Gateway to Spring

The 2005 ADS Convention

Saint Louis, Missouri

07-09 April 2005

Jason Delaney, Convention Chairman

The Greater Saint Louis Daffodil Society cordially invites you to attend and celebrate “Gateway to Spring”, the American Daffodil Society’s 51^st annual convention, in Saint Louis, Missouri 07-09 April 2005.

The convention will be held at the Sheraton Westport Chalet, a convenient and easily accessible location off Interstate 270 at Page for those driving, and a 10-minute shuttle from the St. Louis-Lambert International Airport. The hotel offers free 24-hour parking, and convenient, free 24-hour shuttle service to and from the airport, which will also gives you access to the Metrolink, our light-rail system that connects visitors to many of Saint Louis’ fine attractions.

We anticipate a very large show, since Saint Louis is central to the country and the convention falls mid-season for many regions. Included in our national show will be a Design Division featuring seven design classes for adults and two for youths, and of course, the popular Photography Division.

Show setup and entries for Horticulture, Design, and Photography will begin at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday the 6^th, and continue through 9:30 a.m. on the 7^th. The Boutique setup will also begin at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Your assistance with the setups will be greatly appreciated!

Thursday

Thursday is a day for relaxation and catching up with friends. Wake up early and join the die-hard entrants for a continental breakfast as the remaining show entries are staged, or sleep in. Lunch will be on your own this day, and options shouldn’t be a problem: the hotel is situated in Westport Plaza, a complex of dozens of restaurants and shopping venues, providing ample selection. The Boutique will open at 11:00 a.m., and the Show at 2:30 p.m. The Judges Refresher will be held from 3:00-4:00. Board meetings will end the afternoon. A social hour at 6:30 will precede dinner; the Awards Ceremony and Annual Meeting will follow.

Friday

Join your friends for a sit-down breakfast from 7:00-8:15 a.m., preceding optional Sessions 1 and 2. Following, and with a break in between, will be optional Sessions 3 and 4. The Boutique will open at 11:00. Lunch for the entire group will be served at noon. Nationally renowned perennial plant celebrity Stephanie Cohen, who will share “Perennials, the Perfect Companions to Bulbs”, will provide the after-lunch entertainment. Optional Sessions 4 and 5 will begin at 2:30 p.m., running concurrent to the Youth Activities event, with an exciting pizza party following. Sorry, youth only, please! The ADS Board meeting will conclude the afternoon. A social hour and the Annual Bulb Auction will begin at 5:00 p.m. Dinner will be served at 7:30. After dinner entertainment will be provided by Peter and Lesley Ramsay of New Zealand, with their program “Adventures with Daffodils: From Groveling in the Dirt to Dining with Royalty". The show teardown will follow, so please plan to assist.

Saturday

Prepare yourself for sensory overload this day as we embark on our tours. Buses will board at 7:30 a.m. and will leave at 7:45 sharp! Our first two stops will be to the beautiful private gardens of members Jim and Jean Morris, and members Bruce and Chick Buehrig in Saint Louis County. From there we’ll head to the city, to one of the most highly acclaimed botanical gardens in the world, the Missouri Botanical Garden. Here, all convention-goers may opt for tours led by the Garden’s staff through the Bulb Gardens and the Production Greenhouses, and the first 50 registrants only may choose the very special optional tours of the Garden’s Herbarium and Rare Book Room. Other optional tours (trams, and the Tower Grove House) of the Garden can be taken on your own. Lunch for everybody will be served at the Garden in the Spink Pavilion, overlooking the world-famous Climatron®. Buses will board for the hotel at 4:30 p.m., and depart at 4:45, going by way of the downtown waterfront and Saint Louis’ world-famous landmark, the Gateway Arch. A reception will begin at 6:30, as well as Visual Identification setup for Judges School III students only. Dinner will follow at 7:30. Elise Havens will provide the final entertainment with her program, “Behind the Scenes at Mitsch Daffodils”.

Sunday

We will be offering an optional tour this day for those staying the weekend. The bus(es) will board at 8:30 a.m. and head to the Shaw Nature Reserve of the Missouri Botanical Garden in Gray Summit, Missouri about 45 minutes west of Saint Louis city. The reserve is situated on 2,400 acres of prairie, river, forest and glade, and features some of the most diversified wildflower colonies in the state. Also popular to the former “Shaw Arboretum” is the daffodil collection. Initially established as a trial by the Garden in the early 1920’s, it features hundreds of cultivars that have been left to naturalize over the decades. Millions of daffodils—all historics—greet the visitor and beg to be observed more closely. Over 20 acres will be in full bloom for your visit. Boxed lunches will be served.

The bus will re-board in the early afternoon and head back to the city, this time to Forest Park, the site of “the grandest fair of all time, ” the 1904 World’s Fair. Though little remains of the fair’s original splendor, the City of Saint Louis has just finished rehabbing the park—the largest city park in the United States—and we wouldn’t want you to miss it. We will drive past the park’s well known attractions: the Saint Louis Zoo, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Missouri History Museum, the Saint Louis Science Center, the Muny Opera House, and for a tiptoe through the elaborate tulip gardens we will make a stop at the legendary Jewel Box Conservatory. From there we will drive back to the hotel, and bid farewell until 2006.

Judges School III will also be held this day, beginning at 9:30 a.m.

Optional Sessions Descriptions:

Session 1: Hybridizers Join internationally renowned hybridists Elise Havens, Peter Ramsay, John Reed, and Steve Vinisky as they share their insights and tips on hybridizing, from setting goals and choosing parents through final selection and introduction.

Session 2: Species Professor Harold Koopowitz of the University of California, Irvine will give an in-depth program entitled “The Place of Species in the Modern Daffodil Collection”, encompassing both the conservation and breeding of species Narcissus.

Session 3: Small Growers Horticulturist and daffodil grower David Burdick of Pittsfield, Massachusetts will present a program entitled "The Obsession Daffodil". Accompanied with slides, David will describe his quest for knowledge about the little yellow flower, and the lessons learned along the way about bulb culture and their use in garden design.

Session 4: Historics Panelists and historic daffodil specialists Joe Hamm, Keith Kridler, and Sandra Stewart will share insights into keys for proper identification, methods and the importance of preservation, and reasons to promote historic daffodils.

Session 5: Gardener Health Massage Therapist Diane Engelsdorfer will present her program “Oh, My Aching Back!” and discuss common causes for back and joint injury in the garden, explain the effects of various treatments for injuries, and make recommendations for postural and procedural changes that will help existing injuries while gardening.

Session 6: Floral Design Gather to listen and learn from one of St. Louis’s most respected florists, who will discuss and demonstrate fresh and innovative ideas for contemporary floral design. If you love arranging and creating designs, this program shouldn’t be missed!

More in-depth information, including convention registration and hotel costs, speaker biographies, website links to the Missouri Botanical Garden and various other cultural attractions in Saint Louis can be found on our website, http://adsconv2005.stldaffodilclub.org/. We will be publishing all convention and hotel costs in the December issue of the Journal, and all information will be posted on daffnet on a periodic basis.

So won’t you meet us in Saint Louie, Louie, and celebrate “Gateway to Spring” 2005?