So, who all is going to Madison WI?

AIS Convention 2010:
May 31-June 5 2010 in Madison, Wisconsin

DH is sending me again. I think he likes how jazzed up I am when I come back home! Think time, though, I'm driving up.

Enjoy our state and Madison is a great city, so much to do and see.
Imagine you won't have much time if you are attending the AIS convention.

Maxine

Can not go this year and will miss it but just can not...if all goes well will be in Canada in 2011 and then in Ontario CA 2012

Enjoy and return with tons of pictures and sharing all the information

D

We are going--will be in on Tues. June 1 Will not be going either to Canada or CA. Thinking about median convention in Ok in 2011. **** the tornados, full speed ahead!

I knew you were coming, Lucy, and I can't WAIT to meet ya! What color did you say that cane was? LOL

And I know you're not coming, Dee, and why. God's blessings on your family this year.

So, Maxine, it's there in your state and you're not coming? it was a blast last year, but irises didn't perform very well. We thought we were going to have the same problem this year for Region 4's spring conference, but they surprised us and enough were left. We had such a cold long winter we thought they'd be too late, followed by 3 weeks of extreme heat, and they all bloomed at once. The heat abated just enough, with just a touch of cooling rain, such that a few more came out to greet our visitors!

I think that my iris's will be the nicest they have been in yrs. SDB's are blooming and increasing. IB's are buded and so are some of the TB's. I noticed this morning that Hi Lo Silver is blooming also.

Maxine

We had a very early snow fall that stayed on all winter, so our plants were protected until the snow went off in March.

so you think Madison will put on a big show?

how many irises do you have?

My cane is purple with flowers, but plan on using it only in the gardens (balance on rough ground). I used it in HD today so I could move faster & as a result my left calf muscle hurts.

does anyone know if any of the hybridizers are coming this time? Anita isn't planning to, I know Don and Ginny don't usually go, but they definitely won't this time because of house repairs after the fire. Dee can't go. I wonder if any of the Oregon crowd will give up the tail end of bloom season to go?

Paul Black mentioned in an email that they will be going on the 2nd.

OH MARVELOUS! I've been wanting to see him in person since I was there in 2007 and missed him! He and I have been exchanging the funniest emails EVER. He's got to be a HOOT.

I am glad to hear some of you are coming to the convention in Madison. I will miss you, Dee !
There is still time to register if you have not yet. We will be even taking registrations right at the convention.

So far the Iris are coming along well. We had some warm weather early and they started coming early, but then a cold spell slowed them down and they should be perfect for the convention. Not peak bloom, but just enough past so that some of the later ones will add the the ones already going. Talls are just beginning now, so in 2 weeks should be great. There are buds galore!

As for hybridizers that are attending, we are pleased that so many more are coming this year than came last year.
But I am not giving details on that info.

Looking forward to seeing you here!
It won't be long now (oh my!)

Elladan
Madison, WI
2010 Convention Registrar

Wah!! I can't go!! Maybe I'll go to the median convention in OKCin 2011! It is much closer. I'm going to miss going to GreenhornValley Iris garden in Colorado City, CO. We usually go out there close to Memorial Day and they are in full bloom! My poor husband has to have surgery June 2, so we can't go. Maybe I'll meet irisMA next year.

Not going to Canada but will keep an eye out for the median convention. Hope that the tornados stay away. Is there any piece of OK left?

I'm still here

I wish I could attend but this year is just out of the question for husbands health issues. But I will be there in spirit trust me.

Hopefully will be going to Canada and CA as stated.

Got my passport started now, all I need are the pictures and then back to the PO with them, as here the PO is almost double and Costco is so cheap.

I hope that all of you going will give a full report and lots of pictures for those of us who can not attend.

D

ok - note to self - lots of photos - check

Hi,

I am going to my first AIS convention; driving to Chicago first to see some relatives and than up to the show in Madison Wi on Tuesday. We should have a DAVESGARDEN.COM Registration and find 15 minutes to say Hello. Anyone have a practical way to meet?

DJ

We might sneak a sticky label & put DG on it. & stick it on ourselves. We will arrive


Tues afternoon & Bonjon says she will be there on Mon. Are you taking and optional tour? We don't as I must save my energy for walking. Found out from youngest daughter than one of the places those tour visits belongs to her husband's cousin. Small world.

This message was edited May 29, 2010 6:54 AM

I just signed up for the optional tour yesterday, so haven't heard yet if I'm in. I almost didn't, as I'm more interested in the plants than the food. Dieting. BUT, I had so much fun on last year's St. Joe's tours that I reconsidered.

I hope you-all have the time of your lives! Wish I could be there... Oh well, maybe Ontario in 2012? And please don't forget to take pictures!!!

DH will take some, but those who better can use the computer will probably post. bonjon says that it is supposed to rain.

well, that was the 10 day forecast from last week. NOW it's predicted to be 68-71 degrees and cloudy tomorrow, rain on Friday only, and same temps and breezy Saturday. It rained today, but we've been in meetings.

