Exhibition Singles

Michael Coulter  Published in the 2012 Year Book

This year I was asked to judge the single classes at the Timaru national show this gave me the opportunity to closely look at the quality of blooms that are being produced and see if the trend that I had observed over recent years has become the normal.

I have a concern that the standard of quality for singles is not being followed and the blooms on the show bench are not up to exhibition standard. I will give what I believe that standard is:

• Blooms should have between 3 to 5 rows of petals. Rows of petals must be complete without half rows.

•  Petals must be horizontal to the stem and not droop down or stick up be straight out from the disc not twisted or over lapping each other. Central disc must be round without any distortion and be approximately one third the diameter of the bloom (there is some room for variation here as long as the disc looks in proportion with size of the petals).

•  The bloom must be at right angles to the stem.

•  The central disc should be fresh yellow without all the stigmas showing.

•  Petals must be fresh without blemish and even colour typical of the cultivar.

 So what is the problem?

Many of the blooms that I have seen lately look to me to be lacking in form, too many rows of petals, in some cultivars not enough petals, too many blooms having half rows of petals, out of proportion discs, not fresh and I think too bloated with too long petals which hang down.

What can we do about it?

The way the plants are being grown is the key to the problem. I think the best way to grow singles is the traditional method. A short summary is as follows.

Always stop at least twice, do not stop too soon, carry 6 to 8 blooms per plant, select the most even branches only, keep plants growing at a steady rate without checks, do not over feed and of course regular pest and disease control. Stopping dates vary through out the country so I have not given any.

Remember singles should be neat tidy blooms so it is not good to push them beyond their limits by over feeding which I think is the main cause of the lack of quality of blooms that I have seen in recent years