Judging at the National Dahlia Show
March 2021
This year will be a great year to be a judge since we are hosting the American Dahlia Society National Show on the weekend of Sept. 9-12 in Wooster. If members who have participated in judge training would like to join our judging group, e-mail me at judging@dahliasocietyofohio.org. The only critical thing you need to do in order to get started is to become a member of the ADS. The show will provide you with the opportunity to work with some of the best and most widely experienced judges in North America. We plan to limit judging at the show to those who have received the Covid-19 vaccination.
Most of our recent judge training sessions have focused on judging seedlings. That emphasis provides an excellent foundation for show judging, but there are some important differences. In shows, you are comparing the merits of one bloom to another; in judging seedlings, you are comparing the entry against perfection. The relative values of Form, Color, Substance, Stem, Foliage, Uniformity, and Distinction that you learn in judging seedlings provides the foundation for evaluating entries with different faults.
For example, if you have an entry in a class that is slightly top-facing competing against another entry with a couple of wolf petals, for example, which bloom would you choose as the better entry and why? I hope you said you chose the top-facing bloom because Color counts for 22 points while Bloom Position only five points. Wolf petals are a serious color fault while slight top facing is a minor bloom position fault,
As a member of a show judging team, you have a responsibility to be an active member. A fundamental part of this responsibility is to respectfully listen to (and actually hear and learn from!) the views of the other team members. Another part is to provide your perspective on the entries based on your knowledge of the judging manual and your previous experience. Another is to adopt and support the team decision even if it is different from your initial perspective.
Because the National Show will also be the 2021 DSO Show, you will be largely familiar with the show schedule, the rules for entries, and the general directions to the judges from the Judging Chairman. If you were judging somewhere away from the Midwest Conference, you would need to take great care to understand the local expectations, which can differ rather dramatically from ours.
The team shares several responsibilities in judging a show section. Perhaps the most basic one is to be certain that every entry is examined. Never set an entry to the back of the table as inferior without letting the whole team agree that it is appropriate to do so. You also need to be sure that all the entries in your section belong there. Misplaced entries should be moved to the correct section as soon as possible. Cultivars should be entered according to the most recent “Classification and Handbook of Dahlias (CHD).” Seedlings not yet in the book need to be classified by the show Classification Committee and bear their assignment on the tag.
Your evaluations of the blooms should be based on your knowledge and experience, not just the comments of others. A useful tool is the back of the seedling scorecard that lists desirable and undesirable characteristics of an entry. It is in the back of the CHD, but the print is very small whereas the scorecard allows you to carry a full-size copy with you. Refer to it to help make sure you identify the positives and the negatives of each entry. Be sure to consider both the severity of the faults you see and the relative values of the characteristics. That is, a severe form fault should be more important in your decisions than a severe stem fault. Your judging team leader should ask for your input on the best in class relatively quickly so be sure that you examine every entry and identify your top candidates as quickly as possible. Once your team has agreed on, say, the top five best entries you need to weigh your teammates’ observations against your observations and be prepared to present your reasons for disagreeing. Here is where the majority rules, and you need to accept the majority view and learn from the discussion.
If you had the privilege of judging with and learning from Glenn Ruth, you know Glenn’s bottom line: Always remember that the judging process should be an enjoyable learning experience. If you approach the process as Glenn did, you will have fun and learn something.
