Thanks

As with Ian and others Leitha joins me in saying what a great time we had at the ADS Convention and  the following week through California. I am not sure why we go to daffodil shows. I know we go to see the flowers and to congratulate the winners but I suspect it is more to meet friends and be with people who have become special to us.
We arrived home on Tuesday. What a contrast. On Sunday morning we stood in the rain under the redwoods and on Tuesday morning we stripped into shorts and T shirts at home. It is real drought conditions here, even into Autumn, with temperatures around 80* daily.
The Avenue of the Giants has to be one of the most spectacular drives in the World especially when the trilliums and erythronium are in bloom in the undergrowth. Why not make the effort to drive there and to visit the Fortuna show before your own flowers need you.
I thought the quality of bloom at Fortuna was some of the best we have seen. In my view Bob Spotts’s flower of Rose Villa was possibly the best flower I have seen on my three visits to the USA. It was a cracker.
It is wonderful to see the photos of the shows. We get the chance to see the flowers at the shows we attend but to see flowers from the other shows makes our own season a little longer. However I feel that the programme at Murphys offered more than just the flowers and it would be good to have some debate over some issues raised.
Here are some starters from the seminars.
1) Should the historic classes be extended into later decades?
2) If we decide to create a new division for spider daffodils how would the division be defined?
3) What issues that were raised in the futures seminar need further discussion?
and not from the seminars but worth a look at
4) I am not sure that too many ADS judges actually enforce the 90 point rule. It is very difficult when the quality of flower is so variable from region to region. We have had our own judging rules that were not enforced and these have recently been reviewed and sometimes strengthened through our new judging handbook.
Cheers,
Dave

1 comment for “Thanks

  1. Dear David,
     
    It was good to see you and Leitha in California.  I could not agree with you more in the opinion that the Avenue of the Giants is probably one of the most spectacular sites in the entire world.  When we visited Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco, on Monday after the convention we also witnessed a lovely display of trillium on the forest floor. 
     
    As for your seminar considerations I’ll say this:
    1) That decision, for the ADS, should be made by the ADS Historics Committee.  The rest of the world is free to make their own call for their own shows.
    2)  We won’t decide to create a new division, the RHS will decide, when and if they think such a choice is warranted.
    3)  Judges in the USA do a fantastic job of judging flowers, considering the fact our country is so wide and so varied in climate and terrain. 
     
    Chriss
     

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