Laissez les bons temps rouler
“Let the good times roll”
…And they did!
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JIM MORRIS, MISSOURI
The AIS Convention in New Orleans in
concert with the Society for Louisiana Irises
(SLI) was quite a treat. The Cajun French
pronunciation is “lay-zay lay bohn tohn roo-lay.”
Things are a bit different in Cajun country but if
you are a TB purist and skipped this convention,
well, you missed a time of good fellowship, great
food and historic sights—not to mention beautiful
irises.
The first iris I remember seeing was ‘Katrina
Rising’ (Patrick O’Connor 2016, LA) shining in
copper-orange in the sunlight. This was named
following the Category Five Hurricane Katrina
that devastated New Orleans in 2005. The
weather for convention was great all week until
Saturday the day of the SLI Iris Show when seven
inches of rain fell in two hours. Earlier in the
week as we crossed over one of the New Orleans
canals our bus captain had commented that
there were 20 pumping stations each on both the
Mississippi River side and the Lake Pontchartrain
side of the city. There was little to no water then,
but it topped out during the Saturday onslaught.
Fortunately the SLI Juried Show was moved
indoors in anticipation of the rain. My tour party
was in the French Quarter enjoying beignets
and hot chocolate first at Café du Monde (1862),
and later oysters Rockefeller at Antoine’s (1840).
Super tasty and dry inside. Super wet and
thundery outside.
‘Katrina Rising’ (Pat O’Connor 2016, LA)
20 AIS Bulletin Summer 2018