Wealthy estate owners, called "private growers," and commercial growers such as florists and seed and nursery businesses offered prize money, called a "premium," to winners. Private growers competed with other private growers; commercial growers did likewise. Premiums would be for a specific class, such as "cut flowers, chrysanthemums, or, group of foliage and flowering plants, arranged for effect." At the 1908 exhibition, prize money amounted to $1,152, roughly $30,000 today.