CHRYSANTHEMUMS in ABERDEEN - chrysanthemum judging

This page describes some (but by no means all) of the elements involved in chrysanthemum judging. This page aims to give the reader a very high level view of some of the aspects that the chrysanthemum judge is looking for when chrysanthemums are exhibited.

The National Chrysanthemum Society (N.C.S.) has a very clear system for judging the various types of chrysanthemums. This includes tables that allocate points to each aspect of quality based on relative importance. There is also a faults and penalties table to help judges determine the relative severity of particular faults.

However the N.C.S.Executive Committee have requested that no detailed information about the points system and faults and penalties system be reproduced here.

The following topics are included on this page:
- Overview of considerations and relative importance
- Common faults
- Definitions
- Illustrations (link)

The major considerations when judging are:
FORM, SIZE, FRESHNESS, COLOUR, UNIFORMITY, STAGING and FOLIAGE.

For example, for disbudded blooms such as Reflexed or Incurved FORM is considered most important, whereas STAGING and FOLIAGE are considered less important.

	Disbuds	Large and Medium Exhibition	Natural Sprays	Exhibition Sprays
Form	1st	3rd
Size	2nd=	1st=
Freshness	2nd=	1st=
Colour	4th	4th
Uniformity	5th
Foliage	6th=		3rd	4th
Staging	6th=
Foliage and Staging		5th
Bloom quality			1st(2)	1st (1)
Spray quality				2nd (3)
Overall effect			2nd(4)	3rd (4)

Note 1 - Bloom Quality Exhibition Sprays
This aspect of quality breaks down into the following: FRESHNESS (1st), FORM (2nd), COLOUR (3rd) SIZE (4th)

Note 2 - Bloom Quality Natural Sprays
This aspect of quality breaks down into the following: FRESHNESS (1st), COLOUR (2nd=), FORM (2nd=),

Note 3 - Spray Quality Exhibition sprays
This aspect of quality breaks down into the following: FORM (1st=), UNIFORM PLACEMENT & DEVELOPMENT (1st=)

Note 4 - Overall Effect Exhibition and Natural sprays
For Natural sprays this aspect covers PROGRESSION OF DEVELOPMENT and STAGING
For Exhibition Sprays this aspect covers STAGING and NUMBER OF BLOOMS

The list below contains just a few examples of the common faults that the judge may encounter and an indication of the seriousness of each of the faults described. This is by no means a complete list of the faults that can be found in chrysanthemums.

	Severity level
FORM:
Blooms lacking in depth	Serious
Daisy eye	Very Serious
Centres underdeveloped	Less Serious
SIZE:
Blooms well down on size	Serious to very serious
Blooms slightly down on size	Less Serious
FRESHNESS:
Basal florets tired	Serious
Bloom or blooms badly damaged	Serious to very serious
COLOUR:
Colour very poor for cultivar	Serious
Colour faded at the base	Serious
FOLIAGE:
Badly diseased foliage	Serious+
Absence of foliage on the stem	Serious+
STAGING:
Packing visible and untidy	Less Serious
Poor bloom spacing	Less Serious

Further guidance is also given for each chrysanthemum type, e.g. Incurved, Reflexed, Singles, Sprays, Pompons. In all there are well over 100 possible faults that a judge may encounter.

Aspect of quality	Definition
Form	Form means the approved shape of the flower as specified for it's type at it's most perfect stage of development.
Size	Size means a full-sized specimen in keeping with the recognised normal full sixe for the cultivar concerned.
Freshness	Freshness requires that florets should be unblemished and fresh to the tip.
Colour	Colour means that which is typical of good colour for the cultivar concerned.
Uniformity	Uniformity means that blooms of the same cultivar exhibited in the same vase should be uniform in terms of size, form and colour.
Other definitions
Natural Spray	A Natural Spray is a lateral with flowers ranging from bud to fully developed and conforming to one of the accepted spray forms.
Exhibition Spray	An Exhibition spray is a lateral with only one flower on each pedicel emerging from the lateral.

This link will take you to a separate page showing examples of chrysanthemum types:

If you would like further information or wish to comment on this publication please send your e-mail to: paul.barlow@chrysanthemums.info