Yes, only the certified judges get to vote for AIS awards. But there is indeed a popularity poll that anyone can vote in. And that's the Tall Bearded Iris Sympsium. The ballot for that is published every summer, and you mark the 25 you think are the best, and send your marked ballot to the designated offcial for your AIS region. I think that both the AIS awards and the TBIS popularity award have merits. I look forward to the results of BOTH each year. And both influence what I choose to obtain for my small garden.
Why do I like the TBIS popularity poll? Well, it tells me something about staying power. If you track the rankings in the TBIS popularity poll from year to year, you'll see that many cultivars with new characteristics rise in the rankings and then fall back as quickly. But then there are others, even some quite old ones that hang in there for years and years and years in a very stable manner. Those very stable ones are the ones that have turned out for me to be "must haves." And when one is as limited for space as I am, it's important to learn which are the "must haves." They may not always have as many ruffles and florishes as the very newest award winners, but there is something about those stable ones that keeps them in the top 100 for year after year. Sometimes simpler turns out to be better.
