Off topic here, but I have to chime in. I completed the in-class portion of the Garden Judge credential at Nationals this past summer in Nashville. Our instructor was Jim Murphy. He was great; very passionate about daylilies with lots of good insight. I wanted to take workshop II, which is the garden portion, but because I could not ride the bus to the garden due to a disability, I was not allowed to do the garden portion because they did some of the teaching on the bus. I asked to meet ahead of time with the teacher to quickly cover the "on bus" content, but she wanted no part of that.
Here in Georgia, all of the workshop II sessions were in the southern part of the state, and I couldn't travel due to family conflicts. Given the desire to have more garden judges, it is frustrating that the powers-to-be make the process so difficult. I'm hoping to take the workshop II class in 2024, but I have my doubts.
@DeweyRooter Nan, I just checked the website, and it says, "You must have been a member of AHS for at least 12 continuous months to begin training. To become a garden judge, you must have been an AHS member in good standing for 24 continuous months. Just fyi.