2018 National Convention

We are pleased to invite you to visit the Greater Nashville TN area in 2018 to attend the National Daffodil Convention of the American Daffodil Society from April 5 – 8. The Middle Tennessee Daffodil Society will celebrate their 60th anniversary by hosting the ADS National Convention! View a beautiful daffodil show including horticultural exhibits, photography and floral designs. Participate in educational sessions and enjoy spectacular outings to local attractions, historic houses and gardens. Visit a Presidential Home and its Historic Garden, Cheekwood Estate and Gardens, Carnton Plantation, and maybe do a little Honky Tonkin’!

Hotel Reservations | Transportation Options | Convention Registration Form | Daffodil Show Schedule | Daffodil Boutique | Area Attractions | Convention Sponsors

Schedule of Events for Convention | Post Convention Tour

Hotel Reservations

Our Convention hotel is the newly renovated Franklin Marriott Cool Springs located in Franklin, TN. The rolling hills of Tennessee provide the backdrop to this truly unique hotel conveniently located just off I-65. The Marriott provides convenient, complimentary on-site parking while enjoying close proximity to Nashville just 20 minutes to the north. The hotel’s Convention Center has a separate lobby entrance to the left of the main entrance which will be convenient for bringing in your daffodils, photographs or floral arrangements. Across I-65 from the hotel you will find the Cool Springs Galleria shopping mall and many other fine retail establishments and restaurants nearby.

Marriott Cool Springs, Tennessee

Franklin Marriott Cool Springs
700 Cool Springs Blvd.
Franklin TN 37067 United States
Phone: (615) 261-6100
www.marriott.com/BNACS
Hotel Code: DAFDAFA

Room Rate is $129.00 plus tax per night
Rates guaranteed until last date March 5 or until block is sold out
Complimentary on-site parking
Complimentary wireless internet

Transportation Options

Nashville has six interstate legs converging within the city’s boundaries: I-65 North and South, I-40 East and West, and I-24 East and West, so is easily accessed by vehicle from many U.S. locations. The Nashville International Airport (BNA) serves 440 flights daily in more than 50 nonstop markets.

Options for transportation from the airport to the hotel (about 20 miles) are Uber, Lyft or taxi. You may wish to coordinate with friends to share a ride to the hotel and back to the airport. International travelers please contact Becky or Susan (Convention Co-chairs) and we will do our best to assist you with transportation from the airport to the hotel and back.

2018 Convention Registration Form!

March 15, 2018 is the cut-off date for all registrations! There will be no on-site registrations. If you are trying to add a registration or add on an item to a registration, please contact Becky Fox Matthews at or Susan Basham at .

National Daffodil Show Schedules for 2018

2018 ADS National Daffodil Show Schedule

2018 Design Division for National Daffodil Show

2018 Photography Division for National Daffodil Show

2018 National Daffodil Show Visitor’s Guide

2018 Convention Schedule of Events

Thursday, April 5

8:00am – 5:30pm –ADS Judging School III (Appaloosa)
2:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Registration Open (Mustang)
2:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Boutique Set-up and Sales (Mustang)
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Executive and Finance Committees Meeting (Thoroughbred Boardroom)
2:00 pm – 11:59 pm – Daffodil show staging (Salon 1-3)
2:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Photography entries accepted (Conference Center Lobby)
2:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Design entries accepted (Salon 5)
3:30 pm – 4:15 pm – Free to the public – “Daffodils 101, Part 1” with Brent Heath (Arabian)
3:30 pm – 4:15 pm – Free to the public – “Daffodils 101, Part 2” with Michael Berrigan (Clydesdale)
4:30 pm – 5:15 pm – Free to the public – “Daffodils 101, Part 1” with Brent Heath (Arabian)
4:30 pm – 5:15 pm – Free to the public – “Daffodils 101, Part 2” with Michael Berrigan (Clydesdale)
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – New Attendees “Meet and Greet” Reception (Hospitality Suite #420)

