We have changed the POY submission and voting protocols
Why did this happen? Until this year, we opened submissions at a specified time and closed them after receiving 15-20 nominations. After reviewing the submissions, we accepted the first six that met the submission criteria. In recent years, we’ve gotten hit with a barrage of nominations right after submissions opened, some separated by less than a minute. Submissions closed within hours of opening, and many folks who wanted to participate were denied the opportunity to do so. We received a lot of complaints.
In addition, whole categories of exceptional plants, particularly vines and grasses, rarely got nominated within the first six submissions. We felt they deserved the chance to be POY, too.
What are the new submission criteria?
Each year, the POY will be chosen from one category only, from among the following three categories:
- Trees and shrubs
- Grasses, sedges, creeping ground covers, and vines
- Annuals, perennials and ferns
Categories will rotate annually, in order.
The GNPS POY committee selects nominees using the following criteria:
- Not a previous POY.
- Represented in 20 or more counties in Georgia
- High ecological significance
- Adaptable to different habitats, hardiness, and disease resistance
- Underutilized in gardening and landscaping.
- Receives multiple nominations
- Only one plant per genus.
How did the new submission process work out this year?
The POY committee used the criteria above to narrow the nominations to 11 potential nominees. We then used ranked choice voting to select the 6 final candidates.
Ranked choice voting will also be used for the POY election. Why use ranked choice voting? This type of voting is designed for elections with multiple candidates. When you have more than two candidates, the winning candidate rarely receives half of the vote. Because we have six candidate plants, the winning plant could easily receive less than a quarter of the vote. That did happen one year — a small minority of voters determined the election outcome. Ranked choice voting lets the majority determine the election outcome — the winning plant may not be the first choice for the majority of voters, but it will be either their first or second choice.
Here’s how ranked choice voting works
In the example below, voters must choose among six flavors, ranking them from one-to-six, with one being best. The first choice is sweet, second choice is salty, third choice is nutty, fourth choice is spicy, fifth choice is oniony and sixth choice is tangy.
How and when will we vote for POY 2026?
Logging in as a GNPS member will no longer be required. Active members will receive an email with a link to the voting page. If you have a family/group membership, only one person can vote. The voting page will have a form similar to the one above. Members should rank their plants in order and press the submit button. Voting will take place from November 5-30.
