Minutes of the Meeting of the A.R.S., January 29, 1948
George D. Grace, Secretary
The first regular meeting of the American Rhododendron Society was held at the Irvington School auditorium on the evening of January 29, 1948. The meeting was called to order by President Henny at 8:00 p.m. On account of adverse weather and an unusually heavy fog the attendance was much smaller than usual.
Mr. Iufer made a motion that the reading of the minutes of the previous meeting be dispensed with. This was seconded by Mr. Bacher and was unanimously approved,
Dr. Corbin, chairman of the nominating committee, stated that the Seattle members of his committee had not yet sent in their report. President Henny then called for nominations from the floor for directors to be elected. There were none and it was left to the nominating committee to complete their report.
The next order of business was a report by Mr. John Bacher, chairman of the show committee He gave a very complete report on what the show committee had been doing up to the present time. He stated that plans were going forward for the largest show we have so far undertaken. Also that the committee had decided that there would be a preview of the show the night before the regular opening and an effort would be made to invite garden groups, society groups, and others to attend this preview.
Mr. Halvorsen then asked why a formal preview of' the show would be in order. Mr. Bacher then explained that this was the custom of a number of other important shows including the Oakland show, also the important shows of Great Britain where certain people, by paying an extra fee, could see the show under more favorable conditions and in formal dress. This has been found to be an excellent way of raising extra funds for the show, and these funds could be used to good advantage.
Mr. Pelley then made a motion, which was seconded by Mr. Burnaugh, that all members of the Society back the show committee in their efforts to the best of their abilities. This was unanimously passed.
There being no further business at that time, the program of the meeting then continued with Dr. Gatke, editor of the Society Yearbooks and Professor at Willamette University, who spoke of, the natural setting of rhododendrons around the home. Dr. Gatke's talk was a classic and your secretary is sorry that he did not have somebody take it in shorthand for future reference. Dr. Gatke especially impressed on us the value of old standard varieties, still a marvelous contribution to gardens of the Northwest. In spite of all our wonderful new creations the old hardy hybrids still have a very definite place in the gardens. It is to be hoped that Dr. Gatke will repeat his lecture at an early future meeting.
The next part of the program was directed by Mr. P. H. Brydon, a specialist on rhododendron species. Mr. Brydon told how to use the Species Book and explained a number of the terms in the Book. These talks on the Species Book are to be continued in future meetings. He also mentioned that over 800 species were in the genus
Rhododendron
. He gave great credit to Messrs. Wright. Balfour, Tagg, Smith and Hutchinson, most of whom Mr. Brydon was personally acquainted with in his studies at Edinburgh and other parts of the British Isles.
The last feature of the meeting was by Mr. James Loder of Salem, who showed several reels of very fine motion pictures in Kodachrome of rhododendrons taken in his garden. He demonstrated to us that he is a specialist in color photography and the pictures were a delight to all. He showed the development of the buds clear through to blooming season of many of our modern hybrids, with a touch of scenes of rhododendrons in their winter foliage.