I did the optional tour on Tuesday. Gorgeous warm weather all day. 1st stop was horticultural research station of U of W close by. I took 4 photos, and camera battery gave up the ghost - not a good sign, as I'd recharged it. But I was so excited, went off and left 2nd battery in the charger in the room. Ah me. And they had a black petunia, too.

2nd stop was cheese factory - I bought chunks of everything! 3rd stop was winery - I sampled 11 wines, brought back 5 bottles. whoever wants to bring crackers, the before and after parties all week are in room 815 !!!

lunch was brats at the winery. 4th stop was ice cream research/factory at U of W campus - I didn't bring back anything, ate a double stacked wafflecone of the best ice cream every tasted! walked the one block away to the last stop - a gorgeous Allen memorial garden - had TBs, sibs, and I saw two louisianas in bloom, along with a lot of cool trees - I've never seen a linden tree in bloom.

got the camera batteries all primed up for tomorrows first tour. buses load at 7 am, so I'm heading to bed. would upload a photo, but this hotel computer has a 3.5" floppy drive and no graphics card slot....

forgot to add - I met irisMA today, and her husband, and irisuniverse (I think that was his DG name) - all wonderful folks.

Met for first time: Tom Johnson, Paul Black, Tom Gormley, Rita Gormley, Chad Harris, Dave Schreiner

saw again: Keith Keppel, Dave Niswonger, Stahly

Iris universe I'm sorry that I missed you. I did a lot of looking for a name tag from twinsburg OH, but didn't see one.Glad that you met bonjon. She & I talked a bit about miniature dwarf meeting, but otherwise whe kept popping up to say 'hi' but then wasnt where she had to go. flight from Milwaukee was delay because of weather in boston & then had to drive a short time in pouring rain with bad visabliity. We got north of it in about 15 minutes.

This message was edited Jun 10, 2010 7:13 PM

Bonjon, glad you got to meet my mom and dad. They are my iris source, theirs and sometimes others.

Bonjon Can you read your notes from the convention? I have to make sense out of mine because we have to write it up for our newsletter.

ah me, I haven't even looked to try yet, irisMA. I just got home last night. But I did get better photos this year than last.

Our bus captain, Karen Johnson, invited me to stay with her overnight Sunday over near Milwalkee. There are lots of quarries near her (not open on Sundays), so I needed to stay till Monday. I stayed at the Marriot Sunday morning, did my laundry, took a nice long swim while it was going, got on the computer, looked up some directions, talked for forever to John Baker. Then drove back to Rotary gardens just to see the peony show! Fabulous! Along the way, I saw a Menard's and stopped. Susan Boyce, my seatmate on the buses told me they were fabulous - they were - and a pair of fence post top solar lights came home in the truck. Karen told me of a hosta fest near the Rotary garden, and six hostas ended up in the back of the truck. Then I drove up back roads to Menanomee Falls. Wisconsin is a great place to visit. Karen was a BLAST and her home and gardens are lovely. She gave me rocks, ones she had lying around that she had dug out of her garden.

The rock quarry man charged me next to nothing for all the rock I chose. I wish I had taken more. My truck was wallowing like a drunken sailor driving a tank off its skids when I left. Later I pulled over and put half on the floorboards inside. Then the truck rode just fine. Karen also printed out directions to one of the best quilting shops I've ever visited! Found a new iris print fabric (WEE!) Then I headed toward Kalamazoo, MI. Along the way, about 5 pm, I stopped at a winery in Michigan, tasted, and bought several bottles! Darn - I was driving, could only taste a mouthful.....of each....

By 7pm, after chasing the wine with some fresh cheese curds and crackers from WI, I was looking through Bauer and Coble's gardens while they ate dinner. Saw lots of cuties (sibs) and 4 JIs already in bloom. Checked out their hostas, too, then drove on to Lansing. Randall (husband) jumped online at home and found me an inexpensive Super 8 hotel not more than 18 miles from Williamston. (He even checks them out on google earth to make sure I'll be safe.) By 8:30 the next morning, I was in Hollingsworth's gardens. Oh they have some lovely seedlings! One I want, but he may not introduce it. It has a flaw, not good branching, but it's just such a lovely bloom! Ah well. I picked out a few to order from Bauer and Coble, who now sells theirs.

By 2pm I was down in Cement City MI, northwest of Ann Arbor, at Hallson's, shopping for shade perennials and hostas. didn't win a single thing in the plant auction, and only 3 irises in the silent auction. I had Karen and Joycet (DGer) give me free rooms, and we'd ended up with an extra roomate at the conference, so the bill was much smaller than expected. I'd brought food in a cooler and managed to spend less than $100 on food the whole 12 day trip. ALL THIS $$$ left over! Went hog wild and filled 1/2 the truck bed with mostly hostas. Chris was kind enough when I explained that I couldn't take large plants because they had to sit low in the truck to stay out of the wind. He dug most of them fresh, and helped pick out smaller ones. I think he discounted many because he usually only sells large 3 year old plants. Also sold me his last little Gold Heart bleeding heart because I wanted it so badly, and the cutest tiny Lilliput astilbe with shiny foliage. I don't mention this much, but at home we are really too sun challenged to get great iris growth and bloom. 3/4s of our land is too shady for irises.

