Don’t Forget to Vote Your Awards & Honors Ballot
2022 ADS Awards & Honors Ballot Voting Deadline is September 1
About Garden Judging
American Daylily Society (ADS) Garden Judges evaluate daylilies as they naturally grow in the garden. Each pretty daylily bloom is more than just its face; that face is attached to the rest of the plant. Garden Judges look at the entire plant.
Garden Judges Workshops 1 and 2 instruction provides the knowledge and tools to consistently and impartially evaluate daylily performance in garden settings. Garden Judges annually vote the ADS Awards & Honors ballot. The Awards and Honors system relies heavily on Garden Judges, because Garden Judges select a majority of the ADS Cultivar Awards each year. Most awards are based on cultivars observed in the Garden Judge’s own region, so it is important to have Garden Judges in each region. Currently each region is allowed to have up to 20% of their membership as Garden Judges.
There is a $5 fee to take each workshop for credit, and a $3 fee to audit a workshop. Daylily lovers often audit workshops simply to learn more about their favorite flower as it grows in the garden.
The 2022 edition of Judging Daylilies in the Garden is informative and helpful, and is available for a free download to AHS members from the ADS Membership Portal Store. The handbook contains a comprehensive illustration of all the various parts of a daylily. My favorite section of this handbook is the informative Chapter 3: Characteristics of Daylilies, which I refer to often. Click HERE, scroll down to the AHS Garden Judges Handbook - updated March 2021 Judging Daylilies In The Garden section, and then click in PDF format here to order the free download version. You can also purchase a printed version of the handbook from Amazon.
Why and How to Become a Garden Judge
Consider becoming a Garden Judge if you love daylilies and want to learn more about them. Garden Judges learn to evaluate foliage, plant vigor, scape height, bud placement, overall beauty and distinction of the bloom and plant, resistance to disease, form, and bloom substance. Garden Judges grow all forms and types of daylilies and visit other daylily gardens in their region.
To begin training as a new Garden Judge, you must have been an AHS member for a minimum of 12 calendar months. When you finish taking Garden Judges Workshops 1 and 2 and are ready to submit your application to become a new Garden Judge, you must have been an AHS member for 24 consecutive months.
Before taking Garden Judges Workshops 1 and 2, you must read and review the 2022 edition of Judging Daylilies in the Garden.
You can take the Garden Judges Workshops in any order. Garden Judges Workshop 1 takes about two hours and is taught by a Garden Judges Instructor (or group of Garden Judges Instructors) in a classroom setting with a PowerPoint presentation. There is a brief (and easy) test at the end of the workshop with a 70% grade required to pass. You can also take both Garden Judges Workshop 1 and the test online when it is periodically offered by ADS.
Garden Judges Workshop 2 takes two to three hours and is taught by a Garden Judge Instructor (or group of Garden Judge Instructors) in a daylily garden during bloom season. Hands-on instruction is provided so students learn to evaluate and point-score registered daylily cultivars and daylily seedlings.
Garden Judges Workshop 2 takes two to three hours and is taught by a Garden Judge Instructor (or group of Garden Judge Instructors) in a daylily garden during bloom season. Hands-on instruction is provided so students learn to evaluate and point-score registered daylily cultivars and daylily seedlings.
When you finish both workshops, the next step is to fill out and submit an Application for Appointment as a Garden Judge form to ADS Garden Judges Records Chair Steve Horan by the October 1 deadline. This application form is in your Garden Judges Workshop 1 and Garden Judges Workshop 2 packet. If you want to vote the current year’s Awards & Honors ballot, don’t wait until October 1—mail the application form to ADS Garden Judges Records Chair Steve Horan right away.
Garden Judge Responsibilities
A Garden Judge's primary responsibility is to annually vote the Awards & Honors Ballot. The voting deadline is September 1. You can either vote online by September 1, or by paper ballot postmarked on or before September 1. Our current ADS Awards & Honors Chair is Rhonda Veroeven.
During your five-year Garden Judge term, you must visit a minimum of 25 daylily gardens during bloom season, including at least 15 in your own region and at least ten different gardens. Garden Judges should visit as many daylily gardens as possible. Keep track of your daylily garden visits on the ADS Garden Judge’s Five-Year Visit Log form.
Garden Judges must take Garden Judges Workshop 2 once during years three through five of their Garden Judge term to renew for another five years as a Garden Judge.
During year five of their term, Garden Judges must fill out and send their Application for Reappointment as an ADS Garden Judge form along with their ADS Garden Judge’s Five-Year Visit Log form to ADS Garden Judges Records Chair Steve Horan by the October 1 deadline. Garden Judges will receive both of these forms in the mail from the ADS Garden Judges Records Chair early in year five of their five-year term. The forms are also available on the ADS Membership Portal on the Garden Judges Home page.
Garden Judges should grow a variety of daylilies of various forms and sizes to see examples of the complete garden plant and to familiarize themselves with all types of daylilies in their gardens. Garden Judges should especially focus on growing daylilies hybridized in their own region. Garden Judges should also attend regional meetings as well as ADS National Conventions, where they will see many daylily gardens.
Garden Judges must pay their ADS membership dues on time.
For more information, contact your region’s Garden Judges Liaison. In Region One, that’s Phil Fass. He is happy to help you and answer all of your questions. You can also contact ADS Garden Judges Records Chair Steve Horan.
Why and How to Become a Garden Judges Instructor
Once you have been a Garden Judge for one full five-year term, you are eligible to apply to become a Garden Judges Instructor. Consider becoming a new Garden Judge Instructor if you are passionate about garden judging, and if you love to help others learn. Each region needs qualified, active Garden Judge Instructors.
To become a new Garden Judges Instructor, you must have served one full five-year term as a Garden Judge. You must also assist an accredited Garden Judges Instructor with instructing one Garden Judges Workshop 1 and one Garden Judges Workshop 2 (in any order). You must then fill out and submit an Application for Appointment ADS Garden Judges Workshop Instructor form and send it to Garden Judges Records Chair Steve Horan by October 1 during the year your qualifications are met.
Becoming a Garden Judge Instructor does not change the timeframe of your Garden Judge term. For example, if you are a Garden Judge in year two of your five-year term and become a new Garden Judge Instructor at that time, you are still in year two of your five-year term.
Once you are a Garden Judges Instructor, you must instruct Garden Judges Workshop 2 once during years three through five of your Garden Judge term to renew for another five years as a Garden Judge and Instructor. There is no fee for instructors to teach Garden Judges Workshops.
Garden Judging—A Privilege and a Responsibility
I am passionate about Garden Judging, and have been a Garden Judge since 2000 and a Garden Judge Instructor since 2004. As a hybridizer, the Garden Judge’s method of evaluating daylilies assists me with selecting seedlings for registration. I examine balance and proportion of scapes to foliage, branching and spacing of buds on branches, foliage, vigor, flower substance and sun resistance, color clarity, etc., and especially look for distinction. As a collector, I want to grow daylilies that make beautiful, healthy clumps and bloom over a long period of time. Garden Judge training provides the tool kit to analyze overall performance of my seedlings, registered cultivars, and the many beautiful daylilies from other hybridizers that dazzle in my garden.
It is an honor to represent my region as a Garden Judge. It is a great privilege and responsibility to vote the annual ADS Awards & Honors Ballot. It’s wonderful to see daylilies on the ballot growing in several gardens throughout my region, where I can evaluate their performance in locations other than my own garden.
Consider adding your voice—become a Garden Judge!
