There are some changes afoot at the 2010 RHS shows both in judging and exhibiting in the Floral Marquees.
At a recent meeting for show exhibitors with the RHS in London it was announced that the rules for judging exhibits in the Floral Marquees at all RHS shows have been changed for 2010. This is a major step as the rules have not changed for many years. One consequence of these changes is that each exhibit will be judged by fewer people. Another is that there do appear to be more specific criteria on which an exhibit is judged. Each judge will also be able to show his or her feelings individually by giving each criteria a score. The scores will then be combined and that will decide what award an exhibit will be given.
Obviously I have simplified this for the purpose of this article but this is generally what will happen. I am hopeful that this will be a much better way of judging exhibits but only time will tell. It has been frustrating, in the past, to be given criticism by judges at one show only to do what is advised and then be marked down for this at another show. Also there has been a lot of subjectivity in previous judging. One could be marked down for certain colours of plants not being liked for instance.
We have always liked to be creative in all our displays, not always appreciated by the judges in our early days of exhibiting. There are now supposed to be marks awarded positively for creativity. I hope that this will encourage some changes to the displays and give some exhibitors them more confidence to try something different.
Another change is the introduction of 'Themed Stands' where the exhibitors are given a theme to work towards. The winner of the best Themed Stand' will be chosen by the public. We had entered these categories but with the bad weather and the fact that our plants are already at least a month behind their normal growth pattern we have decided to withdraw from the theme and exhibit our usual type of display. We are entering the '25th year Celebration theme' at Malvern Spring Flower Show and hopefully Harrogate Spring Flower Shows(not an RHS show) theme of 'It's Showtime', where we were thrilled to be awarded 1st prize last year.