2012 Daylily Shows: Atlanta/Cobb County Georgia

On June 9th, I arrived at the Cobb Galleria Centre early in the morning to soak in the atmosphere of potentially the largest daylily show in the country, and find some zen before starting to serve as a judge for this show.

Two clubs in the Atlanta area come together to put of this event, and I am happy to report that they did not disappoint in 2012. 368 scapes were judged, and scads of purple ribbons (flowers that scored at least 95 of 100 points) were awarded!

In this same mall, as if the largest daylily show wasn't enough, they were also hosting a very large knife show, which made the parking lots and entrances very colorful places to overhear curious conversation, read t-shirt slogans and hear politicians stump for support. I passed by a conference room holding a seminar entitled "Surviving Civil Unrest." A title that could very well be related to the daylily show! (I kid.) A very interesting mini-study in political science and sociology nonetheless. Many of the knife-wielders also seemed to have green thumbs! Many patrons to the daylily sale put on at this show were from the knife group!
You never know where the next daylily addict will come from...

The mall location provided natural light, which allowed the daylilies to sparkle and show off their substance and texture. This view below is of all the large flowers (registered 4.5" and up to 7"). My panel judged only a piece of this section. The winner of all these flowers ended up being H. 'Kennesaw Mountain Hayride.' It was a tough decision.

Below is the sale/education/social area of the show. These members sold daylilies and talked about our favorite flower all day and I think they made good money doing it!

Two tables butted up against each other provided for deep displays. The clear bottles serving as the perfect foil for dripping color above. Clear containers and white tablecloths brought out the color clarity - as there were no competing colors to distract the judges eye from the bloom...

What I enjoy about judging out of state is the different mix of flowers exhibited. In Michigan and Ohio, I would have never seen the majority of the flowers exhibited in Georgia. Each region has its "ringers" that can always be counted on to show up and place at exhibitions. In Georgia, those stand-bys are different than other places. That is an awesome aspect of the daylily show in a public place- exposure for daylilies growing well in that geographic area. I saw many show visitors writing down names and addresses to contact exhibitors about flowers they saw at the show. I am sure many sales are made after a great exhibit at a show. (another benefit for hybridizers to show...increased sales!)

The two clubs also planned a wonderful sit-down lunch for about 100 people, complete with the announcements of the award winners and a great kudo fest. These two clubs really did a wonderful job under the leadership of Diana Waldrop. I didn't get any shots of the lunch because I was too busy trying to steal another piece of that delicious strawberry cake.

What is even more spectacular about this show is I got to meet Beth, the writer from Daylily Soup. She and her husband (an engineer who is drafting plans for the best daylily transporter ever) drove in almost 4 hours just to see the show! She is just a joy and full of enthusiasm for all things daylilies. Ill keep blogging as long as there are people like Beth to meet. Her excitement fuels mine, and I was thankful she came to chat. Here we are cheesing for the paparazzi:

Here are the winners...RED ICICLE, AT JACK'S, HEAVENLY UNITED WE STAND, BROOKWOOD BLACK KITTEN, KENNESAW MOUNTAIN HAYRIDE and ORANGE VELVET.

The Best In Show award went to Claude Carpenter's exhibit of H. 'Artic Tern.' He also took home the Sweepstakes award, and that is also his exhibit of H. 'Heavenly United We Stand.' What a great competitor!