Anna Mae's personal report on the SIB/species convention in Ontario

Comments from Siberian-Species Conv. Jun 12-15 '03 for Sibrob 

"I go to Iris conventions to see iris but when the weather is
not kind I meet the people. This SIB/specie meeting has enabled
me to get acquainted with two new round robin members, 4H
Hybridizers' Siberian Robin Director that I first met at the
Mass Medley, 2nd SIB/species convention: Jeff Dunlop and wife
Joyce and his friend/neighbor, Dean Cole from Maine {slide # 18}
and Ken Walkup, NY {slide #. 

They are all hybridizers and Jeff had 5 of his on the showbench.
 It was also good to see Andy Wheeler's new hybrids on the show
bench {slide # 19 Andy with his mother, Debbie, and Sandy Ives,
Ottawa and a volunteer at the convention. Many of us have
attended all of the S/S conventions.

It's always a special time for me to renew friendships from
previous meetings like Tomas Tamberg, German hybridizer doing
work on siberians and interspecie crosses,{slide # 27 at
Hollingworth's and Jim Morris, MO},  Carole Breedlove WA,,
George and Carla Lankow, WA, and Jill and Jim Copeland who had
been on the 50th Anniversary of NZ Iris Society. (Unfortunately,
we didn't get to meet people on the other 2 buses but we had
many of the Siberian Society officers on our bus-- lucky us.) 
Picked up snippets of info about color pigment theories from
discussion with Chuck Chapman, Marty Schafer & Jan Sacks, Andy
Wheeler, Ken Walkup, Hao Chang, familiar with paper
chromatography separation of the pigments....

The Chapman garden had all types of bearded irises in bloom,
even had a lovely Lily flowered tulip, Marilyn, blooming as we
got off the bus. Chuck collects blue-eyed grass from the area
and plants among his Arilbreds to absorb moisture from the
rhizomes. I liked Omar's Gold, Boswell '96, P. Black's Prairie
Thunder, 90,  She Devil, '90, Tabriz, Kidd 83. 

SDB's were blooming and I looked at a few. Lots of color. We
tracked a lot of mud in the bus and into the Holiday Inn where
we had lunch. 

Another group listening to John Heimke, Russell Sage College,
discussing chromosome counting (needed to verify the interspecie
crosses that are so popular now). How different fixative and
stains react on Siberians and Japanese iris. {slide # 6} Biology
is changing very quickly. John is in molecular genetics and has
spent 3 years with an organism expert studying breast cancer. 

In the afternoon we went to the Guelph Arboretum where the guest
irises were very well grown but unfortunately not in bloom. They
had several interesting features: a Japanese garden, an English
garden and had done testing on hardy roses {slide 
#10},Victorian Glass Greenhouse {slide # 11}, Iron Gate/Jim
Morris, MO, {slide #12} 

After a short night's sleep because of the false fire alarm
between 2 am and 3:30 we boarded the bus and went to the
McMillen garden. Siberians/specie guests were grown well and
many were in bloom. A nice clump of Lilting Laura, Anna Mae
Miller '89, had 1 bloom and scattering of other hybridizers.
This is a very large garden and lots of bearded irises were in
bloom. 

The lovely barn made a nice backdrop for friends in my {slide #
14}. We had an educational live demonstration identifying the
iris borer for people living the western states that don't 
recognize their early damage and need to be able to
differentiate from bacterial infections. {slide #13} This one
was tiny not the adult size that is pink and about 1" long. 

Guests that were blooming well at RBG planting were China Spring
(B-C 99) (Snowy Mt. X I. typhifolia), blooms earlier and seems
to throw stalks to make a long blooming clump.Jean-Mark Boileau
had 3 seedlings that I observed. 97/13/2, a light pink #97/06/1,
a medium wine,  T97/10/1, a dark red-purple Chandler Fulton's
Gossamer Breeze, a specie like with very different netting on
the falls and lavender standards.
 
Bob Hollingworth had a short, 22" Pixie Preview, just named a
clear light mid-blue self, very heavily ruffled. Very nice.  
Marty Schafer and Jan Sacks had some nice clumps in several
gardens. Banish Misfortune 99, Barbara Schmieder '01 is a pale
yellow, Just Cruising. '01, a nice darker, ruffled yellow with
lots of bloomstalks with one flower but my, what its going to be
a couple of days. {slide # 22} with White Amber, '01,
lavender-yellow blend {slide #23} and Strawberry Social, '00, a
nice deep rosy pink with a white signal. They have unusual
shades and blends of colors and it is interesting to watch the
development. 

Many guest irises were not in bloom and I don't feel
knowledgeable to comment on the specie crosses. Sorry. Had a
nice visit with Tomas Tamberg and Tony Huber (on 10th floor
during the fire alarm at 2:30 a.m. Missed several people that
were attending. Hardly seems possible when the attendance was
158 but paths didn't cross. 

With about 10% bloom on S/S we did have several iris to consider
(remember what we saw opening on Sat. were not in bloom for the
other half on Fri).  Best introduced siberian was Strawberry
Social (SS 00) a deep rosy pink. and Jean-Mark Boileau, Ottawa
CAN with  #97/13/2, a light pink. The best specie was Foxcroft
Full Moon, Katherine Steele, a creamy white pseudacorus with
maroon eye markings. The specie seedling #95009 Tony Huber.  I
heard 05 but that wasn't a guest, so think I am correct." 

Anna Mae Miller


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