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“Grooming Daylilies for a Flower Show”

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Daylily lovers in Houston know May is peak blooming season for their beloved Hemerocallis. A great way to celebrate this beautiful and hardy perennial is to participate in a local flower show. Exhibiting a daylily is free and open to all daylily growers at an accredited American Daylily Society or ADS flower show.

 

A show schedule with all the rules is available to download from the Houston Hemerocallis Society web site: http://www.ofts.com/hhs/

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If you have never entered a daylily show before or if it has been awhile since you have, you may benefit by reviewing Mary Gage’s tips on “How to Groom a Daylily for a Flower Show”.

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Mary has served as a daylily Exhibition Judge and operated the commercially successful “Spring Creek Daylily Garden” for 35 years. She is our go-to expert on how to prepare a bloom or “scape” for entry in a judged show.

Years of experience in entering daylilies in ADS Accredited Daylily Shows and earning top honors, such as Best-in-Show, have proven the value of the formula developed over the years by ADS for preparing a daylily to put its “Best Face Forward”. The following steps define the necessary process.

 

Ensure your daylily is accurately labeled by name before you harvest the scape.  As show day approaches take note of possible winning scapes and identify them by cultivar name with simple tags such as one inch strips of paper with a slit in one end to make a wrap tag. Make a list of your entries and check the cultivar name, size and other classification information to fill out the show entry card. The show organizers will place your entry in the proper section by type. This information is available on the national web site of the American Daylily Society at www.daylilies.org

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Protect the daylily from bruising in the garden and during travel to the show. Prepare containers with some water in the bottom to keep scapes fresh during transport. Water bottles or milk jug openings may be wrapped with masking tape to cover the sharp edges of the plastic so as not to mar the scape. Early on the day of the show, cut labeled scapes that may have opened during the night and those that are well on the way to being open. It is a plus if there are lots of younger buds. Cut the scape near the base but not so low as to damage the crown of the plant and no taller than 36”. Place scapes in transporting containers and wedge with cotton or foam to hold the scape steady and prevent blooms from touching.

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A seedling (an unnamed or unregistered daylily) must be cut as close to the base as possible because its scape height has not been established and is an important criteria to be judged. If the scape is so tall as to be impossible to transport, the scape may be shortened and the cut portion kept to lie alongside the exhibit.

 

How to use grooming tools properly to enhance the scape and flower’s appearance

 

There will be a prep area at the show where you will be provided vases. Choose the proper size vase for your entry with enough water to hold the scape steady without the vase tipping over. 

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The scape should be cut to a pleasing proportion compared with the amount of branching and bud count. With a sharp knife, scalpel, or X-acto knife, remove any inferior blooms from multiple bloom scapes, buds that might crowd the bloom and keep it from opening properly, and seed pods. Leave the stubs to show the bloom count- the more the better!

Trim or lightly scrape dry bud scars to leave a fresh green surface. Proliferations are new daylily plants that may grow at bracts along the scape. These may not be removed but can be trimmed, if necessary, for a more pleasing appearance. With scissors trim any brown tips of bracts (leaf-like structures on the scape) to a point to give a natural appearance.

 

With a brush or Q-tip remove any pollen grains or insects. With cotton balls or a soft cloth wipe the scape to remove any dirt or spray residue. Remove your temporary label from the scapes.

 

Carry your scapes in vases with a completed entry card for each to the Classification Table.

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Tips on what judges look for in a winning daylily.

Judges look at each scape and evaluate how well it conforms to the characteristics as listed in the cultivar’s registration data.

(1) FLOWER:

COLOR is the hue or specific name of a color. Color merits are clear, lustrous, bright, and rich.

FORM refers to the placement of petals and sepals in relationship to each other. All parts should be intact, no missing segments, anthers or malformed pistils. Form merits are true to cultivar, overall flower and segment shape conform to type.

TEXTURE refers to the surface quality of the tissue structure. Texture merits are smooth, creped, ribbed, velvety, waxy, satiny, diamond dusted, and corduroy.

SUBSTANCE is the thickness of the tissue structure which determines the holding quality. It may vary from thin and veil-like to thick, crisp and fleshy. Substance characteristics enable the flower to withstand weather conditions and keep its form and freshness. Substance merits are crisp, firm, fresh.

SIZE is the diameter of the bloom and may be influenced by geographical location and garden practices. Size merits are true to cultivar, consistent with other specimens of same cultivar grown in the same area. When over or undersized it will be penalized.

(2) SCAPE:

HARMONIOUS RELATIONSHIP TO FLOWER, HEIGHT and STRENGTH. Merits are sturdy, straight, and proportional.

BUDS reflect the potential length of blooming. Buds merits are well spaced, not crowded, typical or better bud count.

BRANCHING is a most desirable quality since it gives more terminal ends for buds to form. Branching merits are well-spaced, well-branched, and multiple branching.

(3) CONDITION AND GROOMING:

Condition is the actual physical state of the scape when the judging takes place. Condition can reflect cultural practices, transporting scapes to the show, and possible accidents during placement. Conditioning and grooming merits are fresh, clean, well-groomed, and unblemished.

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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 and 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.

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