Do you see what I see? | Daylily Blog on "the eye."..

That's me.  Third from the left in the white jacket - smiling at a very entertaining and unique sight as a judge of an Atlanta-area daylily show.  

Along with fourteen other judges, I saw some amazing exhibits.  Many hybridizers were represented, and many blue ribbons were won.  Someone sent me the above photo on Facebook.  Bill Waldrop might have taken it, and I love it and distinctly remember the moment it was shot.

Now here is my own photo of what I was looking at in the above photo...

4 near perfect exhibits of H 'Lydia's Regal Robe' entered by 4 different exhibitors!  

What a treat for the hybridizer and the judges to see it represented so well.  We lamented over the awarding of the Purple Ribbon winner.  See, in shows, if  more than one of the same cultivar is entered in the show (in this case 4 scapes of the same cultivar were brought) the rules only allow one of them to receive a purple, only one can win blue, only one can win red.  Even if they all score enough points to win a purple, only one of them can win it.  So, all of these were near perfect, so we had to choose one winner, and leave one with nothing at all.  What a rip off for the third runner-up in this case, but that is the rule.  You can tell in the picture above which flower won which award...

I love that we caught both sides of this quandary on film and I could capture it here to remember.  

This was a great competition among 4 great competitors.  It really caused my panel to use concise measurements and detailed judging.  

Every grain of pollen out of place counted negatively!  

Every blemish on an otherwise black-velvety surface subtracted points!  

What a race!

flowers do what they do

despite our moods and motions

to be something else!