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Keeping Ontario Beautiful

Flower Show Definitions

Annual
A plant which survives for one growing season only from germination to death.
Basket
A container that can be picked up, usually with a handle.
Biennial
A plant sown one year to flower or fruit the next, before dying.
Bloom
An individual flower, with one on a stem.
Boutonnière
A spray of flowers worn in a buttonhole.
Bowl
A container that is broader than it is high.
Collection
A specified number of cut flowers, potted plants, fruits, and/or vegetables exhibited for horticultural perfection.
Complementary Colour Harmony
Two colours that lie opposite each other on the colour wheel, e.g., blue and orange.
Crescent Design
A design in the shape of a partial circle.
Cultivar
Short for ‘cultivated variety’. A variety of plant of cultivated origin.
Daffodil
A narcissus with a long trumpet in the centre, longer than the outer petals. All daffodils are narcissus, but not all narcissus are daffodils.
Disbudding
Removal of surplus buds along stem or in axil of plant to promote growth of terminal bud. The buds can be rubbed out with a finger when they are tiny, e.g., hybrid tea rose, specimen dahlia.
Dish Garden
A miniature landscape in an open shallow container. Plants should have similar cultural requirements. May include accessories to scale.
Foliage Design
Design with interest in the foliage. Foliage is to predominate. Flowers and/or fruits may be present, but must be inconspicuous.
Gloriosa Daisy
is scientifically Rudbeckia hirta gloriosa. They are large daisies with shaggy orange/yellow outer petals, sometimes double and often with brown markings. The centre is dark brown. Rudbeckias are coneflowers that are some shade of yellow with a darker centre. Other coneflowers are in the Echinacea group. These have colours other than yellow. If a Gloriosa Daisy is entered in the annual show it must be the correct specie. All Rudbeckias are coneflowers but not all coneflowers are Rudbeckias! Ask one of the Show Committee when entering.
Hardening Off
Adjust plants to lower temperatures, a process of acclimatization, usually after plants are taken out from the house or greenhouse. Also, a natural process that occurs as the temperature gradually falls in the autumn.
Herb
Group of plants with savory, medicinal or aromatic properties, used for medicine, food, flavour or fragrance. Herb is also a botanical term for non-woody plants that die to the ground at the end of the growing season.
Hogarth Design
A radial composition with a distinctive "S" curve.
Interpretive Design
A design where a given theme, idea, occasion, mood, atmosphere, etc. is suggested by the selection and organization of the design elements.
Line Design
A design in which a linear pattern is dominant.
Mass Design
A design with a large quantity of plant material arranged in a closed silhouette with few or no voids.
Miniature Design
Design must not exceed 12.5 cm (5 in.) in any dimension including the container, base and accessories. For good proportion, the container should not exceed 3.75 cm (1.5 in.) in height.
Narcissus
Includes daffodils. The centre may be a tube as in daffodils, a small or large cup or even open to look like another circle of petals, but if the outer petals are longer than the inner cup shape, a flower cannot be entered as a daffodil.
Novice
A person who has not yet won a first place ribbon in a design category at an EYGC flower show.
Parallel Design
A creative design with the dominant characteristic being three or more vertical groupings in, or appearing to be in, a single container, with sufficient space between each group to illustrate the parallel effect.
Pavé
In jewellery-making, a term that refers to setting stones so close together that no metal shows. In flower design pave is a technique of placing groups of plant material that have been cut very short, close together to form undulating mounds of colours, textures, shapes and sizes. Any plant material, e.g., flowers, foliage, cut stems, fruits, vegetables, moss can be used.
Perennial
A plant that lives more than two years or three seasons and normally flowers annually. Many die down during the winter but the roots are unaffected by frost and new growth appears as the weather improves and the temperature rises. The term usually applies to non-woody plants.
Pinching Out
The removing of the tip of a stem, either a flower bud or a leafy tip. This allows the side buds (found in the leaf axils below) to start to grow. There will be more flowers of an even, but smaller size, e.g., floribunda roses, or more bushy plants such as bedding chrysanthemums.
Pot et Fleur
An exhibit of growing plants, in or out of pots, packed lightly with moisture-retaining material, plus cut flowers in tubes of water, oasis, or other material, all assembled in one container. Moss, decorative wood and rock may be included. No cut foliage is permitted. However, cut flowering and/or fruited branches may be used.
Small Design
Design ranging from 13.9 - 25.4 cm (5.5 - 10 in.) and must not exceed 25.4 cm in any direction, including the container, base and accessories.
Spike
An arrangement of flowers on a stalk directly without stems.
Spray
A slender stalk bearing flowers or leaves cut from the main stem.
Stalk
The stem or main axis of a plant.
Stem
A slender stalk bearing flowers, leaves or fruit.
Topiary
A growing plant that is trained or pruned to a certain form or shape.
Under Water Design
A design with part(s) placed under water to create interest. Although the design must have part(s) under water, no definite percentage is required. The entire design may not be under water.
Waterviewing Design
Usually a line design in a shallow container(s) with one-half to two-thirds of the container surface showing water.
Weathered Wood
A type of decorative wood that is altered in form, colour and/or texture by the forces of nature.

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