Thanks for the rarefied concern.
I was just perusing pertinent p(h)otos to post presently, when a surprising surmising surreptitiously surfaced, but is now quickly quelched.
I meant to take lots of pics of the exhibits, but kept running into people I hadn't seen for so long, and then it was already time for the next seminar....
Arbatax and Spot On
Lilium lankongense(not mine) and Napa Valley
Hotline
Maybe Moby might amass more masterpieces for the montage.
Ieuen Evans brought a zillion martagon stems from Canada. It was quite a treat. (Anyone who knows how to correctly pronounce his (first) name gets a gold star.)
I did enter a few stems in the show for the first time ever. Nothing special, and not especially nice, either. But they were in good form, and earned a second and a third place ribbons. Funny, they were all my own seedlings and the one I was proud of didn't place.
But I only entered a floret, and there was only a category for "seedling grown by exhibitor", and not one for "seedling, grown and hybridized by exhibitor".
This one had an interesting inflorescence structure, and I wondered what judges might think about. This was the second place ribbon.
An old yellow 1b spotted cultivar from my childhood x Winnipeggy
One of the speakers, David Zlesak is already a friend of mine, and I already knew about the other speakers, but to my surprise, they already knew of me! Apparently, when they google certain species lilies, my name comes up a lot. They wanted to talk to me as much as I wanted to talk to them! At the insistence of Berry Francis, I crashed the private evening buffet at the Aroboretum (didn't eat, though) for more conversation. Outside of the actual seminars, I felt like I was the only one who wanted to speak their lingo, rather than just exchange pleasantries. Really had a great time being the unofficial good will ambassador.
Overall, attendance numbers are low, I'm told. I expect our local Chapter is going to lose a lot of money on this venture, but we knew it might happen, and had already planned for the possibility.
Now we'll see if anyone is willing to drive all the way out to my house to see my garden on Sunday......
