Greater St Louis Daffodil Society – 2024 Daffodil Show Report

The Greater St. Louis Daffodil Society held its 24th annual regional daffodil show on April 5 – 6, 2024, at the First Free Church in Manchester, Missouri. The theme for the design section of this year’s show was “Daffodil Games of Skill & Chance.”

Despite the ravages of severe storms a few days earlier that produced tornadoes, straight line winds, hail, and heavy rain, seventeen hearty souls placed a record 928 stems in this year’s show.

The exhibits were judged by seven experienced ADS accredited judges which included Mike Berrigan from Minnesota and Rose Bradley from Illinois. Mike Berrigan was appointed to lead the judging effort. (Photos were composed by Cindy Haeffner and Lynn Slackman. Verbiage for this show report was composed by Gerard Knehans.)

The ADS Silver Ribbon was won by Cindy Haeffner for 33 blue ribbons received in the show.

The ADS Gold and Rose Ribbon were awarded to Gerard Knehans for the best daffodil in the show–2WO2024, a 2W-YYO seedling.

Lynn Slackman secured the ADS Miniature Gold Ribbon for the best miniature in the show for her entry of ‘Segovia’.

Gerard Knehans received the Best Intermediate Ribbon for ‘Pink Sunday’

The Best Intermediate Collection of Five ADS Ribbon was awarded to Gerard Knehans for ‘Sdlg 402’, ‘Amy Susan’, a ‘Reed Sdlg of 2W-YYO’, ‘Pink Sunday’, and ‘Ka-Ching’! This entry also won the ADS Purple Ribbon for the best 5-stem collection in the show.

The Best Intermediate 3-Stem Ribbon went to Cindy Haeffner for perfectly matched ‘Reg Nicholl’ blooms.

Lynn Slackman was the winner of the Best Historic Ribbon and the Best Historic 3-Stem Ribbon for ‘Milan’.

The Best Classic Ribbon was presented to Peter Mc Adams for ‘Perconger’

The Best Classic Single Stem Ribbon was presented to Vaughn Meister.

The ADS Small Grower Ribbon was secured by Brad Griffith for his entry of ‘Happy Smiles.’

The even more coveted award, the ADS Red White, and Blue Ribbon for best standard collection of 5 American-bred daffodils was awarded to Cindy Haeffner for a collection of her own seedlings. A first time in GSLDS history!

Lynn Slackman submitted a pot of the delightful miniature, ‘More And More’, that won a well-deserved Miniature Container Grown Ribbon. She also won the Historic Collection of 5-Stems Ribbon for her entry of ‘Mrs. R. O. Backhouse’, ‘Milan’, ‘Laurens Koster’, and ‘Mount Hood’.

Gary Knehans also won the Maroon Ribbon for the best 5-stem standard collection in the show. It consisted of his ‘Sdlg 401’, ‘Amy Susan’, ‘Lemon Desire’, ‘Hillstar’, and ‘Luminosity’.

The winner of the Bankhead Ribbon for best miniature collection of 9 stems from at least three divisions was Lynn Slackman for ‘Itsy Bitsy Splitsy’, ‘Segovia’, ‘Twinkling Yellow’, ‘Rikki’, ‘Shaw’s Legacy’, ‘Golden Quince’, ‘Little Rusky’, ‘Angel’s Whisper’, and ‘Cyclataz.’

Lynn Slackman scored an ADS Marie Bozievich Ribbon win for her 12-stem entry of ‘American Affair’, ‘Hoopoe’, ‘Ice Wings’, ‘Triple Crown’, ‘Crackington’, ‘Port Noo’, ‘Grebe’, ‘Cinnamon Ring’, ‘Mississippi Traveler’, ‘Janet’s Gold’, ‘Amadeus’, and ‘Highpoint’.

Lynn Slackman’s Elise Havens Ribbon collection of at least three divisions from divisions 5-10 was right on target. It featured ‘Lemon Drops’, ‘Sugar Rose’, ‘Dream Weaver’, ‘Ice Wings’, ‘Webster’, ‘Beautiful Eyes’, ‘Merthan’, ‘Hoopoe’, ‘Bettina’s Favorite’, ‘Geranium’, ‘Golden Dawn’, and ‘Nickelodean’.

The ADS White Ribbon was awarded to Cindy Heaffner for the exquisite 3-stem exhibit on ‘Crackington’.

The ADS Miniature White Ribbon was awarded to Lynn Slackman for the 3-stem exhibit of ‘Segovia’.

The GSLDS awards went to Lynn Slackman for the Club Challenge bloom of ‘Jamestown.’

Peter Mc Adams won the Shaw Nature Reserve award for a daffodil bloom from a bulb that had been rescued from the reserve.

Daffodil Games of Skill & Chance” was the theme of the Design Section of the Show. Each exhibitor created a design based on a game of skill or chance. The Design Section Best in the Show Ribbon went to Jean Morris for her Class 2 – “A Deck of Cards” entry.

Sweepstakes Award went to Jean Morris for her first place entries in Class 1 – “The Game of Clue’ and Class 2 – “A Deck of Cards”.

The blue ribbon for Class 3 – Yahtzee, went to Suzanne Raymond for this exquisite design using miniature daffodils

The Best of Show – Youth Design went to Mallory Modray, age 10, Class 4 – “Video Games”.

The Greater St. Louis Daffodil Society wishes to thank all the exhibitors, judges, and volunteer helpers who made this year’s daffodil show very successful.