2023 Central Carolina Chrysanthemum Society

Chrysanthemum Bonsai in the show

2023 LICS Show

LICS SHOW REPORT 2023

  The Long Island Chrysanthemum Society held its 68th Annual Show at Starkie Bros Garden Center in Farmingdale, Long Island, NY on Saturday and Sunday, October 28nd and 29rd 2023. 

Throughout the course of the year John Capobianco and Rita Rover delivered a number of lectures to garden clubs and John hosted a series of Beginner Grower Workshops in coordination with Village of Farmingdale’s Cultural Arts Committee.  While a lot of the participants from the workshops didn’t have their blooms in time for the show, they were happy to have blooms for their Thanksgiving table.

With many of our growers having retired from active mum cultivation we were again anxious about the size of our show.  We shouldn’t have been, we had 9 exhibitors with 94 entries. 

John Finocchio, one of our newest members, dazzled the veteran growers with his Novice entries.  He had 5 entries in the Novice section and received 5 blue ribbons.  The judges didn’t cut him any slack for being a novice and his hard work paid off as he received the Novice Sweepstakes award, which requires a minimum of 3 blue ribbons, He also won the inaugural Bowersox Trust Award of $100.00.

The NCS Silver Medal Certificate for Sweepstakes was awarded to John Capobianco, with 135 points.  Rita Rover was runner-up in sweepstakes.

The NCS Bronze Medal Certificates were awarded as follows:

John Capobianco was awarded Best Container-Grown in Show, Trained to wood, ‘Joan Corbisiero’ and ‘Kotoi No Kaori’, Best NCS Terminal Spray in Show, ‘Yellow Vesuvio’ , Rita Rover/Marty Cohen received Best Disbud in Show, ‘Louisiana’,

Best Multiple Disbuds in Show for 2 ‘Louisiana’ and 1‘Cream Jesse Habgood’

The trophy winners were:

Rita Rover/Marty Cohen received the awards for: Best Disbud in Show, ‘Louisiana’

Best Multiple Disbuds in Show, for 2 ‘Louisiana’ and 1‘Cream Jesse Habgood’

Best Disbud, Section A,  ‘Louisiana’, Best Incurve, Rita ‘Rita Rover’, Best Reflex, ‘Louisiana’, Best Quill/Spider, ‘Coral Reef’, Best Three-Bloom entry, Section B, ‘Louisiana’ and ‘Cream Jessie Habgood’

John Capobianco received the trophy for Best Container-Grown Tree, Bush or Artistically Grown, Trained to wood, ‘Joan Corbisiero’ and ‘Kotoi No Kaori’

and Best Single/Anemone/Spoon, ‘Edith Mechen’, Best Bonsai, Tanuki style (Phoenix Graft) for ‘Joan Corbisiero’

Steve Avallone received the trophy for  Best Judges Entry, ‘Crimson Tide’ (Disbud)

Rita Rover presented the Ivor Mace Affiliated Societies Bronze Medal to our Vice President, Bob Tobias for his efforts this year as Membership Chairman and for contributing his hard work and many blooms for our Chapter Show this year. 

Rita also presented the Ivor Mace Affiliated Societies Silver Medal to John Capobianco for all his work this year to make the LICS show a success. 

LICS SHOW REPORT 2021

   The 66th Annual* Long Island Chrysanthemum Show was held, Saturday October 23rd and 24th, 2021 at Starkie Bros. Garden Center in Farmingdale, New York. Our year started out fairly normally (whatever that means in the days of Covid-19) with our annual elections and planning for the show. However, our President Joel Simon resigned, for personal reasons, shortly after securing our show dates.  The members of LICS would like to thank Joel for his service to LICS for a decade as President.

   Our growers had the usual concerns about the weather, insects and having blooms in time for the show. Some of our regular growers were unable to bring their usual complement of blooms, but we managed to pull off a decent display. We had 7 exhibitors with 94 entries, but that doesn’t begin to count the number of blooms that were in the Educational and Display exhibits.

   Camilla Ng, of the Old Dominion Chrysanthemum Society, drove 5 hours with her blooms and a friend to spend the weekend with us. She was in search of blue ribbons for her candidate judging requirements. Not only did she earn blue ribbons, but she walked away with – Best in Show, for her cut disbud of Icicles.

   As usual Rita Rover wowed everyone with her giant English Mums. 

   Chuck Turner came from New Jersey with judges Steve Avallone and Chuck Blewett in his hunt for blue ribbons as he meets the requirements to take the Candidate Judge exam. 

   Donna Rusinski, one of our newer members, received the Ivor Mace Affiliates Silver Medal Award for her patient work putting together our new website, check it out (www.limums.org).

   John Capobianco – received the Ivor Mace Affiliates, Bronze Medal Award for service to LICS for pulling the show together.

   John Capobianco walked away with an embarrassment of NCS Medal Certificates, he received the NCS Gold Medal Certificate for his display of cut and container grown disbuds, the Silver Medal Certificate for his Educational Exhibit, “Why no ribbon?” an explanation of what the judges are looking for in a bloom and why that bloom didn’t measure up, the other Silver Medal Certificate for Sweepstakes (104 points), and the Bronze Medal Certificate for his NCS Terminal Spray, “Helen Brandt”, many were disappointed that he didn’t display any bonsai this year.

   The Long Island Chrysanthemum Society Trophy winners were:

   Best Disbud, Section A, Camilla Ng, ‘Icicles’, Best Incurve, John Capobianco, ‘Quan Yon Hung’,

   Best Decorative, Renu Sharma, ‘Seaton’s J’adore’,Best Single/Anemone/Spoon, Camilla Ng, ‘Fire Wheel’ , Best Quill/Spider.... Renu Sharma, ‘Judith Baker’, Best Three-Bloom entry, Section J, Camilla Ng, ‘Delano Red’, Best NCS Terminal Spray, Section C, John Capobianco, ‘Helen Brandt’, Best Judges Entry, Camilla Ng, Disbud ‘Icicles’, Best Container-Grown Tree, Bush or Artistically Grown, Steve Avallone, ‘Hatsune’ (Hanging Basket)

*Technically not annual because the 2020 show was cancelled due to concerns about Covid-19.