Post 2 in a series of 7.
The Hobart Horticultural Society, Inc. holds a spring show and a fall show. In the spring it’s the “Daffodil, Camellia, and Floral Art Show” which this year was on September 7 and 8. The daffodil part of the show adheres to Tasmanian Daffodil Council rules. The show uses three adjoining rooms in the Hall, a room for selling refreshments, a room for commercial or trade stands, and a big room for the show itself. Below is a view of the show room with the table of champions of various daffodil classifications in the foreground.
I must say, it’s classier than most daffodil exhibit halls. Anyway, the grand champion was ‘Voodoo’ exhibited by Ann Scarfe. Ann has been a long time exhibitor, but this was the first time she had a grand champion bloom, so it was particularly thrilling for her.
The Reserve Champion was ‘Avona’ 3Y-OOR exhibited by Helen Blowfield.
The champion miniature and also champion seedling was a 6Y-Y from (N. cyclamineus x 10/04) x ‘Mehmet’ exhibited by Kevin and Mary Crowe.
Here’s another miniature seedling by Kevin and Mary Crowe. It’s Or1/08 x W12/08 and 6W-Y. The cup is about 3/4 inch long.
And just to show that Rod Barwick can hybridize standards as well as miniatures, this is his winning entry for the Hubert Yeats Award for a vase of seven daffodils, any division and size. It is Glenbrook seedling 10/93 (‘Radar’ x ‘Larna’) 1W-P.
The Hobart show was on the small side with about 350 blooms. The retirement of David Jackson from active exhibiting no doubt has made the show smaller than in previous years. I stayed to help take the show down and learned something that had not been clear to me before. I did notice that blooms were staged in glass bottles both at Claremont and Hobart. What I did not realize was that exhibitors have to furnish their own bottles. That’s why most exhibitors do their staging at home and bring the already staged daffodils to the show. The shows encourage green rather than brown bottles, so exhibitors have to drink the right brand of beer to accumulate the necessary bottles. It also means (unless they’re willing to drink a lot more beer) that exhibitors have an incentive to return at the show closing to help take the show down so that they can repossess their bottles. In case you’re wondering, miniatures are staged in smaller bottles as beer bottles would be ought of proportion.
The next (third) post will be about the start of the National Daffodil Society’s tour starting with the North Island National Show in Hamilton.
Kirby Fong