Friday, April 6

12:00 am – 9:00 am – Daffodil show staging (Salons 1-3)
7:00 am – 9:00 am – Design entries accepted (Salon 5)
8:00 am – 7:00 pm – Registration Open (Mustang)
8:00 am – 7:00 pm – Boutique Open (Mustang)
8:30 am – 9:30 am – Horticultural Judges & Clerks Breakfast with Instructions (Carothers)
9:00 am – Optional Bus Tour to The Parthenon and The Hermitage with lunch served at the Hermitage Cabin by the Spring (Buses load at Conference Center Entrance)

Optional tour to The Parthenon and The Hermitage…

Parthenon located in Centennial Park, Nashville, TN

(Photo courtesy of the Parthenon Museum, Nashville, TN)

The Parthenon is located in Centennial Park, Nashville’s premier urban park. The re-creation of the 42-foot Athena statue inside the Parthenon is the focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece and is a sight to see! The building and the Athena statue are both full-scale replicas of the Athenian originals. Nashville’s nickname, the “Athens of the South”, influenced the choice of the building of the first Nashville Parthenon for the centerpiece of the 1897 Centennial Exposition.

The Hermitage Mansion, Nashville, TN

The Hermitage is the presidential mansion of Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837. In 1804, Andrew Jackson purchased a 425-acre farm that would become The Hermitage. The original structure of the mansion was a brick, Federal-style house constructed between 1819 and 1821. In 1819, Andrew Jackson hired the English gardener William Frost to plan a garden designed as a typical, foursquare English garden with four quadrants and circular center beds planted with flowers, herbs, shrubs, vines, vegetables, berries and fruit trees. Rachel Jackson died in 1828 before Andrew’s inauguration in 1829. Andrew had her buried in the garden covered by a small grave house. In 1831 during Jackson’s presidency, the Hermitage was extensively remodeled and a tomb modeled after a Grecian monument replaced Rachel’s grave house. The current 13-room Greek Revival style mansion was built after a chimney fire seriously damaged the original mansion in 1834. After his death in 1845 Andrew Jackson was buried next to his wife. (Box lunches will be provided in the Cabin by the Spring which overlooks a wooded glen with the Jackson family’s original stone Spring House.)

At the Hotel and Convention Center…

9:30 am – Horticultural, Photography and Design Judging begins (Salon 5)
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm – All Judges & Clerks (Horticulture, Photography & Design) Lunch (Carothers)
2:00 pm – 10:00 pm – Show is Open to the Public (Salon 5)
3:30 pm – Bus returns to hotel
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Outgoing ADS Board Meeting (Quarter Horse/Palomino)
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Social reception/Cash bar (Outside Mustang)
7:00 pm – Awards dinner and Annual meeting (Salons 1-4)

Saturday, April 7

Breakfast on your own
7:00 am – 9:00 pm – Show is Open to the Public (Salon 5)
8:30 am – 9:15 am – Ted Snazelle from Clinton, MS will share his expertise with “Hybridizing Jonquil and Tazetta Daffodils”. (Salons 1-4)
Ted Snazelle has a degree in Botany and Plant Pathology and a Ph.D. in Botany and Plant Pathology (both degrees specializing in plant virology). He was a faculty member and Coordinator of Biology at The University of Tennessee at Nashville for eight years before moving to Clinton, MS where he spent 34 years as a faculty member and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences of Mississippi College. He retired from fulltime teaching/research in 2014. Ted served a term as President of the American Daffodil Society and is the author of Pests and Diseases of Daffodils, a compilation and re-printing of his articles by the Middle Tennessee Daffodil Society (available on the ADS Webstore).
9:00 am – 5:00 pm – Boutique open
9:30 am – 10:15 am – Julie Hardy from Esker Farm Daffodils will present “Irish Hybridizers and their Daffodils.” (Salons 1-4)
Julie Hardy and husband Dave could have accurately been described as novices only six years ago. But with a passion for gardening and a good business head, Julie is now the proud grower of up to 500 varieties of daffodils on her family’s farmland in Dromore. Dave attended a Northern Ireland Daffodil Group event, met Brian Duncan and this resulted in Dave and Julie being invited to see Brian’s daffodils. Since this initial meeting, Brian has played an instrumental role in helping both Julie and Dave to hone their skills as worldwide daffodil growers and breeders. Having incorporated Ringhaddy Daffodils as part of their own Esker Farm Daffodils business in the last year, Julie’s business has taken on a life of its own.
10:30 am – 11:15 am – Frans Veul, a bulb breeder and grower from Anna Paulowna will present “Hybridizing Tazettas in the Netherlands”. (Salons 1-4) Frans Veul is a bulb breeder and grower from Anna Paulowna in the Netherlands. Frans planted his first bulbs at the age of 13 in his parents’ garden. He started his first bulb company growing and selling tulips and daffodils when he was 18 years old. Around 2000, Frans was looking for new markets for bulbs. Because bulbs contain active substances and extracts with value for the chemical industry, a new company, Holland Biodiversity, was formed with Prof. Y. Choi and Prof. Dr. R. Verpoorte of Natural Products Laboratory. The company’s goal is to find new elements to develop and trade in the fields of pharmacy, nutrition, cosmetics and agro-chemistry and to sustain the horticultural crops in non-traditional markets.
11:30 pm – 12:15 pm – Seated Lunch (Salons 8-10)
12:15 pm – Bus tour to Carnton Plantation and scenic bus tour of Franklin (Buses load at Conference Center Entrance)

