Region 10 Summer Meeting

Can you believe that the season is going so fast?  I would like to thank the Jackson club for hosting the Region 10 Summer Meeting in Jackson, Tennessee on June 11 -12,  and providing everyone a fun-filled and packed weekend of activities. Upon arrival, everyone received in their registration bags, goodies such as fertilizer packets and introductory plants from local area hybridizers. The Exhibition Clinics, I, II, and III were available, but for the first time in many years, no one showed up for the classes. Consequently, most of the instructors gathered for Clinic III for a high powered inter-active Refresher Course led by Jay Turman. Special thanks go to the instructors who arrived a day early in some cases to teach the clinics only to be disappointed by the absence of students.  Please encourage your club members to participate in Exhibition as well as Garden Clinic workshops. Our region is  always in need of new judges. Friday evening was a casual dinner with introductory remarks by Jimmy Jordan, Region 10 President followed by a spirited plant auction. With approximately 60 plants up for auction, the pace was fast and fun. One of the highlights of the evening was the debut of the newest  Region 10 auctioneer extraordinaire, Janene Tidwell.  I still think she is really Paula Dean, hiding in Jackson, Tennessee, but she continues to deny it.  Saturday morning began early with folks boarding the buses at 7 am to head to the garden of Danny and Robbie Robinson for the first garden stop which included a light breakfast. The next step was the garden of Bill and Joyce Reinke. I got many pictures including several of their homing pigeons and white doves roosting on the roof of their house. There was minor excitement at that stop as one bus became stuck and had to be abandoned.  Fortunately, there was enough room on the remaining bus to accommodate the additional people. From the Reinke garden we headed to the Garden of Joe and Janene (aka Paula Dean) Tidwell.  I could not resist stopping and taking a picture of this road sign on the highway as we passed through Frog Jump, Tennessee. 

Joe and Janene have assembled a huge collection of spiders and unusual form cultivars that were the envy of everyone.  We then had lunch at the UT Agricultural Experimental Station which featured not only a Region 10 Hybridizers Garden Bed, but  numerous other landscaped gardens with unusual garden sculptures such as a mattress springs used as a trellis! Lunch was wonderful - blue cheese potato salad - yum.

Following lunch we traveled to the garden of Jimmy and Glenda Jordan who had a beautifully groomed garden with a large variety of cultivars in a bucolic country setting. The last garden on the tour was that of Phil and Carol Sims.  I was amazed at the large number of recently introduced cultivars of many well known hybridizers represented in the garden. I took many pictures and added them to my 'wish list'.  It was then back to the hotel for a little respite before the evening meal and to listen to our keynote speaker, Margo Reed.  Margo was on the garden bus tour during the day and many of us enjoyed getting to know and visit with her throughout the day.

Often I like to squeeze in visits to other sites of interest in the hosting city, not included in the schedule. Jackson was no exception as I visited Randolph's Greenhouses. Known throughout Tennessee for their unusual plants, I took many pictures including one of the most unusual fountains that I have ever seen which is included below. 

 And of course, I drug several plant purchases back to the hotel room.  I still am amazed that somehow I was able to check out of the hotel room with my plant purchases in tow, but left all my clothes hanging in the closet!  I guess it is all about priorities. Fortunately I have made arrangements to get my clothes back. But as daylily people know, this is a real problem because we don't have many clothes to begin with since we spend all of our money on daylilies.

Thanks again to the West Tennessee Daylily Society for hosting a great summer meeting.  We appreciate your hard work and willingness to go the extra mile to make our experience memorable.  For pictures that I took during the Jackson  trip, you may view them at my personal Flickr website   http://www.flickr.com/photos/willcol/sets/72157624261659394/detail/ .  Sorry about the numerous pictures of the homing pigeons and doves at the Reinke's, but I found them fascinating.
On a more personal note, it was my recent pleasure to be one of the stops of Region 14's East Alabama Daylily Hemerocallis Society Bus tour led by Joe Ponder.  They drove up to the Lexington, Ky area to visit Daylily World (David Kirchhoff and Mort Morss) and Thoroughbred Daylilies (Annette and John Rice) as well as Quarles Daylilies (Janet Quarles); and stopped by my garden on the way back to Alabama. They may have had more stops that I am not aware of, but what an energetic, enthusiastic, and courteous group!!!!  If your club has not thought about a weekend bus tour, maybe it's time.  It's a wonderful opportunity for members to bond and enrich their club experience.