For A Flower Show
By Mary Gage & Jeannie Mallick | Cypress Creek Daylily Club
May is peak blooming season for the beloved Hemerocallis. A great way to celebrate: participate in a local flower show! Two Daylily Shows that welcome entries from nonmembers are coming up Sat., May 11, in Houston and Lake Jackson (details at end of article).
Want to enter your prize daylilies?
- As show day approaches take note of possible winning scapes. If you can, tag them by cultivar name. Show entry card information can be found at www.daylilies.org
- Protect the daylily from bruising in garden and travel to show. Wrap transporting container openings with masking tape to cover sharp edges. Early show day, cut labeled scapes with open blooms. Secure with cotton or foam wedges to hold scapes steady and prevent blooms from touching.
- Vases will be provided in the show Prep Area. The proper size vase is one that holds enough water to steady the scape without the vase tipping over.
- Preparing bloom scapes is an important step, but too complicated to detail here. See below for links to more information.
Judges look at each scape and evaluate how well it conforms to the characteristics listed in the cultivar’s registration data.
(1) FLOWER :
- COLOR — clear, lustrous, bright, and rich.
- FORM — All parts intact, no missing segments, anthers or malformed pistils.
- TEXTURE — surface quality of the tissue structure.
- SUBSTANCE — tissue structure thickness (determines holding quality).
- SIZE is bloom diameter
(2) SCAPE: — Harmonious relationship to flower, height and strength
- BUDS reflect the potential length of blooming
- BRANCHING — most desirable quality (more terminal ends for buds to form).
(3) CONDITION AND GROOMING: Condition — fresh, clean, well-groomed, and unblemished.
A daylily flower show is where you experience for yourself the amazing rainbow spectrum of brilliant color and form that exists for this excitingly diverse, beautiful flower.
Yes, you have to grow, groom, and transport your daylily to the show, but remember nature is on your team. Right now, she is working patiently and wondrously to provide you a healthy vibrant flower. You never know what you will find as you step into your garden the morning of the show and find a daylily at the peak of blooming and poised to win top honors.
A single daylily bloom may raise its lovely face to the sun for only one day but the thrill of winning a ribbon and the bragging rights last for years.
If you’re interest in showing flowers, be sure you check all these links:
ofts.com/hhs (to download the schedule and complete show entry rules)
cypresscreekdaylilyclub.simplesite.com (for Mary’s complete article and additional information)
