I wasn’t going to write a report of this years Judges’ Course because we reported it just two years ago. However Barry and I had a great time and we thought you might be interested. Read on…
Yippee the Ed and the Hon Show Sec are off to the JC again this year. As you probably know the Ed is a qualified Cactus Judge, (but not yet the OS), how come Barry hasn’t qualified yet? Especially since Barry knows loads more than the Ed. This is one of those quirks of taking an exam to qualify. Barry hates exams!
However, here we are in the car park at Moulton College in early September and the car boots are open just in case you want to look in and buy a few bits or pieces. Local member Tina snuck up to plunder the riches. Well, why not? I have a snap of her goody tray – there were some goody goodies there! Looking carefully at her ‘trophies’ I noticed something rather different. The picture below shows a plant labelled Pelecyphora aselliformis. Over the years I have peered down many macro lenses to take definitive close-up views of the strange areoles of this species. Fascinating! Over the years I have also poured on insecticides to kill the red spider mite that love this plant, so be warned.
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The specific name means like a woodlouse but I have never seen a hairy woodlouse before… Now the problem is, is this just caused by the grafting or is this some super new form (doubtless from Japan) that we should all be growing? Incidentally the species does grow easily on its own roots but painfully slowly. I caught vendor David Rushforth and asked him about the plant… ‘Yes, it was a form of aselliformis he called ‘monstrosus’ Had he any more? Well unfortunately not. So then Tina, when you visit the Wray cactorum and scrounge all those delectables don’t forget they will be held hostage against the first offset on your ‘monstrosus’ Pelecyphora. By the way Tina, after you left the bargains really arrived – I spent nearly 20 quid from one car boot alone, well not just from the boot, we had to look into the doors as well.. |
| When you go to the Judges’ Course you know that you are going to see ‘strange’ things. I was just amazed when the appearance of a red jumper produced a cheer from the cognoscenti, also the usual ribald comments from the riffraff element. It appears that the jumper in question is a rare heirloom of the society. Hand darned with the legend NCSS, when such things were done, this relic was over-hand-darned with BCSS when the NCSS and GB Societies amalgamated. You must understand that this was the politically correct thing to do in 1983 ish. However the owner felt that a few years ago (and perhaps when the over-darning began to fade), that he could revert to the original and unpicked the ‘B’. Where have you seen this before? Surely you looked at our report on the National Show in 2004 where that particular red jumper smacked you in the eye better than a half ton of Euphorbia? |
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To qualify as a BCSS judge you have to be able to eat three cooked meals a day (an extra fried egg at breakfast will focus the brain they say), sit on an uncomfortable chair (at an informal slide session) until 2am discussing the taller plants of Brazil or the Sulco thingies of somewhere (while drinking four pints of extra strong something and I don’t mean tea) and then complete (and pass) a simple test on Sunday morning. Our inside reporter and good friend, DH from somewhere to the north, says it is easy and he has been doing it for years. An identification test is a vital part of the Judges’ Course. If you don’t know what they are how can you judge them? (They say.) There was a report this year that the plant that everyone identified as an Aeonium, (including the committee), was, in fact, an Aichryson. (A what? Even the Ed’s spell checker can’t suggest a sensible suggestion.) Well the World (or at least the BCSS) expert on Aeoniums, Ray Stephenson and also the DH mentioned above (curse him) both agreed. (Read the expert opinion.) Oh well, that’s the Ed’s chances of qualifying shot to pieces. By the way this Aich what-ever-it is had six petals and Aeonium a lot more. It was such a weed I didn’t even take a picture of it. I hope you will remember this if you ever make the long journey to Moulton, Northamptonshire.
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Before reading on - what is wrong in this class for three cacti? |
While we were taking the Judges’ test you naturally look for NAS plants. Not NASing any NAS plant may mean failing the test. Wrongly NASing a winning plant is even worse. I did this two years ago. NAS means ‘Not According to Schedule’ – you surely knew this? (You will if you attend the Judges’ Course.) I was standing next to an experienced judge who kept looking very carefully at the four plant entry in a class for three 110 mm plants. (Surely you noticed this in the picture above?) Of course if it had been our Barry I would have given him a cough and a nudge, (just joking) but you never know if there are ‘agent provocateurs’. Barry and I both looked hard at number 5 in the identification test for cacti. In the quick glance I had written Lobivia ? (and I was thinking Lobivia rebutioides). Barry was thinking he had both Lobivias and Rebutias that looked just like that. A very close look at the areoles had me correctly changing the choice to Rebutia. Where I changed my mind in the other succulents I was wrong!
| After the test the Shows
committee gave us the official version and this is probably the most
instructive part of the weekend. When you have looked at the immaculate
top three inches of a plant and pondered the disgusting lower two inches
the commentator will give you the committee version of whether that plant
is good or bad. If you thought that a new ‘name’ might be a choice
plant you quickly found that specimen was a year old and grew into a
jungle after three years. Knowing the plants, or at least most of them, is
what judging is about. However, when in doubt, ‘condition’ has an
awful lot of points attached to it!
Bearing in mind that the assessors are looking for the first three plants in any order, I was pleased to get several absolutely correct. Also many generally correct. It may not surprise you that I got the best Mammillaria second and the next two unplaced. Also, do not ask me to judge any Aloes, or at least any supplied and assessed by the Shows committee. I scored a fat zero there. There were some very weird things exhibited! |
Cathy Darbon gives us the official winners in a class from the test. I hope our Barry was paying attention! |
All in all the opportunity to judge the Show Committee’s show is a great experience, even as an examination. We will never see such a range (and quality) of plants at branch level and I doubt at Zone level for many years, if ever. However I expect that there would be far fewer NAS plants in a real show. At branch level this would just show that our stewards were asleep! There was a little bit of shuffling this year before and even (whoops) during the judging!
Some ‘candidates’ were very nervous and frightened of not passing the test. I am sure that everyone will learn something from the course and whether they pass or not they will return to their branches and spread their knowledge of plants and the techniques of judging among other members. I think this is the real benefit of the Judges’ Course. With sufficient experience of ‘our’ plants everyone could become a judge and then they too would be hooting with derision when the ‘committee’ show a slide of a pink flowered plant alleged to be a Mila. Come on, you know that can’t be right!
Trev
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Plant ID from page 3; The plant is a Neowerdermannia (a nightmare to spell), and the spineless flowers are a great clue. If, like me, you thought this was a Gymnocalycium you will have at least got the Show Group correct |
