Someone mentioned this AHS Award on another thread, and I couldn't find that, so will address my comments here. Hybridizers may nominate their cultivars for this award each year. In order for the cultivar to be placed on the ballot, a cultivar must be REGISTERED as either a late or very late ( L, VL) bloomer. The awards chair is supposed to check each nomination for eligibility before it can be placed on the ballot. During the four years I served as awards chair, more than once, I had to tell someone their cultivar was not eligible.

The quirk is, of course, that registration data reflects the climate zone where the cultivar was registered. Something registered as L in FL will not necessarily bloom late here in VA.

I hope that all awards chairs continue to check eligibility on each cultivar. That is essential for awards to have any credibility. It is certainly specified in the P&P that the chair receives when he/she takes office. They just have to read it.

I really did not realize what the above post was about, until I read Will's post about looking for late and very late daylilies and thinking that looking for winners of the Eugene S. Foster award would be a big help in selecting daylilies for his garden that bloom late in the season. I was surprised to read many of them were shown as mid season.
So now it is apparent to me why the above post by floota is so important. Of course people expect the daylily that wins an award would be representative of the reason( category) the award is presented. I had just always assumed that they did, now I will know to double check that.

At first this was confusing to me, but I quickly realized this is a fairly typical situation with daylilies.

We all know that most of the registration data for daylilies is not accurate, or at least can't be counted on to be true for any specific grower. The branching, bud count, foliage type, bloom season, even the look of the bloom-- all can vary significantly depending on where it is grown / the growing conditions. So this is normal and we are used to that.

We just have to remember that the winner of the Eugene S. Foster award is the best late-blooming daylily primarily in the particular climate zone it was hybridized and registered in. If you live in a different climate zone you just have to know that it won't necessary bloom late for you.

Although the climate zone is not part of the daylily registration so that's a bit of a problem. You just have to find some way to know what the daylily's bloom season is in the different climate zones...

Dennis616,
The bloom time and all registration data is based on the flower as it grows in the garden of the hybridizer that registered it. So I think most of us assume that a plant that wins the ESF (Eugene S. Foster) award would have to have been registered as a late or very late. I think this is what floota is referring to by floota when she says that the plants should be confirmed as eligible.
This is a quote from the Judging Daylilies in The Garden 2019 hand book.
"EUGENE S. FOSTER AWARD (1991)
"This award, originally donated by Region 4 but now sponsored by the ADS, consists of a bronze medal and is given annually to the hybridizer of a cultivar registered as late or very late."

In this example the flower is actually registered as an Early that shows to have won the award in 1995.


AHS link: AHS Daylily Cultivar Info
Hybridizer: Kirchhoff-D.
Year of Registration or Introduction: 1981
Foliage type: Semi-evergreen
Scape height: 23 inches
Bloom size: 5 inches
Bloom time: Early
Plant Traits: Extended Bloom
Rebloom
Bloom Traits: Self
Bloom Form: Single
Color description: saffron yellow self with olive green throat
AHS Awards: Honorable Mention: 1986
JC: 1981
ESF: 1995

Weird. I notice it reblooms, so I wonder if back in 1995 it was more about if it bloomed in the late season, and not if it was registered as Late or Very Late. It was 25 years ago, so the rules could have changed. Maybe it hs a tendency to come back and rebloom in October or something? or maybe it just blooms non-stop until late in the season, like some of the Stellas can do. Or maybe it was just misregistered as a late and corrected after 1995. I was talking with a hybridizer once about one he registered as early, but it bloomed mid to late for me. He said is was a mistake when registering, and it was really an ML.

I throw those thoughts out there, because it seems so unlikely that there isn't some kind of logical explanation for this. It's almost crazy to think that an award committee could have missed that it was registered as early and their award was for Late. And not as crazy, but just as bad, that no one checked with someone who grew it to verify it was blooming late for them.

Lyshack said:Weird. I notice it reblooms, so I wonder if back in 1995 it was more about if it bloomed in the late season, and not if it was registered as Late or Very Late. It was 25 years ago, so the rules could have changed. Maybe it hs a tendency to come back and rebloom in October or something?

Looking at the AHS board motions (available on the Members' Portal) in 1996 the award was renewed and the description given included "it is to be awarded annually to the hybridizer of a cultivar registered as LATE or VERY LATE (their caps). The late bloom should be on initial scapes (not rebloom scapes) in an established clump of three or more fans."

It doesn't say what the wording was previously. I'll see if I can find something in the Daylily Journals.

OK, from the Spring 1992 Daylily Journal: "At the 1990 fall meeting of the board of directors, the offer of a national award for late cultivars was acce[ted in principle.......on the following criteria for eligibility:

"A cultivar must have been registered as LATE or VERY LATE and have been introduced two years prior to that year's ballot......"