Optional tour to Carnton Plantation…

After lunch we will visit Carnton, a historic plantation house built in Franklin TN by Randal McGavock in 1826. In 1864 Carnton was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, The Battle of Franklin. The house was used as a field hospital for tending the wounded and dying after the Battle of Franklin. The McGavock’s donated 2 acres of land that became the McGavock Confederate Cemetery, a place for quiet reflection. The novel Widow of the South by Robert Hicks is based on the true story of Carrie McGavock and Carnton.
(Photo courtesy of Olivia Stelter)
The house is a Federal-style 11-room residence. Using archeological research, photographs and letters that indicated its extent and layout, the garden was recreated in 1996-97 to how it looked in 1869. The daffodil, hosta, and peony collections are composed entirely of varieties available in Middle Tennessee prior to 1869. Carnton was the first designated Display Garden of the American Daffodil Society.
Along with our visit to Carnton we will enjoy a scenic drive through Franklin and Williamson County as we head back to the hotel.

Late Afternoon and Evening events…

4:00 pm – Bus returns to hotel
5:00 pm – Bulb Auction (Quarter Horse/Palomino)
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Design entries removed from show room (Salon 5)
5:00 pm – 12 noon Sun. – Photography entries removed (Conference Center Lobby)
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Social reception (Cash bar) (Outside Mustang)
7:00 pm – Dinner with Keynote Speaker Frans Veul (Salons 1-4)
Ten years ago when Frans’ son entered the company, Frans started breeding daffodils. His family company, Veul Bulbs, practices the socially responsible and sustainable cultivation of bulbs and specializes in exceptional and new varieties. Frans will address “New Varieties from Holland Breeders and Growers.”
9:00 pm – Take down show after dinner (Salon 5) followed by celebratory toast for volunteers

Sunday, April 8

Breakfast on your own
9:00 am – 10:00 am – Judges Refresher: “Judging Historic Daffodils” by Keith Kridler (Quarter Horse/Palomino)
Join Keith Kridler (TX) for a Judges Refresher on historic daffodils. Keith is a historic daffodil enthusiast and a wonderful presenter. Even if you aren’t a daffodil judge or need “refreshing” you may want to hear Keith. Will he find a way to fit in his usual “cows with daffodils” photograph into the presentation on Historics?
10:15 am – Bus tour to Cheekwood Estate and Gardens (Buses load at Conference Center Entrance)
Spend the remainder of the morning at Cheekwood Estate and Gardens, the 55-acre estate built by the Maxwell House Coffee fortune in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of the finest examples of an American Country Place Era estate in the United States. The mansion construction began in 1929 and was finished in 1932. In 2016 the mansion, which had been partially modified for use as an art museum, was restored to its original 1932 condition as a home for the Cheek family.

