QBARS - v22n4 Portland Chapter Show

Portland Chapter Show

The wooded setting of Crystal Springs Island Park encouraged many visitors to observe the annual Mothers' Day Portland Chapter A.R.S. show this year. At least this was true on Saturday, May 6th. Sunday the rains came and stayed all day. Surprisingly enough, a slightly below average attendance was recorded even though inclement conditions prevailed.

Musical groups from Reed College and a Recorder orchestra provided an unique highlight to both days' activities. A trio of Reed students played chamber music on Saturday afternoon on the open lawn. The next day the Recorders met under the protection of the cool house roof and played for an hour. Applause from the scanty but attentive gallery caused the conductor to proclaim "so much applause from the listeners tended to make my group nervous." The harmony of sound from this unusual group tended to be very catchy and light. A very different form of attraction that was well received.

After much concern by Chapter members whether there were going to be enough trusses to make a show, a good representation was displayed in most classes. The feature hybrid was hard to predict for entries so three were chosen to compete for the Chapter President's Trophy. Ironically enough, Mrs. George W. Clarke (Melba), wife of the incoming President won in this category with an excellent truss of R. 'Mrs. Furnival'.

A point of encouragement to new members of any A.R.S. chapter may be noted in this year's show at Portland. Members of this group who started collecting three to five years ago received rich dividends in May. Thomas McGuire was one of these. He spent an enjoyable summer touring gardens in Ireland, Scotland, and England in 1967. Returning in time to tend carefully to his garden of hybrids and species, he ably displayed a seedling cross, R. chlorops x R. yakushimanum that took the Portland Chapter Trophy for the best R. yakushimanum Hybrid. Tom was also awarded the Dr. S. Berthelsdorf Trophy for the best truss of a species. He had raised this plant from a seedling and it proved to be an excellent form of R. aberconwayi . Mr. McGuire's best effort was in a cross of 'Elizabeth' X 'Princess Elizabeth', a red that took the Dr. Goodman Trophy for the best New American Hybrid.

The Portland members of renown throughout Rhododendron circles for his interest and knowledge of species and species projects did better specializing in hybrids this year. Merle Cisney captured the C. I. Sersanous Trophy for the best truss of the Show which was 'Helene Schiffner'. He also acquired the Senator Mark O. Hatfield Trophy for the Best Red Hybrid with a truss of 'The Honorable Jean Marie de Montague'.

A member who travels faithfully quite a distance each year and always has a great quantity of quality material on exhibit is Ed Parker of Astoria. Ed received the Dr. Corbin Trophy by earning the most points with all his entries. The Mayor's Trophy was awarded for the best of Standard Hybrids and the Astorian won this with an entry of 'Beauty of Littleworth'. Each year John Henny encourages entries of 'Naomi' and this trophy was claimed also by Ed with his 'Naomi Exbury'. The fourth trophy won by Ed was the Portland Federal Savings contribution for the best Loderi and his entry of 'Loderi Venus' was outstanding.

A trophy for the best Novice entry was donated by Frank L. McGuire and taken home by this year's Show Chairman, Charles McNew with his entry of 'Cynthia'. Charlie certainly did not do a novice job in getting together this year's display. The weather hardly hampered his climax of effort for that weekend.

The Best Yellow Hybrid Trophy was won by Bill Skei of Beaverton. His entry of 'Mrs. Betty Robertson' won the J. B. Whalley Trophy. George Grace has contributed to all the shows Portland has had and this year he received the Dr. David W. Goheen Trophy for his species spray of a Triflorum.

In the Azalea classes: Mrs. R. J. Landregan won the Fred Meyer Raleigh Hills Trophy with a perfect spray of 'Hexe'. The Peter Binford Trophy was taken by Steven J. Thomas from McMinnville. His entry was an Exbury seedling in the Best Deciduous Azalea class. The first annual Dr. Frank Mossman Trophy was awarded to George W. Clarke for his spray of an R. occidentale .

The main judges for the show were Dr. August Kehr, Beltsville, Maryland, Mr. Bob Badger, Tacoma, and Mr. Ed. Dunn and Mrs. Baird from Seattle. The Portland Chapter attempted a single judge system this year and it proved interesting. Each judge had two assistants to help identify and record the winning entries.