Daylilies!

If you enjoy daylilies, then maybe you have wondered if you should enter a favorite daylily in a show . Well, I hope to encourage you to do so, and maybe even enter more than just a few! Here is a behind-the-scenes look at an annual AHS Daylily show in Raleigh, NC.

If you're curious about what's behind the scenes of putting on an annual American Hemerocallis Show, follow along! Just envision a sea of hundreds of different shapes and colors and sizes of daylilies; it's really quite lovely!

The AHS is a nonprofit organization that sponsors regional annual daylily shows to educate the public and generate a general and scientific interest in growing and hybridizing daylilies..

I hope you like this daylily, Appalachian Music ~ this is my hybrid, registered in 2011

Photos by Bev Lemley ~ All rights reserved

Come along!

I'll be helping behind the scenes, setting up tables, filling display vases with water, which doesn't leave us much time for getting our flowers ready for the show!

Back home there's a lot to consider in choosing potential flowers to show. Judges discount points if a scape (stalk) has too many spent blooms. However, this year, since our peak flowering occurred earlier than usual, we are allowed to increase the 45 percent max count of spent buds a bit.

Next, I look at the scape to see if it's pretty straight. A crooked scape just does not show well, plus, it won't fit in the straight small vases easily.

If I've found a straight scape with lots of buds, one that looks like it could potentially open on Saturday, I have to consider how the scape will show. Daylilies have leaf bracts that tend to have a bit of brown, so off they go! Grooming these bracts without doing damage to the scape is a rather slow process!

Judges consider how close a flower meets the measurements for bloom size as registered by the hybridizer with the AHS, The height of the scape should be in line with the registry, too. The scape can be adjusted slightly to a "pleasing" height, for the sake of the judges, who can't tilt the flower to examine it. Egads! It's getting closer to reality!

By the time judging starts, buds can droop a bit and end up touching a bloom, which will end up in a deduction of points. If you were in the running for the head table in your category, that two points would cost you.

I learned this lesson with my first show. Rainbow Gold was a beautiful bloom, with a perfect scape, and it just sparkled. But I did not account for the nearby bud ending up touching as time went by. I watched as the judges' careful examination turned into, "Oh, it's too bad." So from what I have learned, If it looks like the bloom will be touching another bud, something has to give. Either choose another, or be prepared to snip, which will mean another "spent" bloom!

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Show time! I'm trying not to get nervous, as it's all a learning experience, anyway. We'll see what's blooming in the seedlings; it may be their day to show off!

With much fretting, looking, checking my list, nodding and shaking my head, and fretful about every detail, I finally have everything tucked in and away we go! I nervously watch as flowers bob ~ and I struggle to keep them from bumping into each other. Mynelle's Starfish, a huge 10-inch flower, was determined to send Rococo, a little spider, spinning.

The seedlings I dared to show ~ seedlings rarely score a ribbon ~ looked pretty good and I am satisfied with the three I brought. At least they probably won't embarrass the family!

Settling in at a grooming table, I quickly note how much time I have to get them all groomed and to the placement table. 45 minutes. Humm, I have about 15 lilies, that's not very much time. Snipping spent bloom stubs, peeling back brown leafy bracts, and sacrificing too close neighboring buds, holding them up to the light to check for spider webs, spilled pollen on the flower, grabbing the prepared entry card, I take each one as quickly as possible to the placement table. Back and forth, almost done ~ and who is that? That's my mom carrying a bucket of lilies from her seedlings ~ 15 minutes before placement is closed! The bucket of seedlings looks so pretty, I jump in and start writing cards up for her. I can't do any of the grooming, but I quickly instruct her, and she works amazingly fast. With others running to the placement table, me writing cards, Mom working quickly, we get at least 10 seedlings to placement. Even after they announce, "One minute left," we manage to get two more sent to the table! That was crazy, to say the least!

Picture by Carol Fortune, with permission

We quickly clean up our mess of stems and cotton balls and clippers, snippers, and address labels and clear out. The judging teams will be here soon, and we have to dress the grooming tables and I have to get ready to clerk, that is, be part of a duo that helps the judges see the flowers (they're not allowed to touch them) and put the appropriate ribbons on the cards. It's interesting to see what their honest opinion is about your entries! I wasn't with the seedling judging team, so the results would have to wait.

Believe it or not, Mom takes a blue ribbon in seedlings, which is incredible! She also takes three or four reds, and a yellow. Out of my three seedlings, I take a yellow. I'm so proud of Mom!

My other known hybrids show fairly well, a few yellows, purples and blues. Of course, none make it to the head table, but I have learned a few things! Next year there could be new leaders in town!

Picture by Carol Fortune, with permission

After helping to break the show down, I carry my flowers back to the car. I learned a lot and understood a bit more about judging. What a great experience being part of a team that showed off hundreds of beautiful blooms in just a few hours! And I have a few ribbons for my scrapbook, and learned a few things that didn't go so well. Yes, the daylilies only last a day, but the memories, forever!