Region 13 of the AHS
Regional Meeting 1999
Bloomin’ on the River in Baton Rouge

Grab your name tag and hit the plant sale table. That’s the first thing on your mind when you get to Regional Meeting. Heck, ANY daylily meeting. With name tag and goodie bag in hand, folks headed into the boutique ably run by Paul and Diane Tyler and Ginger Goudeau with help from many volunteers from BRDS.

The Judge’s Luncheon started the festivities on Thursday at noon. Clinics filled Thursday afternoon and an extra clinic on Saturday after tour. Dorothea Boldt and Crew did a super job. Thursday night was the always popular slide show of the Crochet & Crochet Team, Clarence and Beth. Of course the hotel pads and pens were flying, adding to each wish list in the place.

Tours each day started early with boarding the two big Red & Black coaches. Bus captains were Joe Goudeau on one and Alcee Favaron with Sue Melancon on the other. Food and beverages were abundant at each garden as is tradition on Baton Rouge tour days.  The Emma Middlebrooks Award voting was done first thing on Thursday.

Lunch each day was at a local restaurant in the cool air conditioning. Ralph & Kacoo’s fried shrimp were a hit on Friday and an all-you-care-to-eat buffet Saturday left us all ready for naps!

Due to incredible and unbelievable bad luck, two separate camera failures are the reason we have no photos of the Banquet and auction. My deepest apologies to all. A hard lesson has been learned!

The auction Friday night was fun. And thanks to auctioneer Clarence Crochet, over 50 great plants to benefit the Region, and art, plus crafts-extraordinaire brought lively bidding that kept helpers Joe & Ginger hopping.

The banquet Saturday night was exciting with the announcement of the winners of the Emma Middlebrooks Memorial Award and the Best Clump Award. Congratulations to Melvin McConnell of Shreveport and to Ruth Hanson of Gonzales on a tie for first place. Second place was a 4-way tie with Brad Ortego of Opelousas, Melissa & Ken Begnaud of Lafayette, and as Neal Melancon told us officially, "an entry from NeSu Gardens" of Lafayette. Voted as "The Best Clump Award" by popular vote was the double MARY’S HOMECOMING by Rudy Pacas of Greenwell Springs, Louisiana. Congratulations to all!

Jerry Martin announced that Region 2000 will be hosted by the Hot Springs Daylily Society and he urges all to mark their calender for June and to send Emma Middlebrooks bed entries to him early.

According to Ed Herringshaw, President of BRDS, "We had a ball. Ya’ll come back!"