DGer Joycet had invited to stay with her on the trip up. We had never met face to face, and I had an incredible blast with her, too. So much so I stayed an extra day there and she took me around to some great places, including Jungle Jim's. She has an almost finished fish pond and waterfall, but she got laid off and didn't buy any more rocks. So I brought all these rocks from Wisconsin for her in my truck. and, yes, there was even a little hosta or two, and a bottle of Michigan wine left behind with her. (I left 4 irises with her and one hosta there on the trip up!) On the way up, she had let me go "shopping" in her garden and given me a lot of perennials as companion plants for the irises!

Of all the plants that arrived home, including the ones Bob Pries bought (they came with me in the truck), only a columbine I bought there near Dayton OH didn't survive the trip. The hostas Chris helped me pick out didn't suffer a single torn leaf. Of course, the last two days driving were in rain - miserable driving - but guess the good Lord was looking out for them!

My but you had an odyssey. We oldies flew back via Milwaukee to Boston. I don't think that we could cover that much ground even when we were still doing dog shows with the cockers. Menamomee Falls is a bit north from where I grew up in Whitefish Bay. Took the badger bus home from Madison all the time. 17 minutes in the air is quite different even with all the screening. My pumila seedling is replanted in its barrel after adding compost & DH has almost finished adding compost to one of the beds. rain today & car to the garage to get its back brakes fixed tomorrow. It was fun seeing you & I finished my ballot, whew.

not a judge yet, so no vote for me. was it tough this time, voting, I mean?

Always. I couldn't vote for the Sass Medal this time around as I had not seen the IBs enough & while one grew in some other gardens, it had not done so for us. Then there are some great plants which are not yet on the ballot.

There are some areas on the ballot I can not vote on because I do not see or know LI, CA, AR well enough to vote, Had a hard enough time voting for the Dykes...

D

Oh we always pass on LA, spuria & CA. Parts of the arils, although we often see the ABs. But we usually see enough medians in all the gardens. Odd year, this one with great jumps in growth of different classes.

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

I should talk to Bob about that tie printer. I will probably see him at the regional meeting next fall. ISM is holding it. Conventions get addictive. We will miss next years' but I will try & talk DH into going to the median one in OK. Glad that you are hybridizing. I found that my last BB cross had not taken when I got home but a couple of pods are on a peach BB. I'm glad that you could meet people. It is easier at a smaller convention like this one, but that is tough on the people who did all the work.

wow - that shot turned out great!

got a story about supreme Sultan: when I first discovered Cooleys catalogue, I ordered a collection, and ended up with Supreme Sultan. Looked at the photo in the catalogue and said, "yuck! where can I plant this so I don't have to look at it?" LOL

long story short - that turned out to be a great location for irises! AND very visible from the street and driveway, just not from the house. Supreme Sultan, and a few others I didn't like, like Lady Friend and Schortman's Garnet Ruffles, blew me away. They became favorites. I lost all those irises (freak flash flood in a bad storm spawned by hurricane Floyd). Had a bit of trouble replacing SS, because I'd been calling it "Sultan Supreme," but made sure to replace it and LF. Can't find Schortman's Garnet Ruffles anymore. In fact, searching around to replace the irises is one factor that led me to the AIS!

cross posted with irisMA. yes, I always learn so much. The hybridizers are really great at giving good information, and hints. One suggested a cross I can make that he says produced a lot of intros for him.

PODS! and Japanese in bloom is what I came home to. They don't usually bloom this early, but it's 97 in the shade today. Our A/C gave up the ghost by 10am and it's 90 in the house.

It's very doubtful I can make the Canadian conference. I missed our 19th wedding anniversary this year to go to Madison. Unless he decides to come with me, I've promised to stay home for our 20th. Didn't realize when I promised that it was going to be the exact same week next year! But, we've already seen a bit of Vancouver, we took that Alaskan cruise they were talking that departs from Vancouver 10 years ago. He's alrady saying he doesn't want to go back.

S. Garnet Ruffles can be difficult to grow. I would try & find a different plant with the same color flower. I saw Thomas Johnson's 'Full Figure' at the collection of Breezeway garden's owner. It is a red amoena (white standards, colored falls) & would make an interesting try with my SDB Reddy Set for IBs of that color. I will try & post a picture of it. (Reddy Set that is).

that's probably why S. Garnet Ruffles is going the way of the dodo bird. LOL it has such an elegant rich pure garnet color. But it's standards tended to flop - which I overlooked just for that color!

Not one pod on any of the median crosses. Darn. I've never had a pod take on a rebloomer, either, until this year. it's on one of my noID rebloomers. now why did I cross a noID? Probably because it's a rebloomer.

Sorry I didn't check with y'all again on needing ice, Lucy. I brought it to you that one time and then didn't think to ask again. It was so warm those days!

we're wiped out from heavy duty yard work at Mom and Dad's. These babies will just have to make do in the shade while we get their place presentable. they got in trouble with the city their yard is so overgrown. it was 99 in the shade before the sun lost power today.

Ouch! Way too hot for me. Remember I grew up in WI.