1 comment for “Fwd: Central Ohio Daffodil Society Show at Franklin Park (Park of R…”

  1. The handbook says that “Each cultivar or species must be correctly labeled with name (or number) and division.”
     
    However, in the case of seedlings I think this is worth debating.
     
    WHEN a seedling is being shown by the originator, that person not only has the task of giving the flower a number designation, they also have the privilege of giving it a division number.  Much of the time, it is obvious, but sometimes it is not.  Originators may hesitate over whether a flower is a five or a six, or a seven or an eight, or a two or a six.  Maybe it is a three one day and a nine the next.  And sometimes a division number is changed EVEN after a flower is registered, such as six’s that don’t reflex, or seven’s that don’t throw multiple florets or happen to be too big to look like a seven. 
     
    To the advantage of exhibitors who are showing their own seedlings, the prerogative of the originator to assign a division number allows them to also meet class specifications where three or four or five divisions are required.  How simple it is for an exhibitor to simply assign a two or a three or a five or a six to a flower if that will give them the division they need to compete in a particular class.  And nothing says they HAVE to keep that division number the next time they show that flower.  They could have changed their mind by then, or reconsidered perhaps, based on the performance of the flower the following year.  Nothing is cast in stone until the flower is registered. 
     
    So why then, is division number required for seedlings, when it can easily be changed, to suit the desire of the exhibitor when they are the originator?  Naturally, if the exhibitor gives a flower a Div. number of four, it better look like a four, or if they give it a three it better not have a long corona, but  there is obviously a lot of leeway left to play with. 
     
    In the case of a Lavender Ribbon, where the class criteria does not require multiple divisions, what possible difference could it make whether the seedling had a division number or not? 
     
    Chriss
     

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