Is any DGer going to AIS Convention?

I thought it would be interesting to post how many DGers are planning on going to the AIS convention this year in Texas.

I'm going, got the hotel, registration, car rental, and airline tickets.

Going from Portland to Maryland, Maryland to Austin, Austin to Portland from the 8th to the 23rd.

D

Both of us are going. Had hotel & reg. Did airlines via Dallas to Austin this morning.

I hope somehow we can all met to put a face to a name...that would be fun:)

D

I am planning to go, but haven't done anything about it yet. But I will. I went last year and had a ball.
Betty

Put a face to names will be fun :-) Have gotten everything but the airline tickets here.I keep searching for the cheapest flights,lol

I am looking forward to it as well. I had better hurry up and get my registration, etc. in.
B.

Registration cost goes up after Feb. 15.

Yippes! Thanks for the reminder! Betty

The cheapest we found was with Southwest Total for all the flying I am doing and two are non stop, right at 400.00 now remember portland to maryland, maryland to Austin, Austin to Portland

D

Mine will be much shorter -- Albuquerque to Austin, hopefully a little cheaper. I thought about driving, but that is quite a way from here.
B.

I'm going and by the way pajaritomt
since you are in the area are you going to the Aril median trek
:)
Anita

Yes, I will definitely attend the Aril Trek. That is only 100 miles from my house. Wouldn't miss it. I belong to ASI.

Dee... by way of Maryland? Just passing through, or does that mean I might get to meet you even if I don't get to the convention? ;-)

I will be at Avmoran home while there, arrive the 8th and leave for Austin on the 15th...Pylesville I believe is her town?

D

Hope to meet you.

Cool!

:-)

In the very early days of iristalk. Kathy Guest made bright yellow ID tags with our email addys on them. We wore these as well as our convention tags so we could ID others on the list. Maybe you could do the same for DGers. I presume the Geek dinner still survives? Just an idea.

inanda

Geek still survives but Sorry It board me to tears
so I have not gone back
They are more focused on Iris Talk, Iris, Photos and not places like DG, gardenweb, tinkers, and even the specialty mail forms surch as Aril and editor
I think a label for DGers would be great
:)
Anita

Yes, I attended the Geek dinner last year and didn't find it all that wonderful, though I did get to meet a few well known hybridizers who were there. Mainly, however, the purpose is to raise money for the AIS on-line projects and that is a good cause. Maybe just making a donation would work better than sitting though a very, very long auction.
The good sign was that I bought a couple of recently introduced irises that I would never have bought otherwise. Forced me to try some new things. I will know this spring if I am glad I did that!

Don't forget the silent auction, nothing to sit through. One year we bought a membership list because garndmother in-law's name was there. Usually quite a bit of HIPS stuff and interesting plants.

Yes, the silent auction is less painful. Also, there was an auction (live) at the median society meeting, which was much more reasonable in length. I picked up a couple of SDBs at that one.

I like the silent auctions myself as well. Plus I love to see what is being made with iris things.

In Portland and CA I picked up several nice iris that I got because they were not the well known hybridizers, and only one has not done well out of about 10.

I am so looking forward to this year.

Not going in 09 but intent too in 2010.

D

Don't plan that far ahead--yr. by yr. 2009 will hit SDB bloom here so I will see how those plants do this yr. Austin is at pumila time and I hear grumbles about that in the house. But it will be a chance to see my brother as two of his kids and grandchildren are in Austin. L

I should have paid more attention at the silent auction. I would definitely bought so rhizomes. Did they have them there or did you have to get them mailed to you later?

The ones I bid on, there was the sheet, most had pictures and they were mailed to me in August.

D

That's what happened with the ones I bought at auction. I got very nice rhizomes and they all appear to be doing fine, but they haven't had a chance to bloom yet.

It was at the Median Iris meeting that I picked up 2 SDB's. These will be the first I have ever grown - I am rather new in the iris world, though I have done TB's for a while. I can't wait to see my first SDB's and MDB's and MTB's bloom. Who knows what I might come home with this time!

You must be at a higher altitude to be able to grow MDBs & SDBs. MTB depends on the ancestry. We are median people & BBs and TBs fit in the same sort of spot. I only saw TBs as a child, neighbor to the rear and them in his backyard, nothing else, it was full. Grandmother in-law had the little ones, the type grown just before introduction of the TBX pumilas so I came to learn them. It's easier to do our "sniff-test" on the TBs. Yes, plants are sent later--each hybridizer is told where to send them.

The Silent auction is great fun and you can get some good intros I have always wanted Neanderthal and finally got it there and was treated to Tea Time as a bonus
:)
A

I'm donating Stile Libero (Augusto Bianco) 2008, Candy Dandy SDB 2008 Rod Mendenhall, and Power Woman 2008 Neil Mogensen

D

I will definitely look for these!

I like the looks of TEA TIME. I love that brown beard. :-)

~Margie

This is Tee Times Shares a parent with Neanterthal

Neantertal? What a funny name for an iris. It is pretty, though.

We donated our 2008 Intros--MTB Isabella Anna & SDB Reddy Set

irisMa - do you have any photos you can share of those 2008 intros?
~Margie

That's exactly what I was wondering.

Not technically possible to post photos--we have slides and no knowhow. We will have an ad in the Medianite. Isabella Anna is a variegata like many MTBs are, good grower. Reddy Set is a red amoena SDB--I hope is the start os a line of them, improved of course. S-white,F-red violet. I know that Marge can't do things with SDBs, the nearest TB to the color is Latin Hideway,which actually has light lavender standards-by Hooker Nichols.

Thank you irisMA, your descriptions are very helpful. Your introductions sound quite worthy. :-) Someday I hope to see them. I love seeing new intros. I hope they do well for you. :-)

~Margie

Luckily we use a travel agent as American withdrew our flight and TA had to reschedule it. Same airline, different times--we were not going to be able to connect in 45 min.

I hope that all conventioners are taking good care of their "sniffers". Remember we have a fragrance report to do.