Re: CULT:HYB: Trial Gardens [was: Re: HYB: AIS: Trial Garden Idea Redux]

 Hello Dorothy!

Yes, I quite agree about sending irises out for conventions.

When in Idaho I never did so and should have.  I had some good things, only
one of which ever garnered an award--an HM for SIGRID, a "Mohr" from
Capitola.  Judges in Idaho were few and very far between in those days, and
not all that plentiful even now.

Here in NC I am totally isolated.  Both of our local judges are dropped, one
voluntarily, the other just because of trying to balance too many things.
They have been the back bone of our local CMIS (Carolina Mountain Iris
Society), but one is ill, the other up to his eyebrows with JI's and trying
to make a living.

Roy Epperson is at High Point.  There are others in the Charlotte area, not
more than two hours away.  I have yet to get over there to eather area to
get acquainted, and I can say the same about the much closer
Greenville-Spartanburg folks.  There are both commercial gardens and some
highly active growers and hybridizers there too, a mere hour away.

I looked at the possibility of reinstatement as a Judge, partly in response
to the local vacuum for active judges, and had a plan or process worked out
with Ginny Spoon and Dr. Epperson since my approximately twenty-year lapse
in membership was not the sort of thing the *Handbook* provisions
anticipated.

I finally came to realize my energies and resources simply were not a
realistic foundation for the full responsibilities incumbent upon a working,
conscientious Judge.  I withdrew, but Dr. Epperson left the door open to my
continuing the process.  I appreciate that, but doubt I will be able to
pursue the matter.  I've had fifteen medical "procedures" since November
2001, three of them surgeries that were described as "mojos" by one of the
physicians.

My recovery is very, very slow.  I am rarely out in public, and my garden is
a four-year accumulated disaster of neglect.  It also is my lifeline, as it
forces me out of the house and into life-giving exercise attacking the weeds
and salvaging what I can from the red gumbo clay "soil."

So--sending guests to conventions.  I have one farmed out to several friends
scattered all over the US, and will be introducing through Snowpeak (Denise
Stewart) if the evaluation is positive.  The seedling, named POWER WOMAN, is
also a guest at Portland, my first attempt at this process.  The color is
powerful, but the season is early and may miss convention date except for
straggling last blooms.  Denise Stewart also will have it in bloom at
Snowpeak, along with a couple of its seedlings, one of which is looking for
a name.

So far the evaluations haven't been as positive as I'd hoped.  Power Woman
doesn't perform as well elsewhere as it has at home.  I need to send a piece
to Linda Mann!  It would be interesting to see if it would survive there.
It does here.

I never have visitors here, with two exceptions--Linda herself, and one
friend who is getting interested in irises.  I also have a daughter in TN
who has come and helped weed several times, and who is beginning to grow
seedlings, both some of mine farmed out and some crosses of her own.  With
five children, working full time and juggling meals, clothes, cats, dogs and
various other pets she has some competition for her energies and time.  She
is studying the *Handbook,* reading *The World of Irises,* and I've gotten
the R&I's for her each of the past several years.  She loves iris, but may
have to wait a while for her attention-straining distractions to become less
before she gets more involved.

Neil Mogensen  z 7  Reg 4  western NC mountains

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