So you want to earn some blue ribbons, well, you've stumbled on the solution; show collections. Collections have less competition, as most of the entries will be in the single stem categories. And, collections are a lot of fun. I'm constantly being asked why I always show collections. Other than it's how I learned to show daffodils, I get a lot of satisfaction out of creating a show category and entering it into the show.
I started showing collections because my mother-in-law, Marie Bozievich, did it that way and taught me. She told me that showing daffodils was the "displaying of daffodils as collections of art." Those that knew her know that she was an artist of some note. To her, the single stem categories where for the "new" people getting started in daffodils. She didn't want to take those ribbons away from the newer "showers." She did, however, like to enter vases of three and planted her daffodil garden toward having multiple daffodils of the same variety in bloom at the same time for the show. Those traits rubbed off on me and directly reflects on my showing habits.
For purposes of discussion, let's agree that the definition of collections are five or more daffodils shown together as one show category. (However, let us consider three of any one variety shown together to be a sub-set of collections). There are some collections that are made up of multiple vases of three shown together, such as the Bronze Ribbon.
I started out by showing the daffodils in bloom that I had in the garden at the time of the show. I'd advise a new collection shower to do the same. My first collections were in the divisional collections of five, e.g., five trumpets, five double daffodils, five poets. There are also ADS collections, such as the collections of five white, or five pink, or five red/orange cupped, or five yellow daffodils, etc. My first collection win was the Washington Daffodil Show Novice Award for the best collection of five standard daffodils. I figured I could do that, and I found that it worked. My garden delivered for me and I entered the novice collection of five. Along with winning that Novice award collection of five, I won the best collection of five in the show and the Gold Ribbon for the best daffodil in the show with that one collection.
However, it was apparent to me that my small number of daffodil varieties was not enough to be successful. I needed more varieties and a bigger numbers of varieties to make selections to chose from. I started my list of show daffodils by going around the show hall and recording all the winners on the show bench. The following week I went to the American Daffodil Society's National Convention and Show in Baltimore, MD, and did the same thing. I collected the list of the blue ribbon winners by name and color codes. I obtained a recent Royal Horticulture Society Journal and read the reviews of their shows, and made more lists by name and division. My daffodil lists were beginning to get long. I consolidated the list, noting the many winners that won more than once and recorded the numbers of wins for each variety. I divided the list into the daffodil divisions, and started noting the best of each division, as well as the divisions that were not very well represented in the winning columns.
Over the next couple of years, I made a determined effort to increase my holdings of the various "superior" varieties that I did not have. I continued to refine my list, and show what I had in the Garden. Along the way, a member of the local daffodil society shared with me her list of show quality daffodils by divisions and subdivisions. By my third year of showing I won my first Quinn collection of 24 stems.
I begin to make note that some of the keys for showing and winning in collections is to have enough daffodils to show, that includes the early, middle, and late season daffodils in all 13 divisions. Many of the experienced showers were telling me that you had to have a certain number of daffodils to stage a large collection. For instance, I'm told that one needs 150 daffodils to make one collection of 24 for the Quinn. I usually do it with about 50, by starting the culling in my garden and only cutting those daffodils that looked like they are 100 points in the field. My experience by doing taught that the most important key ingredient to successful showing is to have daffodils that bloom during the time of the month of the local daffodil in my area. As I stated before,you have to show the daffodils in your garden.
I also discovered that my garden had many micro-climates. I planted the same daffodil variety in the different micro-climates with the objective of having blooms during my daffodil show season. The micro-climates helped me to adjust to seasonal climate fluxations as the only thing that is normal about growing daffodils is that there is no "normal" weather conditions, or normal time that daffodils will bloom. You can expect them to be either too early or too late. I use the micro-climates to adjust my daffodils a few days to get the bloom at the time it is needed.
In summary, the key to showing collections is:
Good luck.
This page last updated March, 2004.