SHOW: Multiple Entries of One Cultivar

In a message dated 1/18/01 7:07:05 PM Mountain Standard Time, 
jcwalters@bridgernet.com writes:

<< 
 The practice you have described does not appear to be consistent with the
 statement in the current (1998) AIS Handbook for Judges and Show Officials
 (p. 37) that "Each exhibitor is permitted to enter only one stalk of any
 particular variety (except in collection groups)".
 
 As we interpret this rule in our schedule, an exhibitor would not be
 permitted to enter one stalk of STEPPING OUT in the TB Section and another
 in the Historic Section, for example. >>

I think this is an excellent example of how rules evolve through the years.  

I first ran into the question back in the '70s, when our local society 
changed from the old-style color-class to the newer cultivar-class show.  The 
'69 Handbook (pp. 18-19) had two rules that could be invoked:

"General Provisions 
# 8 Exhibition privileges must be available to all persons....
b) Where limitation seems the only feasible answer, it should be in the 
number of entries which any one exhibitor may make.

...

#10 ... The number of entries which an exhibitor may make in any one class is 
left to the jurisdiction of the local sponsoring organization."

By the standards of the time, a horticultural "class" in a cultivar-based 
show was a Cultivar within a Section of the Horticultural Division.  For 
example, an individual could certainly enter one stalk of MME. CHEREAU in the 
TB section and another in the Antique Section.  (Aside:  this was the 
pre-HIPS era, when the term "Antique" was widely used.)  

If the show officials allowed it, he/she could even enter several stalks of 
MME. CHEREAU to compete against each other within one of those classes.  I'm 
trying to report objectively here, sitting firmly astride the fence -- so 
I'll just say that some favored this because it resulted in a larger show for 
the public's enjoyment while others opposed it as giving an unfair advantage 
to larger growers.

This anomaly was really a legacy of the old color-class system, so in the end 
"Fairness" prevailed over "Public Relations" and the '85 Handbook brought a 
new rule for the Horticultural Division (p. C-3):

"Each exhibitor is permitted to enter only one stalk of any particular 
variety (except in collection classes), and no restrictions can be placed on 
cultural conditions or methods used in growing the irises."

This not only eliminated the possibility of an individual entering several 
stalks to compete against each other in the same class, but also forced 
exhibitors to chose a single class within the Horticultural Division in which 
to enter a cultivar that qualified for more than one.  It did NOT, however, 
extend beyond that Division.  

Not that I've ever had enough TB bloom to actually do this, but under those 
rules I could still have shown up with a bucketful of MME. CHEREAU and 
entered:

1.  A single specimen in the Horticultural Division.
2.  A collection in the Horticultural Division.
3.  An Educational Exhibit that included MME. CHEREAU.
4.  One or more English Boxes that included MME. CHEREAU.
5.  One or more Artistic Arrangements that included MME. CHEREAU.

All five would have been legal because there were no restrictions concerning 
duplication between Divisions and no restrictions on the specific cultivars 
used in English Boxes and Artistic Arrangements.  The number of entries 
possible in #4 & 5 would depend on the schedule itself, limited only by the 
need to meet the criteria for each class!

Jeff -- please indulge me this time, because none of the books I've acquired 
since 1997 are accessible right now so I can't look this up in the '98 
Handbook for myself.  Are you saying that it re-states the '85 rule in plain 
English, as it applies to the Horticultural Division?  Or that it actually 
extends the prohibition beyond it to other Divisions as well?

Sharon McAllister
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