Re: judging question: increase and bloom
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: judging question: increase and bloom
- From: C*@aol.com
- Date: Thu, 6 Mar 1997 06:41:46 -0700 (MST)
In a message dated 97-03-01 18:51:31 EST, you write:
<< Reviewing my Judge's Handbook last night, I saw something that has always
been a bother to me and I thought I would ask all our resident AIS judges
about it.
In the section of garden judging of TB irises, the criteria under
"durability" seem to contradict those under "floriferousness". The former
say that a TB ought to produce 3-5 increases per year so that the clump
grows at an acceptable rate. That's fine by me. Under "floriferousness"
though, the recommendation is that 25%-75% of the fans in a clump should
bloom each season. The context makes it clear that this is a percentage of
the total fans, including the increases that would provide next year's
bloom.
But an iris that produces 4 increases per rhizome per year (apparently the
ideal for durability) will have at most 20% of the fans blooming.
What gives?
My own take on the subject is that I expect *all* one-year-old rhizomes to
bloom on an established clump, but none of the younger increases. If only a
fraction of last year's fans make bloom stalks, I would deduct points for
floriferousness. If some of "next year's" fans bloom this year, I might add
a few points in that category, but deduct from durability unless there are
an acceptable number of *nonblooming* increases also produced.
Comments? >>
I just read a message from Dana Brown imploring some AIS judges to comment on
Tom Tadfor Little's above quoted remarks. Seems to me that Tom has made
valid observations. I have printed Tom's remarks and am sending them to Roy
Epperson who is now working on the Judge's Handbook revision.
I have long been bothered by that provision re ratio of stalks to fans being
at least 25% but not more than 75%. If I had an iris that had a ratio over
50% I'd be worried----on the other hand, a good increaser can produce 6 or 7
increases per rhizome, and in such a case one could not expect even the 25%.
By holding an iris to the 25% one would penalize the best increasers, which
seems nonsense to me. Clarence Mahan in VA
