Copied from my Paph Season thread, it deserves its own spotlight:
I sent it up to judging today and 30 years after it sparked my passion for orchids I have it awarded in my name. I received an 82 point AM, the original award was 80. I was hoping for 84-86 points which would make that push to 90 more attainable in the future as it matures more, but I'm still thrilled to get an upgrade to a 35 year old award and I look forward to trying for a cultural award and hopefully another bump to the quality award in time.
Pre-judging grooming:
My award writeup:
The original 1988 award:
This is the one that started it all back in 1993, Brassia Datacosa 'Coos Bay' AM/AOS. I was wandering the mall and there happened to be an orchid show going on. I grew basic houseplants and cacti at the time but didn't know anything at all about orchids. A big, yellow spidery thing immediately caught my attention and when I saw I could have my own for a mere $12 it was all over. I promptly rotted all the roots off and almost killed it, but I found a mentor, devoured piles of books and old AOS Bulletins, and eventually got it to grow and bloom. I managed to keep it alive through school, six years in the Navy, and multiple cross country moves until disaster struck new years night in 2019. Nobody was home and the breaker for my greenhouse tripped, it was 19°f and everything inside was frozen solid when I got home from work.
After a few months I started to rebuild my collection but I couldn't find a replacement 'Coos Bay', it had been decades since it was cloned and Brassia had fallen out of fashion, I couldn't find a single grower who had kept the clone alive. As a last ditch effort I went digging through old AOS publications until I found a judges directory from the 2000s that had contact info for Jerry and Carol, the owners of JC Orchids who sold me that first plant back in 1993. I remembered them being older back then so I wasn't sure if they were still alive almost 30 years later, but I sent off an email and hoped for the best. A few days later I got an answer from Carol, Jerry had passed but she still had a small greenhouse and Brs Datacosa 'Coos Bay' was alive and well. We talked on the phone and I told her my story of how this orchid madness was all their fault. She asked for my address and a couple of weeks later a box showed up, inside were multiple divisions of the 'Coos Bay' mother plant, a sibling they never released that Jerry named for Carol, and several other Brassia. Carol warned me that the collection was a bit neglected due to her health and the plants would have fungal issues, but I was able to get them all cleaned up and reestablished after several rounds of treatment. The largest division spiked this year after four years of waiting and it is spectacular. The flowers are at least 10cm taller than I've ever bloomed it before, with 20 buds on the spike. It's like being reunited with an old friend and I couldn't be more excited.
I sent it up to judging today and 30 years after it sparked my passion for orchids I have it awarded in my name. I received an 82 point AM, the original award was 80. I was hoping for 84-86 points which would make that push to 90 more attainable in the future as it matures more, but I'm still thrilled to get an upgrade to a 35 year old award and I look forward to trying for a cultural award and hopefully another bump to the quality award in time.
Pre-judging grooming:
My award writeup:
The original 1988 award:
