Judging, Shows

Unnamed flowers

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Linda,
I’ve only known two judges on the east coast that is willing to turn their backs on rules and have the clerks apply the correct name to the label. One is from PA and a former President of ADS and the other . . . well, I’ll just say that judge from PA had a lot to do to infuence the old man looking back at me that I see in the mirrow each morning when I shave.
Clay
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Clay Higgins
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2 comments for “Unnamed flowers”

  1. Everyone,
    I am only going to address this particular subject – the incorrectly named flower.
    A number of years ago, I was asked to judge at the very first show staged by a newly formed club.  We came across a specimen that had ‘February Silver’ on the entry tag.  Being one of those who find it amusing to learn to identify as many daffodils as I can by sight, I took one look and knew that the specimen was actually ‘Jenny’.  It was, actually, one of the most perfect Jennys that I can ever remember seeing.  Since it was the ony entry in the class, it deserved the blue ribbon.  We judges looked at the schedule and found that they had not determined how this situation should be handled, giving us the option to do what we felt was just.  Along with that decision, this club had a local award for the best cyclamineous in the show, and this ‘Jenny’ was that without a  doubt.  So, we had the clerk change the name and gave the stem first place and also the local award.
    You would think that we had done what would have been the right thing to do, wouldn’t you? 
    After judging, I went back to find who had entered the bloom and found the lady in question.  I congratulated her on the lovely specimen and her good growing practices.  She told me she was horrified that the flower was not ‘February Silver’.  I assured her that Jenny was a far better flower.  She would have none of that.  It seems that the name ‘February Silver’ held some important and personal connotation to her and she was crushed that it was not that cultivar.
    Dam–d it you do, and dam–d if you don’t. Oh well…
    Donna Dietsch

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  2. Back to Libby and unnamed flowers:

    Our panel was assigned the larger collections to judge.  The first thing that we judged has a clear winner except for a misnamed bloom.  Since we could not help noticing who had entered it in the small show area, I suggested that we decide that judging had not yet started, and ask Libby to correct the tag.  We left that table and went to judge the Quinn, also Libby’s, and also with a misnamed bloom.  The other members of the panel were a little bit uncomfortable about the first questionable bloom, so we did not award the Quinn on the grounds that judging had started.

    I agree that if we have the time, we should try to check not only our own entries, but those of others.  We should also move blooms into the correct classes when possible.

    Leone Low

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