FLOWER SHOW SCHOOLS
1. Most garden club members are aware that
eligibility for a design class in which the Tricolor
Award is being
offered are required to use only fresh plant material with non-plant material
being optional.
Dried plant material is prohibited.
Confusion then arises concerning whether
products manufactured or professionally crafted from
plant material may ever be incorporated
into such designs. Items such as wooden frames, pedestals, and
backgrounds, paper, cardboard,
milled lumber, cotton or linen fabrics, baskets,
rope, etc. were originally plant material before
their new status.
Should a strict interpretation of their plant material origin exclude
them from
use in classes eligible for the Tricolor Award?
This problem was reviewed by the NGC Flower
Show Schools Committee. It concluded
that
“Any plant material
altered by manufacturing or professional crafting and given a specific name
other than plant material should not be considered
as plant material for design purposes, and
may be included in a design eligible for the
Tricolor Award. However, dried plant
material that
has merely been treated, trimmed or cut remains
as original plant material and is not permitted in
a Tricolor class.” Examples of these are
painted or lacquered branches, stems, bark, tree trunks,
slab of trunk or tree, foliage, seeds, etc. Common sense should resolve most of these
problems.
A schedule writer may still choose to
restrict the use of products manufactured or
professionally crafted from plant material from a section
eligible for the Tricolor Award, but if
so, the schedule must state this in the Design
Rules.
2. A change has been made in the procedure for
issuing Accredited Judges Certificate Cards to
individuals who are first time Accredited Judges, Level
2. It was implemented at the time of the
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Fall, 2003 Handbook
Examination, but in order to continue with this new procedure, a Handbook
change is necessary.
The new procedure is: After the Handbook
Examinations have been graded, they are returned
to the State FSS Chairmen, along with Form
#5B. At this time the form has only
numbers, not
names, to identify each Student Judge having taken
the test. State FSS Chairman then enters
names and addresses on the form and returns it,
along with Judges’ Certificate Applications,
Form #3B, and a
check representing the $5.00 fee for each new Judge, to the appropriate Area
Handbook Examination
Chairman. No further mailings from the
State Chairmen are necessary
for the Handbook Examination Committee assumes
the responsibility for issuing Certificate
Cards and mailing
Forms #3B and checks to Headquarters.
To conform to this new procedure, please
change Handbook, p. 159, D, 1 to read “State
FSS
Chairman forwards applications and checks,
along with Form #5B, to Area Handbook
Examination
Chairman for Certificate Cards and Headquarters’
processing.
Student Judges in
acquiring their exhibiting and judging credits.
However, it is felt
a judging
credit earned by merely judging any three
classes of a Standard Flower Show, as the Handbook
currently states, does not provide sufficient
experience for a potential Accredited Judge.
Frequently, the
credit could be earned with as few as one horticulture exhibit in each of the
three
required classes, or in the Special Exhibits
Division. Certainly that does not
provide enough
practical judging opportunity in the major
divisions. Therefore, the following
Handbook change
will go into effect
“1) Student Judge and/or Accredited Judge, Level 2 serves
for minimum of three classes in the
Horticulture Division and three classes in the Design Division.
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2) Second Student Judge and/or Accredited Judge, Level 2, can then replace first, serve for
next minimum of
three classes in Horticulture Division
and three classes in Design
Division, third
Student Judge likewise, etc.”
4. The Required
This book is no
longer in print. Therefore, after consulting with many of the NGC Horticulture
Instructors, two
smaller books were selected to replace it.
They are: “The New Flower
Expert” and “Tree and Shrub Expert” , both by Dr.
D.G. Hessayon.
“The House Plant Expert”
by Hessayon remains
on the Required Reading List, as does “Hortulana” by Garden Club of
The new selections have several advantages
over the old text. Each focuses on
specific
subject matter covered in the various courses, and
the appropriate book can easily be brought to
the flower show course because of its size and
lighter weight. Then too, combined, they
are less
expensive. All
of these books make excellent gifts to flower show award winners and other
gardening friends.
These new Required Reading books will
affect all courses scheduled after
For those
Horticulture Instructors who may have already submitted materials for approval
to the
Area Accrediting
Chairman for September courses, changes need not be made. However, it’s
important that the information relative to any
questions/answers taken from “Encyclopedia
of
Gardening” be included in the lecture for those classes.
Additionally, “A Guide to Exhibiting and Judging Fruits, Vegetables and Nuts” by
the Garden
Club of
Member
Services.
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5. An up-dated form has been designed for
“Accredited-Life and Accredited-Master Judges
Certificate of Good
Standing” Typically,
State Judges’ Credentials Chairmen distribute this
form at the conclusion of a symposium to those
Accredited-Life and Accredited-Master Judges
who have fulfilled the requirement of full
attendance at a FS Refresher. A
duplicate copy (pink)
for the State Judges’ Credentials Chairman’s
files has been added to the form-tablets, which are
now available through NGC Headquarters.
6. Additional Handbook clarifications:
a. HB, p. 135: Creative Line, 1a and Creative
Line-Mass Design, 1 –
Change “circular” to “curvilinear”.
b. HB, p. 30 General Horticulture Award
Requirements –
Add to I, A: “8.
No section may be eligible for more than
one sectional Top Exhibitor
Award.”
This ruling has not been changed. It was merely omitted from the Handbook.
For consistency, p. 32 General Design
Award Requirements, II, A, 4 –
Delete “(exception: Holiday Excellence
Award) and insert “sectional” after “one”.
Sentence
will then read “No section may be eligible for more than
one sectional Top Exhibitor
Design Award.”
This ruling would not ever apply to
the Award of Horticultural Excellence in the
Horticulture Division or the Holiday
Excellence Award in the Design Division as they are
both divisional
awards.
c. HB, p. 151, 3a and b –
In “a” please delete the word “May” and
change “include” to “Includes”. Also
delete
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parentheses and
begin a new sentence with “If required, schedule must designate as Type 1.
3a will then read: “Includes a decorative unit/s. If
required, schedule must designate as
Type 1.”
3b: Delete parentheses and begin a
new sentence with “If required, schedule must
designate as Type
2.
3b will then read “Instead
of a decorative unit, plant material/s may be placed where
needed to carry rhythm and show coordination of all
appointments without being
restricted to a container.
If required, schedule must designate as Type 2.”
d. HB, p. 137, Framed Spatial Design, 2c –
Because the word “volume” is used, this
sentence implies that not only are the height and
width of the
design determined by the dimensions of the frame, but also the depth. This was
never the intent
of the design type. Therefore, please
change from “It appears to float like a
frozen sculpture
in a volume of space defined by frame” to “It appears to float like a frozen
sculpture in a
volume of space in which height and
width only are defined by frame.”
e. HB, p. 157, –
When the revised Flower Show School
Curriculum was implemented, this statement
should have been added to the requirements
prior to taking the Handbook Examination.
Please insert “3e Student
Judge must submit and pass the schedule writing
assignment.”
Harriet Osborne, NGC FSS Chairman
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