NMDS Committee Meeting – Dahlia Show 2025
Albuquerque Garden Center, May 25, 2025

Edith Iwan

Sue Isley, Diane Kolb, Bill Shen, Aaron Greenwood chatting before the meeting.

Present: Edith Iwan, Sue Isley, Aaron Greenwood, Maureen Carson, & Diane Kolb
Purpose: Put together the 2025 NMDS Dahlia Festival

Diane has already drawn up a placement of tables for the show. There was discussion that the north wall counter-space may be used for Best of Class & Show if designs would fit on the east wall. Another option is to use the west wall with a tier on the tables.

1. Adding categories of dahlias:
Keep Classes 1-18 (AA, A, B, BB, M, Ball, Waterlily, Stellar, & all the open center)
a. Class 19 Micro-Collarette, Micro-Peony, Micro-Orchid, and any other Micro-dahlias
b. Class 20 Seedlings
c. Class 21 Dahlia Flower of the Year – Eldon Wilson
d. Class 22 Classified 3 of a Kind
e. Class 23 Classified 5 of a Kind
f. Class 24 Dahlia Market Bunch

2. Handling entries. Diane had an example tag with the dahlia name “Eldon Wilson”, class number “10”, along with the ADS classification number “7002”. How to handle dahlias with name unknown or not in the Classification book will be discussed at future meetings.

3. Adding entry categories:
a. Junior – anyone age 17 and younger
b. Novice – adults inexperienced with showing dahlias

4. Adding special award ribbons.
a. All categories on dahlias from previous years plus the additional classes
b. Best Junior and Novice dahlia
c. Largest and smallest dahlia
d. Best fully double and best open-faced dahlia
e. Sweepstakes – Most blue ribbons in Horticulture and most blue ribbons in Design
f. Dahlia Flower of the Year
g. Ugly Duckling Dahlia

5. Unsolved question: How to arrange People’s Choice? Horticulture, Floral Design, Photography – all on one ballot or separate ballot for each and box in each area. We need an earlier cut off time to count ballots.

Maureen Carson

6. Feeding Judges. They aren’t hungry at 10:00am – Provide drinks & one pastry. After judging, we will provide a light lunch with time for judges to visit with members.

7. Handling entries & Clerking. Unresolved issue. How to handle the Novice and Junior entries? Separate tables or color sticky dot on entry tag. Revise method used in NM Federation. Next meeting discussion.

8. 3 & 5-of-a-kind flowers. Discussed whether to allow exhibitor to bring their own vases to stage them at home. If so, what restrictions on the vase? Needs further discussion.

9. Leaves on dahlias. Change the Horticulture rule to read. “All entries should be presented with one set of attached leaves showing above the container top. Entries not meeting this requirement will be accepted but may be downgraded accordingly for award purposes”.

10. This is a dahlia community event. Your participation is important. Clean-up last year took less than 1 hour and was fun.

We went through the committees from previous years. We need chair or co-chair people for:
Hospitality – For judges: Set up drinks and minimal food before judging, luncheon after judging with sandwiches enough for judges and members that can break away from tasks to visit with the judges. Something in the prep room is appreciated.

Several other committees need co-chairs or help. If you are interested, or want more detail on what duties are, contact Edith Iwan, 505-240-2698 or edithiwan@gmail.com.

These committees are:

Awards Show Schedule/Posters/Signage
Classification Set-up/Clean-up
Clerking Hospitality
Flower placement
Publicity
People’s Choice
Photography Division

Photo Credits:
Tom Taylor – Post Featured Image
Maureen Carson – Page Featured Image
Sue Isley – Portraits of Diane Kolb and Maureen Carson.