A couple of weeks ago I recieved my official status as a AHS Garden Judge and yesterday I recieved my annual ballot in the mail. I thought that you got to judge gardens, but instead you learn how to judge different cultivars in a garden setting and you get to vote for the national awards such as Honerable Mention (30 per year get selected), Award of Merit (10 per year get selected), and the Stout Medal (the one and only per year) . It is not very hard to get appointed. You take two classes on being a garden judge – one in the classroom for 2 hours with a short test and one in a garden setting. If you go to a national convention they offer the two classes and most regional meeting will offer one or both of the classes.
More than being able to vote for all the different awards, you begin to look at your daylilies in a slightly different light. You are supposed to judge the whole plant, not just it’s pretty face. The plants should be in proportion – scape height, flower size, and foliage. They should be healthy well established plants. For someone whole likes a lot of different plants and flowers, this is a little different, because it makes me look at the daylilies with a more critical eye. It makes me think of its attributes versus its’ drawbacks, but this also helps me recommend certain daylilies for certain applications.
daylily Hyperion
For example Hyperion is one of my favorite daylilies – not a razzle dazzle daylily, but a veritable workhorse in the garden. It has a clear yellow fragrant bloom held on tall scapes with nice foliage and it grows at a moderate rate. It is great for an area where you need coverage and want a mass of blooms. You could easily plant this away from your house and still see the blooms in mass. It is a cherie flower, and hardy beyond all get out. I’ve yet to kill one. It can go in the back of a border, and its’ clear yellow flower goes with almost all other colors.
Forbidden Fantasy on the other hand is a razzle dazzle daylily. Its’ deep purple bloom that has a yellow wire edge and is wonderful as a specimen plant. It is a hardy plant and puts on a nice show. Its’ leaves are pretty wide and stay nice. It works well in the front of the border or as a single highlight against other orange or yellow flowers. In future blogs, I will go through and talk about individual daylily plants (as well as other plants) and what I like or don’t like about them.
daylily Forbidden Fantasy
The only requirements for being a AHS Garden Judge is that you must keep a log of gardens that you visit per year (usually done by either going to the regional meeting, or to a national convention) and then voting every year. Oh darn, someone is going to make me have to see nice gardens and spend time looking at all the daylilies! Your appointment is good for five years. So if you are a AHS member and think you might enjoy being a garden judge – go to either a regional meeting or a national convention and take the garden judges class. I think you’ll enjoy it.