The American Iris Society is hosting an
International Iris Competition during the 2020 AIS
100th Anniversary Convention. Nancy Skjei-Lawes,
president of the Essex County Presby Iris Garden
board, generously gave up Bed 23 for us to plant
the iris to be judged (picture 1). It looks small from
the second floor of the Walther House (circa 1885),
but in a week we, with much help from Presby staff
and Kathy’s daughter Rebecca, marked off the space
and began planting the area to hold 123 Tall Bearded
iris varieties shipped from domestic and overseas
hybridizers. See Picture 2 for a view of growth in the
bed as of September 22, 2018.
Our main problem was that out of the week
that we had allotted for the set-up and planting,
we spent three days just getting to Walther House
from Phoenix, Arizona. Little did we know that
the east coast was beginning a couple of weeks of
thunderstorms starting July 17, the day I left Burbank,
California to meet Kathy at the Phoenix airport for
our connecting flight to Newark, New Jersey later
that day. Our Newark flight was cancelled, but we
rebooked on a flight to Philadelphia. Just as we
reached the gate, Southwest Airlines cancelled that
flight too. With no more available flights going to
Newark or anywhere close, we waited three hours
to get our bags back. Luckily, we were able to stay
overnight in Phoenix with Kathy’s son and daughterin
law and their two dynamite-cute little girls. Great
dinner of grilled tri-tip and oven-baked cauliflower,
and great conversation.
On July 18 we were back up at five-“something”
a. m. to get a flight from Phoenix to Baltimore,
Maryland. This was the closest we could get that
day. All other flights to Newark were booked for
several days. As many of you know, Southwest does
not fly with empty seats on their planes now, so
when one or more flights are cancelled, there are
very few flights for people to rebook on. We did
get to Baltimore that day about six p. m. East Coast
time—too late to get a connecting flight or train to
Newark. We found a room at a Hampton Inn that had
a free shuttle from the airport. The Baltimore people
were fabulous! People helped us find a hotel and a
great place to eat dinner at the Inner Harbor, and we
began a very valuable relationship with Uber.
Picture 2
Kathy and I were a little tired of schlepping by
now. We priced train tickets from Baltimore to
Newark, which were about $150 each with tax. The
Uber driver who drove us to dinner suggested that
we might be able to get to Walther House by Uber
for about the same price. No dealing with moving
bags around two train stations and then getting an
Uber from the Newark station to the House. He
was right. We got an Uber from our Baltimore hotel
to Walther House door-to-door for $309!! About
a three-and-a-half-hour drive with one stop. We
finally opened the door with a key Nancy had left
hidden near the front door about five o’clock p. m. on
Thursday, July 19.
The lobby of Walther House was full of boxes!
Guest iris sent from all over the United States and
one from the Czech Republic! We spent until about
eleven o’clock Thursday night cataloguing the plants
Winter 2019 AIS Bulletin 29