2008 AHS National Convention: Houston Part One

I boarded my plane (finally...after a two hour delay) and, at last, I was on my way. Houston, here I come! This would be my first trip to an American Hemerocallis Society National Convention. Sure, I've read about them and looked at other folks' pictures with envy, but now....it was my turn. Thanks to my DH who sent me on this trip as a belated birthday gift (what a gift!).

The Convention is held in a new venue every year, giving members a chance to see daylily gardens all over the nation. These garden owners have worked extremely hard...for years...in preparation for all of us. The Houston area daylily clubs and societies called this one Daylilies Boot Scootin' to Texas.

I landed in Houston, collected my bag, and went outside to wait for the hotel shuttle. As I waited, I met another daylily person (easy to spot with her bag with daylilies on it!). Arriving at the hotel (a very nice Wyndham), I checked in and then went upstairs to claim my registration. Upstairs, to my utter delight, were two friends from Maryland! They helped me sign up on their bus (which was so nice!) and I collected my goodie bag (yippee!), my name tag and all the stuff I'd need. Of course, I had to peek inside the goodie bag...and there was a daylily (yes!)....LONE STAR WAGON WHEEL (2004 Payne, LH Dip)! Things were off to a great start!

My wonderful Maryland friends and I agreed to meet back there (near the registration site) to seek out some dinner. I went upstairs to my room (what a room! two tvs! such a nice room...sigh...too bad I would spend hardly any time in it!), dropped off my stuff, tossed my name tag around my neck and headed back downstairs.

Unfortunately, the hotel restaurant was jammed with all of us daylily folks, so we opted to go ahead and sit in on the auction (you knew there would be one!) and wait for the line to eat to go down. Very nice plants were auctioned off including a number of Jack Carpenter ones (remember this name!) that were triple and quadruple (is that a word??) fans of immense size. You will be amazed to find out that I didn't buy a single one. I don't even remember if I bid on one. One of my friends from Maryland did, however...and what a daylily he got! I think I was just ready to eat (ha) and not really wanting to carry one home, truth be told. However, the one he got was ready to travel and would fit into his carry on bag (very large size and all).

Dinner was very fine and afterwards, we headed up to our rooms because, get this, we were to be on our buses at 6:30 am (yes, indeed) for a 7:00 am departure. These Texas organizers (who did such a wonderful job) had arranged for a buffet breakfast for us all that would be served between 5:30 am and 6:30 am.

Surprisingly, it was not as hard to get up as I would have thought (the time difference probably helped me) and I was eager and ready to go on Sat. morning! We ate (yum, scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy) and headed to our buses.

Our bus was part of the group touring the northern gardens (five gardens in one day) and we headed to our first destination, the garden of Robert and Maureen Valenza. Let's go now:

One of the first things I saw was this charming vignette (excuse the slightly tilted perspective of the photographer...ahem....you remember, new camera and all that...that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it):


I know you, like me, want to see that adorable mini garden a bit closer:


Wow! Look at this....


We have to see those blue pots up close:



Beautiful scenes were all around us:




Including daylilies like this one: SUNDAY SANDALS




GRAPEFRUIT TRUFFLE:




TINTORETTA:




OPTIC ART:




CHEROKEE MARY:




ORANGE ELECTRIC:




ROSWITHA:


Gloriosa Lily (We'll see this again):


Labled Seedling Peadust (now you know as much as I do...pretty, though):




Alstromeria:


Beautiful Delphinium:



AFFAIR D'AMOUR:


Beautiful containers:


RUFFLED TRUFFLE:







It's time to go?? It can't be...already...no time to sit:


....and we're off....to garden number two. Thank you to the Valenzas for sharing their special garden!