The Botanical Garden is a spectacular showcase of color and horticultural diversity with eleven specialty display gardens and stunning natural landscape. Bryant Fleming, the architect of both the house and the surrounding landscape, developed a symbiotic relationship between the views of the house from the grounds and the view from the grounds of the house. The Cheekwood property shares nearly 75% of its perimeter with The Warner Parks and due to the conservation efforts of Warner Parks, Cheekwood is only one of a few examples of American Country Place Era estates that retain their purposeful views.

Cheekwood is a designated Display Garden of the American Daffodil Society featuring the Hardison Daffodil Collection and numerous large plantings of daffodils throughout the property. Due to the generosity of the Middle Tennessee Daffodil Society members and 2018 ADS Convention Co-Chair Susan Basham, Cheekwood’s daffodil installations plan to reach a spectacular 50,000 blooms for the 2018 ADS Convention in Nashville, representing the largest public display of daffodils in the state of Tennessee!

Cheekwood’s treasured dogwood collection has been granted membership in the North American Plant Collection Consortium (NAPCC), making it the first NAPCC Collection in Tennessee. It is also the first dogwood collection in North America to be recognized by NAPCC.
11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. – While we lunch at Cheekwood Jane MacLeod, Cheekwood’s President and CEO, will inform us about Cheekwood, an American Country Place Era Estate.
12:15 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. – Visitors may choose to tour the gardens, the mansion or the outdoor Sculpture Trail.
2:00 pm – Before we return back to the hotel we will visit the garden belonging to Susan and Ray Basham. Susan’s very private small city garden incorporates daffodils in a very special setting that includes contemporary art. You can expect a few fun surprises in this garden.
4:00 pm – Buses will return to the hotel
4:30 pm – 5:30 pm – Incoming Board Meeting (Quarter Horse/Palomino)
Sunday night is BLING NIGHT! Wear your daffodil medals, pins, clothing and other daffodilia you may have collected over the years. Prizes will be awarded for quality, quantity and originality.
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Social reception (Cash bar) (Outside Mustang)
7:00 pm – Dinner with Speaker Brent Heath from Brent & Becky’s Bulbs (Salons 1-4) After dinner Brent Heath will present “Daffodils in American Gardens.” Brent and his wife Becky have a twenty-eight acre farm in Gloucester, VA. Brent thinks of his family as a flower bulb supplier, garden writers, photographers, lecturers, consultants and educators. Brent co-authored the book “Daffodils for the American Gardens”. “We are excited about our ideas and dreams as we begin the move into our 4th generation! And we look forward to sharing our experience with you. We are truly fortunate to be involved in such a positive occupation that universally helps people to smile by creating beautiful gardens and, therefore, enjoying a happier life. May your gardens overflow with smiles.”
Invitation to the 2018 Fall Board Meeting
Invitation to the 2019 Convention

Daffodil Boutique

Would you like to be a Vendor in the Daffodil Boutique at the 2018 ADS National Convention? Just download and fill out this Vendor Registration Form and send appropriate fees with application to Sandra Frank no later than February 21, 2018.

Post Convention Tour

Monday, April 9 – Music City Monday (Optional) — 40 minimum required

9:30 am – 5:00 pm – Optional Music City Monday Discover Nashville Tour (Buses load at Conference Center Entrance)

We are offering an optional opportunity for a day-tour to see the tourists’ side of Music City, USA, on Monday. Gray Line Tours will provide Convention attendees with a private Discover Nashville Tour which includes pickup and drop-off from the hotel, a narrated driving tour, admission into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Ryman Auditorium (the original home of the Grand Ole Opry), lunch at Puckett’s at 5th and Church, and even time to do a little exploring of your own on Lower Broadway.

