Your are cordially invited to attend the 5th
Annual ARS National All-Miniature Rose Show and Conference, Doing the
Charleston, being held on June 13, 14, and 15, 2003 in Charleston, South
Carolina.
Hosted by the Charleston Lowcountry Rose Society,
this event will be held at the Holiday Inn, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, just
across the Cooper River Bridge from Historic Downtown Charleston.
The Holiday Inn, Mt. Pleasant is easy to get to by
automobile. If you are coming into
Charleston on I-26 take exit 221-B and go north on Highway 17. As you cross the Cooper River Bridge you
will see the Holiday Inn directly in front of you. Bear to the left on highway 17 (follow the signs to Georgetown,
SC) and make a left at the first traffic light into the Holiday Inn parking
lot. If you are coming from the south on Highway 17 the above instructions will
apply but first you will cross the Ashley River Bridge into Charleston and
follow the signs to Georgetown, SC. If
you are coming into the area from the north on highway 17 (Johnnie Dodds Blvd.)
you will make a right into the Holiday Inn parking lot at the last traffic
light before the Cooper River Bridge (Alexandria Road).
The registration desk will be in the front lobby and
the hospitality room, which is on the first floor down the hall between the
elevators and the front desk will be open at 3:00 PM Friday afternoon. In the registration area, you will have an
opportunity to take a chance on the many items that have been donated for the
rose bucket raffle. The cold room that
is next to the hospitality room will also be open at 3:00 PM. The hospitality room will remain open
continually until the buses leave on the tour Sunday morning. Friday evening
you will be on your own for the evening meal.
A list of good restaurants in the Charleston and Mt. Pleasant areas is
included elsewhere on the web site for your information.
At 8:00 PM there will be a welcome reception at
Jerichos in the Holiday Inn. When you
go out for dinner make sure you save some room for the desert bar at the
reception.
At 4:00AM on Saturday morning the prep room (Mt.
Pleasant Room) will be open. Depending on the number of exhibitors this area
may be augmented by Jerichos, the Lobby and the hospitality room. The
Hospitality Room will also be open for coffee shortly after 4:00 AM. Entries
will be accepted until 9:00 AM in the Grande Room and the Patriot Room. These rooms are located right off the Lobby
between the Mt. Pleasant Room and Jerichos.
The Holiday Inn, Mt Pleasant is compact and you will not get lost like
you have at some Nationals.
A buffet breakfast is available at the hotel both
Saturday and Sunday morning. The Judges
will have their Judge’s Breakfast Saturday morning at 8:00 AM in the inside
patio. Judges and clerks will receive
their instruction in the same area at 9:00 AM.
There will be three educational programs in the Mt.
Pleasant Room starting at 11:00 AM. Those
of us that prep in this room will have to remove our gear as soon as entries
are closed so that the hotel can turn this room around. The programs and speakers are listed in the
Schedule of Events. A fourth program on arrangements will be held in the
afternoon In the Plantation Room that is located on the 5th floor.
The hotel dinning room normally does not serve the
noon meal on weekends. We have arranged
for them to open a luncheon buffet on Saturday, but you will have to sign up
for this meal with your registration.
There may be a few meal tickets available Friday afternoon at the
registration desk but do not count on it. There are restaurants in the
immediate area (1 to 2 Miles) but none within easy and safe walking distance.
The showroom doors will open at 12:30 PM for the
registrants and the public. At 5:00 PM
head table winners will be recognized and keeper trophies awarded except for
the National Challenge Class trophy winners and special challenge class winners
that will be presented after the evening feast.
The cash bar social hour will commence at 6:00 PM on
the pool patio followed by a Low country Boil served in the same area at 7:00
PM. You guessed it – dress is casual.
No jackets, no ties – shirts and shoes are required and you might want to
consider Bermuda shorts to finish off the outfit.
Following the meal, National Challenge and special
challenge class trophy winners will be recognized. At this time the AOE winner(s) will be presented and the
presentation of the Hall of Fame Winner(s) will be made. At this time the winners of the rose bucket
raffle will be selected.
At the conclusion of this part of the weekend you
have three options: 1) retire, 2) move to the hospitality room that will be
hosted by Tommy and Luis for some serious rose talk, or 3) go out on the
town. The conference staff recommends
number 2.
Sunday morning the tour will start loading at 8:15
AM and depart at 8:30 AM. Our first
stop (about 4 miles) will cover gardens on two adjacent properties. Julian Hayes has a garden that is over 50
years old. Roses play a big part in his garden, but by no means are they the
only highlight. The mature lawn is beautiful as are the shrubs, perennials and
trees that surround the yard. One
section of the yard is devoted to camellias, many of which Julian grafted 50
years ago.
From Julian’s yard we will pass through the rear
gate into the yard of Mike Denson and Doug McGill. Unlike Julian’s garden this is a relatively new garden. Mike has run out of room in his rose garden
on James Island and so the roses have been expanded to the Mt. Pleasant
garden. In their yard you will not only
see a variety of roses (most of the HT’s and Minis are on fortuniana), but will
also see annuals, perennials, a beautiful vegetable garden and if you look
closely some “younger” camellias. One of Doug’s passions is Holly Hocks. You may see every Holly Hock that grows in
South Carolina.
We will leave the gardens and go to historic
downtown Charleston (about 6 miles) where tour guides will board the buses for
a guided tour of the historic district of Charleston. This will include two stops, one at the Battery and the second at
the home of Martha and Fletcher Derrick on Orange Street to view their private rose
garden. Martha and Fletcher co-chaired
the tour committee and have put this Sunday program together.
When we leave downtown we will go back across the
Cooper River to Boone Hall Plantation (about 8 miles) where we will tour the
gardens, the plantation home, and the slave quarters. We will than go down to the Cotton Docks located just down the
road from the slave quarters for a barbeque lunch. We will leave Boone Hall in time to be back to the hotel (about 5
miles) by 2:30 PM. As you can see the
tour has been laid out so that it is heavy on touring and light on riding the
bus.
The conference officially ends at the conclusion of
the tour but is hoped that you will consider staying over a few days to visit
more of Charleston and the Low Country.
You will be about 60 miles from Beaufort, SC, 95 miles from Hilton Head
Island, SC and 120 miles from Savannah, GA.
Take a look at the Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau that
has a link on this site to become more familiar with the area.
The Lundberg garden located in Bluffton, SC is 90 miles
toward Hilton Head and will be open Monday (actually it will be open all
week). There will be other public and
private gardens in the area that will be made available for tours. This information will be posted later.
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