I've had word from everyone North of 7a that Tim Herrington is too tender for their zones. How could it win a Stout if it's only good in the South? I thought the Stout had to work all over the country?

@ Zoia, garden judges vote on the the Stout, yes. But on that particular award, it is simply the TOTAL number of votes it gets, period. No regional consideration at all. And this year, voting by garden judges was extremely low. More judges are needed, and those who are judges need to vote for awards to have any credibility. Sorry, but I can still remember years of tabulating votes when there were over 800 garden judges and votes for the Stout would approach 100 votes or more for the winner. This years low voting totals really bothered me. JMHO.

That's interesting, Julie. I didn't know that. I didn't know the Stout award was intended for plants that were popular everywhere, either. I thought that's what's the Lennington award was supposed to reward.

It seems if 60-70% of the judges were from the North, just saying for example, that plants that only do well in the North would have a better chance than if the voting were balanced by region, regardless of the number of judges. Is it possible that a second reason is an imbalance what regions the voters are from?

Why is this reminding me of the US Electoral College?

I was amazed how many members of our club had no idea of what a garden judge actually does. I think if we educated people more on the requirements and duties of a garden judge they would want to be garden judges. It seems people think garden judges are something like show judges. I wish there were more experienced and knowledgeable people available to give more garden judge classes. I really enjoy learning from garden judges and especially ones with hybridizing experience, those judges who have a keen eye for observation.

Our club was encouraging people to become garden judges. Maybe I will look into it.

I finished my qualifications last June and was part of the voting process this year. I was personally hoping for Explosion in the Paint Factory to win. It's an important Daylily, as it was among the first to have broken color and it performs well everywhere. Plus, I like Rich Howard!

Off topic here, but I have to chime in. I completed the in-class portion of the Garden Judge credential at Nationals this past summer in Nashville. Our instructor was Jim Murphy. He was great; very passionate about daylilies with lots of good insight. I wanted to take workshop II, which is the garden portion, but because I could not ride the bus to the garden due to a disability, I was not allowed to do the garden portion because they did some of the teaching on the bus. I asked to meet ahead of time with the teacher to quickly cover the "on bus" content, but she wanted no part of that. Here in Georgia, all of the workshop II sessions were in the southern part of the state, and I couldn't travel due to family conflicts. Given the desire to have more garden judges, it is frustrating that the powers-to-be make the process so difficult. I'm hoping to take the workshop II class in 2024, but I have my doubts.

@DeweyRooter Nan, I just checked the website, and it says, "You must have been a member of AHS for at least 12 continuous months to begin training. To become a garden judge, you must have been an AHS member in good standing for 24 continuous months. Just fyi.

Thanks, Lori. Something for the future I guess. I am so sorry you weren't able to complete the training; so frustrating that no one seems able to work with you. I am sure others are in similar situations.

Lyshack said:
It seems if 60-70% of the judges were from the North, just saying for example, that plants that only do well in the North would have a better chance than if the voting were balanced by region, regardless of the number of judges. Is it possible that a second reason is an imbalance what regions the voters are from?

If you go to the bottom of the Awards page you will see a Spreadsheet of 2023 Winners. Download it and then you will be able to view the number of votes by region for each winning cultivar for all awards.
https://daylilies.org/daylilie...

Also adding a little note about AHS/ADS membership...if you haven't renewed yet or would like to become a new member the yearly dues will be going up from $25/year to $30/year in January.

Lori, that's really too bad! The bus was where I did my Garden Judge 11 training…I don't know how you are supposed to complete it otherwise. Although, I'm pretty sure Marlene Harmon offered a workshop this summer at the Region 4 Picnic and Auction.

I'm not going to the National this coming summer. I can't afford it and I'll be playing Fiddler on the Roof then. But I think I'll have a lot more time in July this year, as the theater I work for is doing a show that won't use me in July. So I'm planning on visiting a bunch of local gardens this summer to keep up my garden judge status.

Zoia I agree about Stout medalist is billed as representing finest specimen in multiple regions.

Adding 2 cents here. Am halfway thru garden judge training. Somehow reminds me of election inspector training. Thankless necessary valuable work. Though AHS garden judge training is much more interesting with valuable information I can already see lotsa mileage on vehicle necessary...unpaid...and I live far away from all yall crazy daylily folks' gardens.
It would be difficult, but absolutely necessary, to judge the plant alone keeping feelings about the hybridizer at bay. However, who among us can honestly do that?

All sounds very insightful. I learned some new things today, thanks.
Is there a reason training cannot be online? If there is a shortage online training will reach thousands more people.

Orion
I make no claim as an AHS rep. but to answer your question partly...Garden Judge workshop 1 was online training as well as the renewal garden judge training. Garden Judge Workshop 2 kinda has to be done in a real garden methinks.

I see.
Like a practical exam.
Makes sense.

GJ1 and GJ3 ( refresher for existing judges) are taught online. Part 2 really needs to be taught in a garden , as a garden judge must evaluate existing clumps as they appear in a garden. Over the years, instructors began teaching part of the course, basically the review of GJ1, on the bus, because we used to end up instructing the workshops at the last tour garden when everyone was tired, and the temperatures usually soared to the 90s or worse. So we tried to make it less painful for students to have to stand out in the hot sun. The outdoor part was at one time two hours, but by moving the review to the bus, we could shorten it to about an hour.