Below are some places you can visit on Lower Broadway, also known as Honky Tonk Highway:

There are so many Honky Tonks (think music, drinks, food and fun), but Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge is famous because between sets, musicians would cut out the stage door of the Ryman (the original home of The Grand Old Opry) and slip into the back door of Tootsie’s
More Honky Tonks: Rippy’s Smokin’ Bar & Grill, Legends Corner, Robert’s Western World, AJ’s Good Time Bar (Alan Jackson’s), Hard Rock Cafe, Whiskey Bent Saloon, Nudie’s (the longest bar in Nashville and suits made by Nudie Cohn, tailor to country superstars), and the list goes on!
Craving something sweet? Visit the Goo Goo Shop and Dessert Bar right across the street from
The Johnny Cash Museum and The Patsy Cline Museum
Ernest Tubb’s Record Shop (to take some of the Nashville Sound home with you)
For Western boots, hats and more: Trail West, Betty’s Boots, Boot Barn
For views of the city and the Cumberland River, climb the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge, one of the longest pedestrian bridges in the world (3,150 feet)
Hungry? Try Jack’s Bar-B-Que, Merchants Restaurant, Margaritaville Nashville, Trattoria Il Mulino, The Palm, and most of those Honky Tonks serve good food, too

If you should decide you want to spend more time in Music City, you can always skip the bus ride back to the hotel, stay in Music City for dinner and more fun and arrange for Lyft, Uber or a taxi to take you back to the hotel.

Honky Tonkin’ on lower Broadway, Nashville, TN

(Photo Courtesy of Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp)

Can’t Visit Nashville without seeing The Grand Ole Opry?

Tuesday, April 10

7:00 pm – Optional Grand Ole Opry (on your own)

The Grand Ole Opry at the Opry House on Music City Drive happens on Tuesday night. To stay over for this time-honored Music City tradition on-your-own, reserve your tickets as far in advance as possible at www.opry.com. With eight or more artists on each show, every Opry audience is treated to a sample of music from a dynamic line-up of new stars, superstars and legends of country music. Due to the nature of the Opry, a complete artist line-up is not posted until the week of each show and even then may change, but there are always fun musical surprise guests. Ticket prices range from $38 to $95.

We want to welcome y’all to Tennessee in April, 2018!

(Photo Courtesy of Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp)

Want to experience even more of Nashville and Middle Tennessee?

Gaylord Opryland Resort with its three incredible atrium rooms: The Conservatory houses more than 10,000 plants, the Cascades includes a 3.5-story waterfall and more than 8,000 tropical plants, and the Delta incorporates a quarter-mile-long indoor river and a water feature with jets choreographed to music. Park at the Opryland Mall next door and avoid the steep parking fee.
Frist Center for the Visual Arts: exhibits in April are Nick Cave: Feat and Rome: City and Empire
Lane Motor Museum: one of the few museums in the U.S. to specialize in European cars
Fisk University Galleries: permanent collection with over 4,000 objects that span three centuries
Nashville Hot Chicken at Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack or Bolton’s Spicy Chicken & Fish
Arnold’s Country Kitchen: get in line for some of the best southern meat n’ three (1 meat and 3 vegetables) you may ever eat
Jack Daniel’s Distillery, the oldest registered distillery in the United States, in Lynchburg TN
Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC): includes the Nashville Opera, Broadway shows and the Nashville Ballet
Schermerhorn Symphony Center: Home of The Nashville Symphony
Fall Creek Falls State Park: ninety miles southeast of Nashville ,one of Tennessee’s best natural treasures
The Natchez Trace Parkway: A scenic national parkway that extends 444 miles from Nashville to Natchez MS. No semis, no billboards. The drive to Jackson Falls at mile 404.7 is worth the time and near the northern end of the Trace you can stop at The Loveless Cafe for their famous biscuits and jam.

Become a Sponsor for the 2018 National Convention!

Become an ADS National Convention and Show Sponsor and help us provide education related to daffodils and support our upcoming convention in the Greater Nashville area on April 5-8, 2018. Plants are the backbone of all life on Earth and an essential resource for human well-being. The appreciation of beautiful flowers such as the daffodil can provide an all-important connection to nature. As a Convention Sponsor, you will help us highlight the daffodil in the Nashville area on a national stage.

How can you become Sponsor?

Use your Credit Card on the ADS WebStore and contact Becky Fox Matthew at or Susan Basham at .

THANK YOU National Convention Sponsors!

The 2018 National Daffodil Convention is supported by donations, sponsorships and convention fees obtained from our membership and other supportive organizations and individuals. The American Daffodil Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and all contributions to the ADS are tax deductible. Financial support for our conventions is important to our mission of encouraging widespread interest in daffodils, research into daffodils, and education of the general public.