Ft. Worth Orchid Society Show!!!

[RSJ]

Beautiful plants! I'd have come away from that sales table quite a poorer in cash and richer in greenlife, for sure. And isn't that frog just stealing the show over in the corner there? Cutest!


RSJ

[Gilda]

WOW! look at all those bloomers !!
I love the simplicity of your display ....I beat myself up trying to go overboard on putting a display in...I think I will go your way the next time ..that has to be a lot less stressful !! Congratulations again!

[bench72]

simplicity is in itself a beauty.... the display isn't crowded so each plant is actually shown to advantage! Great job!

And as for that sales table.. I want, I want, I want!!! You really do have great plants Lou and Bruce!!!

Btw, how does the AOS award judging work there? Do you find out straight away how many points the plants get or do they take loads of pics and then send it to a panel?

Cheers
tim

[LJA]

Jason, yes, that's the MK x adductum in the display. The last bit of the inflorescence just under the final bud grew outward at 45 degrees to its base and there was no way to stake it straight up without breaking it. That was enough of a "flaw" to earn it only a second place ribbon, and it obviously didn't get pulled, either (despite the "oohs" and "ahhs" by the show-goers).

Oh well. There's always next year, on a new growth...

Ronnie-Sue, thanks! The show's theme was "Orchids in the garden" so that frog was our little token of garden-ness.

Gilda, Tim, simplicity was a hard-learned lesson for us, but it's one the judges seem to favor. Each time, we have to keep fighting the urge to "pack 'em in" and rely instead on quality instead of quantity, so that every plant gets the chance to show its best. I always want to throw in just one more but Bruce tells me to "go do something else" and leave him alone.

If a plant gets pulled for a quality award, it gets taken out of its exhibit and is set in front of a judging team. There, they measure the blooms, discuss, look at pics of similar plants--then, based on what was found, at least one judge has to nominate the plant for scoring. In our case this time, other similar (or the same) clones had received awards in the past, and our plants had to exceed the qualities of those plants. They unfortunately didn't, but it was honor enough to just have them pulled.

If the plant does get nominated for scoring, each judge gets a scorecard and goes down a list of criteria, placing a number beside each that corresponds to the "value" that particular judge feels the plant is worth in a certain category. Each scoresheet is tallied; they're all averaged, and a final score is obtained. If an award is to be given (final, averaged score of 70 or above), the grower can know immediately, so there's not much waiting involved.