Exhibiting and Judging Historic Daffodils

Historic daffodils are cultivars registered before 1940. The date was chosen because World War II interrupted work in hybridizing and registering daffodils and because considerable progress in form and substance appeared after the war. Consequently, there is a different point scale for judging historic daffodils, and judges must become familiar with it. There has been a revived interest in the historic daffodils, so the ADS has created sections and awards for them in daffodil shows. They may not have the elegance of some of the modern daffodils, but they have their own charm. The ones available today are obviously robust growers or they would not have survived for so many years. Unfortunately, misnaming and confusion have crept in over the years, and some of the historic cultivars have been sold with incorrect names. This presentation shows the more commonly available historic cultivars and also points out the differences between similarly appearing cultivars. The presentation consists of two PDF files. One file is the “slide” program with the photographs, and the other file is the script (commentary) about the slides. The slide program has 94 slides. The script is 19 pages (Fear not, it has really big print!). It’s advisable to print the script on paper so you can read it while viewing the slides. If you’re not familiar with PDF, click on the “About PDF” in the sidebar.

Exhibiting and Judging Historic Daffodils (slide program)

Exhibiting and Judging Historic Daffodils Script (commentary)