Re: Re: Guest Iris

I presume that sending guests is as much marketing and to gain exposure as it
would be to test performance
against other introductions and other climates. Where else can you get such a
large captive audience of iris growers
to see one of your seedlings or introductions? For those interested in awards
rather than income, once again I would
think convention gardens offer exposure that smaller or less well-known
hybridizers badly need.


> Could some of you comment on the purpose of sending rhizomes out as
> guests?

I have heard from more than a few hybridizers that they never hear anything from
regional or national conventions
regarding plants that they have sent, or that when they do recieve info, often it
is simply that the plant lived or died.
Not "it grew well with x increases" or  'it bloomed/didn't bloom" etc.

>[On another topic, conventions keep track of performance of all cultivars
> that are grown, report back to the hybridizer on that performance

While returning rhizomes for prevention of distribution is one reason, I can think
of a few others....shortage of stock,
evidence of how well the rhizomes grew, etc.  As far a distribution without
permission, returning rhizomes is no proof against that,
and would be naive thinking to assume it would prevent it. And regarding
intellectual property, if you have enough of a seedling to
send, you are already a minimum of about 5 years ahead of anyone else who would
repeat the cross, as well as at the mercy of DNA
roulette to reproduce identical results. Most hybridizers understand that once a
plant leaves their garden they no longer have total
control of it, and have to rely on trust. In most cases that suffices. A
hybridizer submitted a plant to the 2004 Region 6 meeting where it
flourished. In the nmeantime disaster struck and they lost ALL of the seedling
except the piece in the tour garden.

> I also naively thought that the <main> reason rhizomes were returned was
> to make sure they weren't being distributed without permission, thus
> "cheating" the hybridizer out of possible income, intellectual property.

As to the last point, without tour gardens there is not much reason to have a
convention. Hybridizers submitting plants pay postage
to get them to the tour gardens. I should add, not a small amount of postage. They
also take some risks, with letting plants out of their control while at the same
time being at the mercy of their plant being judged on how it grew in a garden
that may or may not give it the utmost care or even reasonable care. As a person
who had to take on the job of plant chairperson for a regional meeting with 4 tour
gardens and 220 guest plants, I speak with a bit of experience. We budgeted for
return shipment costs gladly, it was the least we could do for the effort and
expense the hybridizers to send us the plants and make it a successful meeting. We
had to return a few boxes. Some of the hybridizers offered to cover return
shipping costs as well, which we declined. No problem.

> The comments make it sound like hybridizers also expect to have their
> new introductions propagated for free and then sent back for free.
> ??

To close, anyone wanting clarification should read the AIS Convention Handbook. It
covers in great detail the recieving, care, return and ownership of all plants
contributed to a convention as well as the AIS Code of Ethics.

John Bruce
SW OH zone 5

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