the grand champion of this show, and other shows i have judged, has absolutley nothing to do with AOS or TPS or TOGA or JOGA merit judging scores. best in show typically has to do most with the "WOW factor"
e-spice- some judging centers are doing themselves a serious disservice by not adhering to the standards that they should. i did not think this was an FCC plant. it was the nicest one i have ever seen in person and good enough for best in show at one of the worlds finest orchid shows but still, not an FCC to me..in fact a few plants that recieved FCC's at the show were REALLY NICE but still not what i think of when i think of FCC in my mind. some times i see FCC's and think to myself, man we would give that like 83 pts!!
yes xavier! too bad we didnt meet up. i thought you were coming to hawaii!? we screened that leucochilum x hangianum because it was ridiculously cuppy. the size and color/pattern was nice and it looks round in photos but when it was in front of you it was just soooo cuppy, or perhaps not open all the way. i was not on the team that award the dianthum, however i also felt that some other judges were giving awards away a bit too easily. I am always very hard and critical of paphs for merit awards, we see a lot of really good paphs here in hawaii so my standards are pretty high...
yes xavier! too bad we didnt meet up. i thought you were coming to hawaii!? we screened that leucochilum x hangianum because it was ridiculously cuppy. the size and color/pattern was nice and it looks round in photos but when it was in front of you it was just soooo cuppy, or perhaps not open all the way. i was not on the team that award the dianthum, however i also felt that some other judges were giving awards away a bit too easily. I am always very hard and critical of paphs for merit awards, we see a lot of really good paphs here in hawaii so my standards are pretty high...
obviously I can only see the pic and didn't see the plant in person but I prefer slightly cuppy to flat in "round" flowers. AOS tends to be obsessed with flat. I find flat flowers blah most of the time. Obviously there are exceptions to legthly to get into here. On another note Hawaii is great for growing some types of paphs. Need to come visit someday and maybe meet up.
I have seen better dianthums but that is not a bad one. Three flowers also not bad.
I would prefer judging to be looser than tighter that way I can know as a collector that someone saw something in the plant but then that could be a problem as well.
.. this could not be more true. I hate the politics of judging and its near impossible to avoid. i couldnt care less if i get stuff paid for. a plant should get the score it deserves, whether it belongs to somebody special or somebody youve never heard of or whether your in taiwan, hilo or cinncinatti.some judges made everything to please the Taiwanese in order to be invited again all fees paid next year. I don't know if this is true or not, but for sure, some gave awards like candies.
first of all, leucochilums and hangi's are both flatter than cuppy. and that flower wasnt even close to "slightly cuppy", it was ridiculously cuppy. second of all saying that you think most flat flowers are kind of BLAH sounds dumb.
i think that standards are WAY to low throughout the country with paphs. There are millions being grown and hybridized throughout every state. we need to be constantly raising the bar. i thought that there were several things awarded at this show, and every show for that matter, that were either given way too high a score or shouldnt have been scored at all!