Re: Iris Shows - Show Biz

In a message dated 98-01-21 19:40:10 EST, Walter asks:

<< 
 	Iris show fanatics use many tactics of showmanship in order to win
 blue ribbons and the rosette for the Best Specimen of the show.  I am
 listing some I have observed and am wondering if any of the following
 tricks might be considered unethical.  
 
 	<snip>  So, is it ethical to:  <thus and so>
  >>

Walter, this happens to be a subject dear to my heart.... this iris show/show
biz subject.

Because that's EXACTLY what an iris show is!   Show Biz!!!  No more, no less.
Not counting seedlings which do often depend on show awards  - an iris show is
the greatest advertisement a club can have for irises.   There is no award
that will be corrupted because an iris won a ribbon in a show..  no mater how
much hocus pocus got it there.   As long as the essential nature of the flower
is not altered... ie, color changed... or maybe wedges on the show bench (I
think the garden wedging is fine...)  - I say ALL'S FAIR.

Judges are looking at irises in the show for perfection according to that
stalk.   When they get to the GARDEN is when the total plant is considered for
worthiness.

An iris show is a way to engage the public in irises...  it's a way to get
your club involved in a project...  the ribbons are fun (not life and death,
although for some, it always is)..  the competition enables a person to look
at a bloomstalk carefully and critically.  The logistics of getting the right
bloom to perfection on the day of the show is nerve-wracking.  AND... the end
result of the entire exercise is NOT ribbons, but rather exposure.  This is
IMHO, folks....   and my opinions always ring clearest in the morning.

Our club has some great stories about folks trying to get that perfect bloom
ready - like the guy who cut his reluctant stalks and put them in his bathroom
with the shower turned on HOT - and then joined his wife's dinner party.  Some
of the irises did open - but he also took the wallpaper off the wall and
almost ended his marriage.

I've personally packed ice around a prize that was going to bloom too soon
(don't remember if it worked), have stored my potential QUEEN OF THE SHOW in
my house's mushroom room - dark and cold, have given a partially opened bloom
"mouth to mouth"... and once I made newspaper hats for all my stalks when a
hail storm was threatened.  My husband came home that night and said that it
looked like the "Charge of the Light Brigade".

It's all show biz.

We have our show in a conservatory... and advertise heavily.  We offer a
People's Choice award, where we ask the public to vote (and then glean their
names/addresses off the ballot for a sale mailing  <-:).  We stage a "mock
show" during the judging in another room where once of our friendliest judges
takes a table full of irises and judges them out loud for an audience so that
they are 1)  occupied  2)  better understand the selection made is not on the
"prettiest"

So, as the saying goes.... my opinions are worth exactly what you paid for
them... but IMHO, an iris show is infinitely more interesting when folks
approach it as "opening night" for the iris season.

Kathy Guest
E. Aurora, NY
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