Wow, I took GJ training so long ago - 2000( under two great instructors, Kay Day , who was then AHS President, and Pat Bennett, a long time Region 3 instructor. ) In those days, the GJ training took about 3 hours and it was ALL taught in the garden, usually on a Sunday morning . It was all one big class, no separate 1 and 2. At the end, if you stuck it out and passed the test at the end, you could apply to be a GJ. The first hour, we sat ( luckily in a shaded garden area and they had chairs in a circle) with our handbooks and covered all the material now taught in GJ1. Then we got up with worksheets and evaluated plants in the garden. Training has come a long way. Back around 2007 and 2008, I was on the GJ Ed. Committee and had the privilege of working with Michael Bouman and Melanie Mason on that committee. Together we updated the GJ1 PowerPoint close to what it is today. The original PP was very dry with few pictures and very bad. We worked really hard on that one winter, and felt as if we'd improved instruction with the new PowerPoint.

I think the real sticking point is the live class. It's just not all that available. Yes, I agree that it's necessary but maybe there could be a push by Daylily clubs in general to encourage members to take the online courses then stage live classes during the summer for GJ 11. Then there could be a lot more voters.

Another problem I found was that I hadn't seen most of the candidates that we were voting on live. I had seen about a fifth of them, a bunch in my own garden and maybe a third here, from photos. But you are asked to only vote on ones you've seen live which is why there is a requirement to visit a certain number ( five?) of gardens every summer to keep up your judgeship. It's easy if you go to the National , otherwise you have to make an effort on your own. Anyway, that's my understanding of the rules, did I get that wrong?

I think it is a good idea to go see as many Daylily gardens as you can so you can see plants in real time and not just from the absolute best photo a hybridizer can provide. One of my goals with my thread Zoia's Daily Daylilies is to show what the plants are doing on a daily basis. We don't usually get that perspective.

I have noticed that some growers end up with a boat load of "Award of Merits" almost every year for their plants, while other growers never have any at all. I think those are voted on by garden judges who tour your garden... ?? A certain number of votes are required to get an award- but unless you have the judges, you are out of luck. Quite a few of those are only with the important people, and many that actually are deserving of that award are left out by being in an area where there are no local garden judges. Always seemed a bit tilted to me....

Char said: If you go to the bottom of the Awards page you will see a Spreadsheet of 2023 Winners. Download it and then you will be able to view the number of votes by region for each winning cultivar for all awards.
https://daylilies.org/daylilie...

Tnanks for posting that, Char. That was very interesting! I am very intrigued by this process. I had only a vague idea about how the awards were chosen.

I think one thing most people don't realize is that exposure is the key to getting votes for awards. Some hybridizers don't get too involved in awards, and awards are mostly hybridizer driven. The ones really interested in winning awards are out there giving talks to clubs, bringing their plants for auctions, donating plants to clubs for events. They often sell their plants at huge discounts just to get the plants exposure in different areas. Getting exposure for your plants is not an easy task, the plant has to be grown in many gardens in many areas, but without a doubt the main place to get exposure for plants up for awards is at the National, and at the big Regionals. Heck, you have bus loads of people (probably the highest percentage of judges of any group out there) being brought to see your plant live. There are some awards that state that the plant does have to have been seen in your region, but not all. Some need only to have been seen at the National, so those are normally (I would think) the ones that would garner the most awards.
I loved the popularity polls, but the same few plants were winning a lot of the time, which did indicate to some degree outstanding plants. One main problem was again lack of participation. Some clubs still have the Popularity Poll, but most dropped it when the AHS dropped it I think. I would love for some creative daylily grower to come up with new rules for a popularity pole. Something that would allow recognition for plants with different introduction dates. I think it would have to be done on a regional basis, maybe better even on a club basis and those results sent to the National association: registered at least 50 years ago, registered at least 30 years ago registered at least 15 years ago, at least 10 years ago. Any less than that probably would not have enough distribution to get many votes. It takes years to build up good distribution of any single plant.
I just like things that encourage members to get out in their gardens and take a good hard look at which plants do well in their gardens and which don't. Being the national society dropped the popularity poll, maybe all club members could vote, that might even encourage more of an interest in people becoming AHS members?
I am sure there are other things for the AHS to work on, but I do miss the popularity polls, and for those who are not garden judges that could sort of be an introduction to voting and it could be used as an opportunity to bring up garden judging. I would also love to see a much more detailed hybridizer slanted addition added to an advanced garden judge program. I am just not very observant and need other people to point things out to me.
I did hear several judges at the National say they were voting for plants they had never actually seen, others voting for plants that they had not seen in their region when that was a requirement. I hate that, it sort of kills the purpose of having garden judges. It completely destroys the value of the vote in determining outstanding regional plants.

Very interesting post, Larry. I am sure you are right about people having to work to get their plants out there and recognized. That makes perfect sense. I am sure many deserving plants have been overlooked over the years for that reason.

As for the popularity poll, I just read in the Secretary's Report in _The Georgia Daylily_ that only 76 people voted in the Region 5 poll this year. People were questioning whether or not to continue it. For now it will continue. I remember looking at the ballot last year (before I became a member) and realizing I did not grow any of the candidates. So I could not vote even if I had been a member. Still, it would be nice to see the tradition continue.