Irises: So, who all is going to Madison WI?, 1 by IrisUniverse

IrisUniverse wrote:
Hi, IrisMa and BonJon:

Yeah, sorry I missed meeting you ti IrisMa. BonJon and I saw each other a lot.

I have finally unwound from the awesome convention. After spending an hour talking with Steve Poople (hybrdizer of Georgias' Dream) about his tehcniques in hybridizing, I could not wait to get home to see if some of my cross polination worked. I have news. I am a new Daddy. Three of my plants are pregnant.I can't believe how large some of the seed pods are. I will send pics soon. It is truly exciting to jump in to the hybridizing adventure. Now I have to get serious about the techniques, seed harvesting, etc. Steve is working on a power point presentatioin that he wants to presesnt at next years convention. I saw several of his pictures; very cool.

The convention totally exceeded my expectations. We should all have car washes and bake sales to save the money to go to Victoria British Columbia next year. It is so worth it. You can virtually talk to anyone there and they are all responsive; Everyone is so motivated and keen on the subject: Iris. I joined too many Iris societies. The Japanese Iris displayed totally blew me away.

I must have taken over 600 pictures. It will take me a while, but soon I will download some of my favorites to this site.

I also met several hybridizers; Dave Schreiner, Rick Tasko,(this year's Dykes Medal winner) and Richard Ernst; all personalble and willing to talk. Coincidentally, my iris Supreme Sultan (Schreiners TB) won best of show at the North East Ohio Iris Show held on May 29, 2010. I was totally surprised by this ribbon. Dave was pleased to hear the news and we talked about how robust a plant it is. The stalks are so thick and tall; plentiful blooms as well. My room mate Bob Keup found a firm that will print your Iris picture on a silk tie. He presented Rick Tasko with a tie that had his Dykes winner on it.

Here is a pic of BonJon and me. More later.

Cheers,
DJ