Judging Stellars

The ideal definition for the Stellar form includes several important characteristics: long, narrow, and pointed ray florets; space between the ray florets; a uniform regular arrangement; a partially involute U-shaped cross-section; and recurving toward the stem.

Note, too, that the minimum depth for a ST is half the diameter, unlike most fully double cultivars that require 3/4 the diameter. Remember that, if you are judging a seedling, trueness to form comprises only 5 of the 28 Form points. On the show bench, however, the deviations from that ideal definition could determine the winner of the class. What are those associated Form faults?

Answer: Just the opposite of the foregoing list including wide ray florets with a round tip a high petal count producing a very dense set of ray florets and, perhaps, great depth, an “informal” appearing distribution of florets, and flat rather than Ushaped florets.

Try to rank order these blooms on the basis of their “elevation” on Form mountain. Camano Pet, above, is the cultivar that served as the starting point for the creation of the Stellar class.

Consequently, the definition was largely written around it, and it would be near the top of the Stellar Form mountain.

How do the three blooms above deviate from this ideal? The orange bloom on the left exhibits ray florets that are clearly U-shaped, but they are somewhat irregularly distributed around the bloom. They give an appearance of an “informal” stellar, rather than a “formal” stellar.

The yellow bloom, in the middle, has narrow pointed ray florets but they are certainly not U-shaped up near the front of the bloom. No doubt they are more U-shaped near the equator of the bloom but they don’t show in this picture. As always, a picture is a difficult basis for classification, but there would appear to be no “extra” space between the ray florets here. They are closely packed, at least from the front view. The florets also exhibit some of the irregular arrangement as the orange bloom.

What deviations from the ideal form definition do you find on the bi-color bloom? The ray florets are long and narrow, but they certainly are not pointed. They are arranged uniformly in a “formal”manner. There is space between the florets. In addition, the florets have a partially involute, U-shaped cross-section. The bottom line, at least as far as we can tell from the picture, is that this bi-colored bloom deviates from ideal form only in that the tips of the florets are not particularly pointed.

Now, if we could only put those pointed tips from any of the other blooms on the end of the bi-color, we would have a nearly perfect match to the ideal definition.

My answer to the foregoing ranking question would be that the bicolor and Camano Pet are close to the mountain peak. The orange is down the hill a bit and the yellow is down far enough to deserve a failing score on “True Form.” Judges: What is a failing score on True Form? (GJD, p.40)