Primarily Cymbidiums: January AOS judging

Today was a busy day at the judging center. The judges were broken into two teams, and screened 18 plants, six of which were awarded. The judges at one table faced two interesting and separate issues today.

The first issue dealt with plant health. A Paphiopedilum was denied an award because both the plant and the flower looked anemic, with light green foliage and light green colors on the small flower. 'Intensity' was not a suitable adjective to describe the plant. Because the Paph. was an alba varietal, it was unclear if the light color was a genetic trait, or if the plant was suffering from a nutrient deficiency, e.g. chlorosis. Comparisons with other alba forms of record clearly showed intense greens are possible, so the plant was passed as suffering from inadequate culture.

The second issue dealt with history and judging standards. A complex Paph. was presented, whose grex was originally registered back in the 1950's or so. Some clones of the grex had been awarded at that time. The question for today was whether or not the instant flower should be judged by today's standards, or those at the time the grex was registered. Clearly, the standards in complex Paph. flower quality has changed since then. I wasn't able to listen in on the final decision because I was running plants over to the second judging team. However, after the overall judging was complete, the chairperson of the first table noted that the scores suggest that some judges used the historical standards (higher scores), while other judges used current standards (lower scores). I expect the judges will revisit this topic as part of their education program for this year.

Below are pics of plants from today's judging:
Blc. Chia Lin 'Red Rose'