Nice photos, Mikey. I'm glad that you took a lot of the seedlings. I didn't get that many.
I've got the first of my Mid-America photos ready to post sometime tomorrow.Here's a teaser

Loving all the garden photos.

Can't believe I missed this entire thread until this morning. Oh what beauties!! Those are.the most beautiful irises I have ever seen!! Thanks for posting!!!

And we are just getting to the main convention gardens. Of course, Keith Keppel's garden has all the newest from all the best hybridizers.

coboro said:Of course, Keith Keppel's garden has all the newest from all the best hybridizers.

That sounds like a dream come true.

Carl

Good luck on finding the best at Mid-America. That was one big place to photograph! I am working on Lynda Miller's. There are a lot of photos there, too. I think that I went crazy clicking away the camera on that trip to the National!

Yep. Literally thousands of photos. Over a third are pictures of name tags to go with the pictures of the irises. That still leaves a lot of pictures to go through.

Mid-America garden is more than just an iris garden.
The landscaping is very well done and the numbers of labeled plants to be seen is a bit astonishing.
Tom Johnson and his partner keep the place up by themselves.
Paul Black has retired but still is there during bloom season to do hybridizing.
This is the view from the house looking back at the convention master planting.


Joe Ghio talking irises in the master planting.


Barry Blyth (black hat) talking with Jack Worel and Bill Maryott (green hat).


They had peonies blooming with the irises.
If you looked hard, you could usually find a name.


Tom Johnson and his partner Kirk Hansen also run
Seabright Gardens on the same property. It is a
hosta, fern and shade plant nursery.


Lots and lots of plants for sale.

Joe just chillin'.



Tom Johnson giving Virginia Keyser a ride back to the bus.
This was the 50th American Iris Society convention
Virginia has attended.

Some more random images.

Holy cow, some of those are GORgeous!!!

tveguy3 said:

Me too

I love it, love it, love it! A wonderful garden tour from my perch. Thank you for taking the time to go through your photos and post a bunch. I love them all.

Wonderful photos, Carl -- thank you so much for sharing them.

And there -- in photo #3 of the MidAmerica gardens -- is my friend Dennis Dreyer! Dennis is probably the person most responsible for my Iris addiction -- by sharing bags and bags of rhizomes with me some years ago. He is on the BOD for the Tall Bearded Iris Society -- and lives here in Western Kentucky. Very generous with his time and knowledge and Irises!

Mary Ann:
Does Dennis attend Region 7 meetings or belong to a society? Where in KY does he live?

Photo #9 down. What are those red irises called???? Fabulous!

corrected - can't even count straight!

Loving this tour of the convention gardens!

Nice, Carl! You are so much faster than I am! I love your photos but then you all ready know that! :]

Janie -- I don't know all of Dennis' affiliations -- I'm certain he belongs to the AIS, but don't know if he attends meetings. He belongs to the Tall Bearded Iris Society -- I think it's based in Tennessee. He lives in Draffenville.

Miller Manor Gardens

It was an excellent garden to tour at the National!






















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Lynda Miller and Kitty Loberg




At the National convention in Portland there were a total of 170 seedlings. Adam Cordes' tall bearded iris 'Royston Rubies' won the Lloyd Zurbrigg/Clarance Mahan Award for the favorite guest seedling. This is only the second time the award has been given. It is also one award of only four given during the convention, which was attended by over 600 Iris Lovers. Adam and his wife, Autumn were on the same bus as I was. They are a delightful couple and young! I am sure that we will see a lot more from Adam in the coming years.



















Riley Probst and Roger Miller with Jane Jordan in the background

Thanks, Mikey. I've got a system going and I can crank out a bunch every night. Or at least until I start falling asleep at the computer.
Actually, I like this format better than giving the program at the meeting. There is no time constraint. God only knows what we are going to do if/when we have to pick out only enough pictures to fill 45 minutes. There were SO many beautiful irises.

Thanks everyone for all the appreciation. We take all these pictures and hardly anyone sees them. I am glad that they are being enjoyed.

Holy Cr__! I missed that multi, multi, multi petaled clematis. OMG!