soty Winners

Tahitian Baby Bonfire was awarded the IHS HOTY, Hibiscus of the Year, for 2005. It was bred and entered by Richard Johnson, from Tahiti. Here we provide you some of the photos and supplemental data submitted to the HPOJ, HOTY Panel Of Judges, upon which they based their votes to select the eventual winner.

Our congratulations go to Richard for winning the third IHS HOTY competition. We thank the hybridizers who entered candidates in this program, in this case at their own expense. We thank the evaluators who grew the plants and provided the photos and data. We thank Nina Bjelovucic, the IHS HOTY coordinator, for her tireless efforts in collecting this information from the trailing stations and passing it to the HPOJ. We of course thank the judges and most of all we thank the membership for participating in the initial SOTY selections, which form the core of the IHS HOTY Program. In this respect the IHS is unique in that the membership and affiliates are able to vote on what they consider to be the most beautiful of the candidates presented, after which the HPOJ narrows the field based upon their expert evaluation of the candidates chosen by the membership.

Tahitian Baby Bonfire was bred by Richard Johnson from the parents of Rosalind X Radiation Hazard, and reaches the size of between 7 to 8 inches and was the winner with 54.95 points.

Tahitian Baby Bonfire

Tahitian Baby Bonfire

Tahitian Baby Bonfire

Tahitian Baby Bonfire

Tahitian Baby Bonfire

Tahitian Baby Bonfire

I am, of course, very honored to have received the 2005 IHS HOTY award for my entry of Tahitian Baby Bonfire. This one would not have been my first choice as I consider it smallish and a bit too much a look-alike of one of its parents, Rosalind. I have found Tahitian Tuai to be much more unique and also floriferous variety with a good bush. Nevertheless, Tahitian Baby Bonfire does have appeal in that it is quite floriferous and has a nice bush. It also has won an award at one of the American Hibiscus Society shows, attesting to its qualities. Accordingly, I do have confidence that our selection process [trialing stations, member participation and final decision by the HPOJ HOTY Panel Of Judges] have found the best in of this years group of HOTY candidates.

Warmest regards,
Dick