"The world is your oyster. It's up to you find the pearls."
You may recognize that well-known quote from Chris Gardner's "The Pursuit of Happyness". Let me assure you that those attending the 2023 ADS Region One Summer Meeting last weekend in Muscatine certainly discovered and enjoyed countless pearls. Organized by co-chairs Nancy Carlisle and Keith Riewerts and assisted by registrar Ellen Jones, it was an excellent event enjoyed by daylily lovers from 12 states. On Saturday, attendees toured four beautiful Tour gardens and were offered the chance to visit twelve Open Gardens before or after the meeting. Our featured speakers Kathleen Nordstrom and Mike Grossmann (Northern Lights Daylilies) gave splendid presentations on their latest creations and also kindly donated two of their 2023 introductions as registration plants, namely Pearl City Penguin and Pearl City Python. We were honored that ADS President Scott Elliott and Vice President Rhonda Veroeven attended the meeting and hosted an open forum on Saturday evening. Many pearls were up for grabs during the Silent and Live Auctions with club president Darrin Lett displaying his talent as auctioneer during the latter. Nancy Rash, Lyle Moen, Keith Riewerts, Sherry Moffit and I captured lots of happy memories as can be seen from our photos below. Our thanks should go not only to those mentioned by name above but also to the many CVIDS volunteers who opened up their gardens to visitors or contributed time and energy into making this annual meeting a resounding success. We are also very grateful to Jason Halonen for getting the word out about our meeting via AHS Region One Facebook. Thank you so much!