If you can find an old Conch shell from some long ago vacation, hold it to your ear and listen to the song of the sea. Close your eyes, and imagine the coconut palms swaying. Feel the sand in your toes hear the island sounds of Jimmy Buffett. If that sounds good to you, plan to attend the 2013 Fall District Convention and Rose Show, October 25^th, 26^th and 27^th, hosted by the Greater Palm Beach Rose Society.

    Experience our beautiful beaches, tour the gardens of the rich and famous and take home an original oil-on-canvas painting by renowned artist Hope Reis. Of course, you will have to win Queen of Show first. Visit Hope’s website at WWW.Hopereis.com to see some of her outstanding works of art.

    We’ll start Friday off with the Deep South District’s traditional rose arrangement workshop led by the “Fantastic Three,” Sandy Dixon, Lee Hale and Jim Harrell. You may remember them hosting the first ARS Multi-Regional All-Arrangement Rose Show and School in Franklin Tennessee last summer. You will be learning from the best. For those that don’t do arrangements, we are offering a tour of the Henry Flagler Museum, his 1901 mansion, in Palm Beach. After the tour you will arrive back at the hotel in plenty of time to dress up for the “Come as a Rose” contest, lakeside and poolside under the palms, with live music and complementary champagne for the first hour. 

For dinner, we have Tropical Island Display Stations laden with (to name a few), jerk marinated chicken breast, smoked mahi mahi and marinated grilled sirloin of beef with assorted dipping sauces and cheeses. There will also be pasta stations with sauces, chicken and sausages, and a carving station featuring herb marinated beef tenderloin. Sounds great doesn’t it? Don’t worry, the stations will be spread out around the pool deck because we don’t like long lines here in Margaritaville. After dinner we’ll have fun judging the “Come as a Rose” costumes, and awarding prizes. That’s just Friday.

   Saturdays’ rose show will be sure to draw the Deep South’s best exhibitors as they vie for Queen of Show and a beautiful painting that the artist, Hope Reis, will sign for the winner. We are thinking outside the crystal vase for this rose show and will have lots of great rose show prizes that you can really use. So bring your roses, it only takes one to win.

     We have lined up some awesome programs for this convention:

·     Ludwig Taschner is coming from Pretoria, South Africa. He started Ludwig’s roses in 1971 and has become world renown and the premier rose nursery in South Africa, with the largest selection of rose varieties available.

 ·        Helen Caine, US manager for David Austin Roses, is coming from Tyler Texas. Ms. Caine is representing the only modern rose breeder to develop his own classification of rose, “The English Rose.”

 ·        Michael Whitehead of Helena Chemical Company. Mike will inform us of the latest products for plant nutrition and pest management.

·        Hope Reis. We will get to watch Hope as she creates a painting before our very eyes. On the wide screen, no less.

       Saturday night we will have the passing of hors d'oeuvres during cocktail hour and a plated sit down dinner with a choice of baked chicken breast stuffed with sundried tomatoes, spinach and goat cheese, topped with a thyme-infused demi-glace, rice pilaf and mixed vegetables; or Tournedos’ of beef with shitake mushroom demi-glace, red roasted potatoes, baby asparagus and carrots; or Vegetarian paella, with broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, sweet peas, mushrooms, served with baked eggplant parmigiana and fresh asparagus.

      Sunday, we invite you to a tour of the beautiful gardens of Palm Beach, Manalapan and Ocean Ridge, of course brunch is included.

    The hotel is the Hilton Palm Beach Airport and the group code for reservations is “Rose.” The rate is good for the week before and the week after, and comes with a full breakfast for two each morning, complementary shuttle to and from the airport, and lots more. Look for the registration form with this letter and reserve your room now. I promise you won’t go home hungry. You might not go home with Hope’s beautiful painting, I plan to win that! THE GAUNTLET IS THROWN, and you are invited to the Tropical Paradise that is Palm Beach County, Florida. We hope to see you then!

Contact: Linda Boland (706) 394-9075 bolandL42@me.com

Contact: Dan Lupton, CruiseOne & Assoc.

 (800) 344-9283 or ars.org

Send articles, listings or questions to WHL2@prodigy.net. The submission deadline is Aug. 31.

Do your gardening early or late in the day. Have a great summer and keep those rose bushes watered!

Bill