Re: LA: SLI Convention in L R

From: Billie Jones <billieljones@yahoo.com>

Finally!  I have been waiting all weekend for you to get back to find
out out the tour was.  This was one trip I really wanted to make but
didn't get to.  Can't wait to see what pictures you took and to get a
person-to-person review of the trip.

Billie

--- Walter Moores <wmoores@watervalley.net> wrote:
> From: "Walter Moores" <wmoores@watervalley.net>
> 
> 	One hundred and forty Louisiana iris enthusiasts
> were drawn to 
> Little Rock this past week-end for the first ever
> SLI meeting held 
> outside of Lafayette in the fifty-eight years of the
> Society's 
> existence.
> 
> 	For early arrivals on Thursday, there was a
> reception honoring 
> Dennis Vercher, retiring editor of the SLI
> Newsletter, and for 
> Patrick O'Connor, incoming editor.  The home-made
> goodies were 
> delicious, and it was great to meet Patricia, Harry,
> Patrick, Beth, 
> Bill, and others who are on this list or have been
> from time to time. 
>  Some have graduated to Lairis.
> 
> 	Friday morning, the conventioneers boarded three
> buses for garden 
> tours.  Our nametags indicated which bus we were to
> ride.  
> Fortunately, I was on the Frank Chowning bus with
> our darling Celia 
> Storey as the bus captain.  We did not get lost or
> wander aimlessly 
> as Celia knew the route.  If you have been to Little
> Rock, you know 
> this extremely clean and beautiful city is situated
> in the foothills 
> of the Ozarks as were all the gardens.  What a
> scenic location for a 
> tour!
> 
> 	Bloom was past peak, but lots of companion plants
> made up for the 
> sparse LA bloom.  All the gardens were manicured to
> perfection, and 
> they gave visitors many  ideas of ways for
> landscaping with our 
> favorite water iris.
> 
> 	The first of two banquets was on Friday night.  The
> speaker was a 
> local landscape architect and close friend of Tom
> Dillard, convention 
> chairman.  The  quest speaker was followed by a
> fantastic slide show. 
>  We saw things to come from Kevin Vaughn, Farron
> Campbell, Dorman 
> Haymon, Patrick O'Connor, Richard Morgan and others.
>  If these slides 
> are to be believed, 'you ain't seen nothing yet" -
> new colors, halos, 
> upright standards - to name a few.
> 
> 	Saturday was involved with more slide shows and the
> show itself.  
> Later that day there were two auctions, one silent
> and the other the 
> usual kind.  MUD BUG seemed to be the iris everyone
> wanted in the 
> silent auction, and the GREAT WHITE HOPE was
> irrisistable in the 
> regular auction.
> 
> 	Saturday night's banquet following dinner ran from
> the sublime to 
> the ridiculous.  Dick Butler, Arkansas' 'iris
> father,' spoke on the 
> AIS Foundation.  Then, there was the 'art show' from
> old masters 
> narrated by Tom and his library co-worker, Tim. 
> Imagine the painting 
> of The Diggers, not digging potatoes but digging LA
> iris blooms!  
> Others were in a similar vein.
> 
> 	Sunday morning the school bell rang - three hours
> of judges 
> training, and then the final recess.
> 
> 	Thanks Central Arkansas Iris Society for all the
> fun, door prizes, 
> hospitality, and wonderful tour.  Please don't wait
> another 
> fifty-eight years to do this again!
> 
> 	Walter Moores
> 	Enid Lake, MS 7/8 (who was greeted by a reblooming
> stalk on LEMON 
> POP when he drove in the driveway)
> 
> 
> 
>
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