Show Prep and Exhibiting, Shows

Why are refrigerated blooms legal?

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OK it is “illegal” to advance a bloom time with a growing tunnel or cold frame or green house in the US…
Then WHY is it legal to maintain blooms in refrigeration for weeks after the bloom would have perished in the open fields??
Sunny and 72*F today in East Texas or 23*C. There are even butterflies floating around today as I think I have just planted the very last daffodils….Except for a few thousand seeds. Keith Kridler

2 comments for “Why are refrigerated blooms legal?”

  1. I am not sure we’ve established that a growing tunnel or cold frame is illegal. The presumption is that greenhouses
    as the sole residence of pots of bulbs is not “a level playing field.”
    Nials B., a Daffnet member, asked months ago why refrigerators or much grooming at all was legal, and it was quickly pointed out to him that without refrigeration, our shows would be much, much smaller, depriving the growing public of much beauty.
    Refrigeration is usually a temporary process, anyhow–not a season-long situation.
    Someone earlier today said something about why it was fair to have to compete with those from better climates.
    It isn’t!!! But we aren’t mostly competing with them—just at National convention shows. Usually those from great climates are competing with each other, and it evens out. But what I envy the Oregonians, etc., is not temperature but what must be better soil and more reasonable rainfall, anyhow.
    Rules develop over the years as needs are demonstrated.  Someone whom I asked to take lots of landscape pictures on the World Tour said that he/she couldn’t get many in the U.K. because everybody grew their bulbs in greenhouses.
    It comes down, usually, to an honor system. 
    And rules which cannot be enforced, policed, etc., in a fair manner should be left vague–thank you, Bill Lee.
    Some things are done just because we’ve always done them that way, i.e., customs. And they aren’t changed until a clear need arises, is demonstrated, and the solution worked through.
    I judged once on a panel for the Challenge classes, and it was forcefully asked about why a hybridizer who did not grow bulbs except outdoors, in their own climate, couldn’t enter the “open” classes. Good question. Honor system again!
    I believe a major reason for having shows is to educate and delight the public.
    Nice to have a “hot” topic in a cold season.
    Loyce McKenzie.

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  2. Everyone,
    I can’t think that a growing tunnel is not legal.  It only protects the plants from insects,
     wind and hard rain.  The plants do not stay in it all the time as it is a temporary cover.
    Loyce, I wonder why the person you mentioned thought that if a person entered a bloom in the Challenge Class they could not enter blooms in the regular classes as long as they were not greenhouse grown.  Of course they can. Some choose not to, that’s all.
    Donna again
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