-194A, Iron Butterfly, Love by Candlelight and
>GHOST--Poetry in Motion, Zaton and BleachedBlonde--so glad that you are
>again introducing some newones--according to the rules, I could not vote
>for the ones which will be introduced next year--but my choice for the best
>in the regionwas Poetry in Motion--



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