JD

I know that San Diego will be back on Pacific's traditional date next year and Santa Barbara and Carlsbad will be competing too.

*** That's really very sad -- benefits no one. Santa Barbara has had the same date for decades, and there has never been any discussion of them vacating the date. Why would another Society choose to hold a show on that date?

Jeri Jennings

At that time, the Carlsbad/Armstrong show adopted the date, since their previous show date (1 week prior) was too early for the bloom cycles of a number of the regular exhibitors. I do not believe this was done in an attempt to take over another society's regularly scheduled date, but a date that appeared to have been vacated.

Anyway, then to everyone's surprise and of course delight, Santa Barbara RS decided to continue doing their rose show the following year. Since the Carlsbad/Armstrong show is held at a large venue, perhaps it is not as easy as it may seem to switch dates back again.

In any case, this is what happened to the best of my knowledge with regard to that particular show conflict.

I am hopeful, as are we all, that the conflict of dates will be resolved in the future so that all Southern California shows can have the optimal turnout of exhibitors, and of course, roses.

Suzanne Horn

*** Oh yes. That previous date, one week earlier? That was the date that Ventura Co. RS had for many years, until Carlsbad took it. At that point, the Ventura folks threw up their hands and quit. Another rose show lost.

Jeri Jennings

Since the Carlsbad show is no longer on the Ventura date, does this mean Ventura will be having a show?

I'm sorry, but I can't believe that because two shows are over 200 miles apart, they can have any real impact on each other.

Two years ago there were three shows on one weekend and all had good turnouts.

*** No, as far as I know, that Society was permanently discouraged from having rose shows.

FWIW, At the time that decision was made, there was no question of Ventura not having a rose show, and the show had been scheduled for a year. Ventura pleaded with Carlsbad not to step on their date. It's water over the dam now, but facts -- are facts.

Jeri Jennings

VCRS gave away its rose show materials as the cost of maintaining them with no foreseeable prospect of having a show was prohibitive. In 2001 VCRS staged both a rose show and a rose Celebration; in 2002 A rose Celebration only was presented. Should there be a sudden groundswell of support, the earliest any VCRS activity could occur would be 2006 (given budget constraints and the like). At the time of the 2001 show, half the exhibitors were from our own society (14); the other 14 were mostly from Los Angeles County. IIRC, Suzanne Horn won her first mini question at that show, but it was made abundantly clear that there would be diminished future particitipation by people not of our own rose society. While geography is one very important factor in the decision to opt for one rose society show over another, there are other factors in the minds of the more experienced exhibitors, including the quality of the competition, conditions of exhibiting, and the base and spread of the schedule at any particular show.

We have conducted surveys every year but this one since 2000 of our membership as to which activities they support and value; while I believe that the educational value of a rose show should not be undervalued, that belief is not shared by our membership. The dedicated six or eight who show up to groom the Stagecoach Inn Rose Garden do not do so wtih the active support of the membership at large. And so with other educational activities that are tolerated by the membership at large, but do not elicit commitments of time and money for various projects.

There is also the problem of the normal and regular turnover of membership rolls; when a group of people familiar with a rose show leave a society for one reason or another, there is no guarantee that there will remain an institutional memory capable of staging a rose show. Oddly enough, we cast about for an alternative date to have our rose show in the year following 2001; at that time all of the spring and fall dates were taken. It is only in the last couple of years that the open spring dates have suddenly become manifest.

FWIW>

Jim Delahanty,
President, VCRS