CONVENTION
COVERAGE
The Silver Siberian/
Species Convention
STORY Y AROL ARNER, YLAND B C W photos bMy cAhRad harris
The Francis Scot Key Iris Society was honored
to host the Siberian and Species Convention in Hunt
Valley, Maryland on May 25 and 26, 2018, marking the
25th year since the first Siberian Convention was held
in East Lansing, Michigan. A total
of 494 guest plants were received
from 16 different hybridizers. Four
gardens hosted these guest plants
for the convention, and a lunch
stop included a tour of the worldfamous
Ladew Topiary Gardens in
Monkton, Maryland. Convention
gardens included Draycott Gardens
owned by Carol Warner, Dogwood
Hill Garden owned by Joan Miller,
the Piasecki-Stewart garden,
and the Alan Summers garden in
Westminster. Alan is the host of
the nationally recognized radio
talk show “The Garden Club” and
former owner of Carroll Gardens.
His home garden had never been
open to the public before this
convention, and it was a remarkable
sight. Four one-hour sessions of
judges’ training were held in the
Warner garden, taught by John
Coble, Chad Harris, Jody Nolin
and Marty Schafer. Sixty-two of
the 118 people registered for the
convention took part in these sessions.
We were blessed with sunny weather, great food,
and peak bloom. The Maryland late-spring heat
and humidity did make an appearance on Saturday
afternoon, causing a few attendees to head for the
shade.
When the votes for the awards were tallied,
the award for the best Siberian went to ‘Purring
Tiger’ (Schafer/Sacks 2017, SIB), with the runnersup
of ‘Jaunty Jewel’ (Calvin
Helsley 2008, SIB), ‘Fiddles
On Fire’ (Schafer/Sacks 2017,
SIB), and ‘Encore Performance’
(Hollingworth 2010, SIB). The
best species award went to
‘Happy Traveler’ (Schafer/Sacks
2015, SPEC-X), and the runnersup
were ‘All Stripes’ (Schafer/
Sacks 2014 SPEC) and ‘Angel Of
The Pond’ (Anita Moran 2009,
SPEC). Best seedling went to
12S1A15 (Hollingworth), with Y-2 (Jill
Copeland) and 20150-26-2B (Mike
Lockatell) tied for second. ‘Swans
in Flight’ (Hollingworth 2006, SIB),
though not a guest iris, won the
Region 4 award for the best variety,
introduced by an out-of-region
hybridizer, growing and blooming in
a tour garden.
The plant auction held on
Saturday evening was lively and
brought in a nice amount for the
Society for Siberian Irises and
SIGNA. Those plants will all be
‘Purring Tiger’ (Schafer/Sacks 2017, SIB)
‘Happy Traveler’ (Schafer/Sacks 2015, SPEC-X)
shipped the first week of September. Now we are
looking forward to the next Siberian convention in
Washington State in 2021.
d
62 AIS Bulletin Summer 2018