Here come's the Judge, Daffodil Judge That Is!

Growing beautiful yellow daffodils as my personal harbinger of spring brings a lot of personal joy and fun. That joy may be the fact that daffodil weather also brings a nice relief after the long winter dreariness. However, when I first got into daffodils, I didn't count on the daffodil, this outside interest I developed primarily because daffodils are easy to grow and takes little time, would consume my entire free time.

Daffodils have totally consumed me, and the year 2000 was no exception. However, it's hard to just have fun with the flowers and avoid the issues of day-to-day life, and our profession all at the same time. I guess that's the way life is, we always have to consider other matters when making our daily decisions.

Being a Judging

This was my first year as a daffodil judge, be it that I was only a student judge (after the season was over, I received my credentials as an accredited daffodil judge). Previously, I'd go to the daffodil shows, put in my flowers and return a couple of hours later to weep over what the daffodils judges had done to my beautiful flowers. To me, daffodil judging was a distant, strange thing that made no rhyme or reason. There was no known intimacy in the process, and the judges were all blind and indifferent to beauty. The feeling was that judge's decisions had to be made because of politics, not based on the flowers themselves. I was very wrong.

Now, I was the judge (student judge this past season), working with other judges, and being accepted as part of the inner-circle of daffodil's elite with other accredited judges. Daffodil judging became up close and personnel. Each floret was intimate as we examined each one separately, discussed the virtues of it, and decided which one was the winner, second, and third place finishes. Judges became sharp eyed and found the flaws that the exhibitors missed. Daffodils became ranked as they should be, the best flower was always given first place. It's surprising how, in the majority of the cases, the best flower is the obvious forst choice.

My prospective about daffodils has changed. I thought I was a good judge of daffodils before I went to judging school, now I know that I was a rank novice. I feel like I now have a PhD in daffodil, and that gives me an unhuman power. I trained with some of the best in daffodils this year, there was Dick in Atlanta, Rod and Ted in Dallas, Liz from New Jersey, Mary Lou, Dan, Donna, Bill, and Petty from Ohio.

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