The following was taken from the 2008 Region 23 Fall newsletter.  You can click on the link below to view the entire newsletter. 

There were many arilbreds and arils on display and also some medians.  The first day day began at the Garden Center with a review of the show and Judges’ Training on Arils and Arilbreds by Lowell Baumunk of Colorado. Afterwards we boarded the bus for a tour of the garden of Pete and Veronica McGrath where Lowell taught in-the-garden aril judges training. The McGrath garden is located in the northeast heights of Albuquerque, and nestled nearly at the base of Sandia Peak. Pete grows quite a number of pure arils in a shade cloth covered area. These arils possess an exotic beauty that is irresistible.  Elsewhere in the garden were a large number of arilbreds and a few non-arils.  Pete had many of his own AB crosses in bloom, both seedlings and named varieties. After a delicious lunch catered by Patricia Randall, we returned to the Garden Center for a slide show and iris bingo.  The garden tours for April 29th were switched with the next day’s tours because of an overnight freeze south of  Albuquerque. The day began with Median Show judges training by Dorothy Willott of Ohio which was held at the Garden Center prior to beginning our garden tour. We went to the Valerie White median display garden in the Four Hills region of southeast ABQ. Valerie was the current president of the Albuquerque Aril and Iris Society in 2008.

The White garden was a delight. Region 23 RVP Jim Reilly was very proud of everyone’s efforts. Patricia Randall catered another delicious lunch here and afterward we returned to the Garden Center for more slides and more iris bingo.

On Wednesday, the last tour day, we visited the Andiris Gardens of Cindy Rivera on the Southeast edge of Los Lunas, NM. This had a hard frost on Monday, so a few irises were somewhat nipped. But there was plenty to see and we enjoyed Cindy’s historic collection a great deal.

The last garden of the tour was that of Scott and Reita Jordan on the west side of Albuquerque. We had stayed with the Jordans on an earlier visit so it was nice to visit once again. A small planting greeted us in front of the house but the serious arils, and arilbreds were in back with a few medians.  There were many Shockey and Jordan seedlings growing here. Scott’s J 93-14A is an OGB in red over apricot yellow with red veining growing at 22 inches. 

In conclusion, the Aril & Median Trek was well-organized, the gardens were all lovely and the people helpful and friendly. We had fun and learned a great deal. We imagine we may never see pure arils in such profusion as at the McGrath garden. What a thrill! And the arilbreds were just beautiful as well. It was also good to see medians growing and thriving in an arid climate. Our heartfelt thanks go out to Cindy Rivera and crew for a wonderful time. And we have to mention the great hamburgers and shakes we enjoyed at The Owl diner by our hotel as well as the hospitality of Karen Bergamo for taking us to eat Mexican food one evening. Mucho Gracias