Question on awards and divisions

[wetfeet101b]

If you had an orchid plant and divided it into several plants, and one plant got awarded at an official judging event, would the previous division siblings also inherit the award?
Or only future divisions from the awarded plant can carry the award designation?
Also, do new divisions actually inherit the award designation in the first place?

I'm just wondering how the awards folks can keep tabs on the awards and prevent some people from arbitrarily attaching an award designation to their non awarded clones.

[sadie]

I think that in large part, the honor system is in place. As I understand it (and I'll defer to others more knowledgeable), divisions of a plant and mericlones of a plant are considered to be vegetative growths of the original plant -- so if you have a cattleya that gets an AM, all divisions of that same plant should carry the same clonal name and also can have the AM attached to their name. That is also why when you buy a mericlone, it comes with a clonal name and awards if any (or at least it should). Other than genetic testing, there probably isn't a way to prove that two people got the same identical plant awarded with different clonal names.

[clintdawley]

I agree with Sadie

[Jmoney]

if you divide a plant and give someone a piece that later gets awarded, your plant theoretically carries that award since it is genetically identical. the courteous thing to do is for your friend to tell you or perhaps even ask for a cultivar name if you didn't already have one, but sometimes these are sold and of course everyone is in for themselves. then you get the allegations of fraud and dishonesty and etc, which is of course very entertaining.

[wetfeet101b]

Thanks for the info.

Now a follow up question, and a specific example:
Katie gave me an Oncidium Sharry Baby 'Sweet Fragrance' AM/AOS, and I also have another Oncidium Sharry Baby 'Sweet Fragrance' from another source but the latter orchid does not have an award on the label.

So does that mean that both plants should actually carry the award since they are identical clones? (If this is true, then I might have a few un-awarded orchids that will get an "upgrade" as they have awarded counterparts)

Or is it possible for one clone to be awarded while an identical clone remains un-awarded?

John