Pat,

All good points.

Nothing beats seeing a plant in bloom so you can judge for yourself if you
like it. No one wants to grow a flower and not enjoy it.

I hope all is well out in the valley.

Gene



"Pat Brennan" wrote in message
...
Gene,

I do not know much about the CSA and HOS awards, sorry. I have seen some
pretty weak BM & SM/WOC, but it could be they were just old awards. I
have
seen plants with awards from orchid societies in Asia and expect it is
time
to learn about these award systems.

As has already been said, AOS and RHS awards measure different things. I
think of RHS as sort of AOS award and AOS ribbon judging combined into
one.
It is a special plant that can carry both awards.

As to which award raises the plant value more . . .I could get myself into
so much trouble here. I have made my living selling blooming plants for
over a decade now and I have found that an award does not really change a
plants value. I know this is not true for all orchid businesses,
especially
those marketing non blooming plants. Before anyone calls me nuts, look at
the flask and plug offerings from the major cloning labs, very few of the
plants will be carrying awards and those which do have awards carry no
premium; look at the orchids for sale in the box stores or other major
outlets and try to find a price difference between awarded and nonawarded
plants; or even go to an orchid show and try to find a relationship
between
price and award level of the blooming plants being offered.

I disagree with those that say an AOS award is a good measure for
selecting
plants for ownership or breeding. The system does not consider factors
essential for making those measures. Instead I view the judging system as
the AOS means for tracking and documenting the current state of orchid
flowers. In a recent survey of judges, 23% of the judges said they would
not award a plant if an equal plant from the same cross had been awarded a
year before. The second plant is just as good as the first with or
without
the award, AOS has documented the cross with the first award and it is
time
to move on.

The state of orchid flowers moves fairly quickly. In many cases flower
quality that was awarded five years ago would not even be considered
today.
An award without knowing the date of the award is pretty meaningless for
assessing the flower quality. A cross is most likely to be at least 4
years
old before a plant is mature enough to be awarded. If after the award it
is
sent to the lab, it is another two years before clone flasks start to be
return. Compot, 2.5" pot, 4" pot - at least another 3 years before the
clones are blooming, nine years after the cross was first made. Buying
awarded clone might not always put the best quality flowers in your
collection when seedlings a couple of generations ahead of the clones are
also offered.

In all of this please do not get me wrong. I am always honored and a bit
humbled when granted an AOS award. I addition it is always very cool when
a
plant you are currently breeding with or have already sent out for cloning
is pulled out of an exhibit and granted an award.

Pat

"Gene Schurg" wrote in message
ink.net...
Pat,

I agree with you on the profit potential metrics. It would be great for
you
to have lots of FCC certificates but it's customer demand that pays the
heating bill. You have to grow plants that people want to display in
their
homes. Us crazy collectors don't buy enough to pay the bills.

Do you feel an FCC from the RHS is equal to an FCC from the AOS? Does
one
award increase the value of the cross more than the other?

I see lots of awards for plants from different groups. Is there a
ranking
of RHS awards are worth more than CSA, CSA worth more than HOS, etc?

I guess I've always been tuned to look for AOS awards as a measure of a
plant that has good potential. When I see these other awards from other
groups I don't really give them the credit they deserve and maybe I
should.


Gene