So, I got my first quality award in several years a few days ago. Phrag
(St. Ouen x schlimii) "Littlefrog Princess" HCC/AOS. Squeaked by. Cute
little thing, fuzzy, pink and quite round. As far as I know it hasn't
been registered yet.

The funny part is, I brought 5 plants. Four were Maudiae type paphs
that I thought were easily HCC quality or better. I would not have been
surprized to come home with one award out of the four, at least. I
don't bring many plants to judging, I'm more critical of my own plants
than anybody and I've been judging too long to be easily swayed. I
haven't brought a plant in a year, probably. The phrag was an
afterthought, I brought it mainly to show the group an example of some
of the new phrag hybrids. All four paphs went to one team, who
evidently weren't as impressed as I (although they did write 'keep' on
one of the tags). The phrag (which I thought was not awardable) went to
a team that wanted to give awards.

And the worst thing is, the plant I really wanted to take to judging I
left on the bench by mistake. One of the judges on the team that passed
on all the paphs shared a ride home with me, and when she saw the plant
I left at home she nearly swooned. Grrr....

Anyway, even orchid judges can't figure out the system some days. Have fun!

Rob
--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit

LittlefrogFarm - Growing the plants Rob likes. )

If you ever part with any of the Paphs that the judges did NOT write 'keep'
on, make sure you write on *those* tags; "not for sales to AOS judges" ;-)

"Rob Halgren" wrote in message
...
So, I got my first quality award in several years a few days ago. Phrag
(St. Ouen x schlimii) "Littlefrog Princess" HCC/AOS. Squeaked by. Cute
little thing, fuzzy, pink and quite round. As far as I know it hasn't
been registered yet.

The funny part is, I brought 5 plants. Four were Maudiae type paphs that
I thought were easily HCC quality or better. I would not have been
surprized to come home with one award out of the four, at least. I don't
bring many plants to judging, I'm more critical of my own plants than
anybody and I've been judging too long to be easily swayed. I haven't
brought a plant in a year, probably. The phrag was an afterthought, I
brought it mainly to show the group an example of some of the new phrag
hybrids. All four paphs went to one team, who evidently weren't as
impressed as I (although they did write 'keep' on one of the tags). The
phrag (which I thought was not awardable) went to a team that wanted to
give awards.

And the worst thing is, the plant I really wanted to take to judging I
left on the bench by mistake. One of the judges on the team that passed
on all the paphs shared a ride home with me, and when she saw the plant I
left at home she nearly swooned. Grrr....

Anyway, even orchid judges can't figure out the system some days. Have
fun!

Rob
--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit

LittlefrogFarm - Growing the plants Rob likes. )

If you ever part with any of the Paphs that the judges did NOT write 'keep'
on, make sure you write on *those* tags; "not for sales to AOS judges" ;-)

"Rob Halgren" wrote in message
...
So, I got my first quality award in several years a few days ago. Phrag
(St. Ouen x schlimii) "Littlefrog Princess" HCC/AOS. Squeaked by. Cute
little thing, fuzzy, pink and quite round. As far as I know it hasn't
been registered yet.

The funny part is, I brought 5 plants. Four were Maudiae type paphs that
I thought were easily HCC quality or better. I would not have been
surprized to come home with one award out of the four, at least. I don't
bring many plants to judging, I'm more critical of my own plants than
anybody and I've been judging too long to be easily swayed. I haven't
brought a plant in a year, probably. The phrag was an afterthought, I
brought it mainly to show the group an example of some of the new phrag
hybrids. All four paphs went to one team, who evidently weren't as
impressed as I (although they did write 'keep' on one of the tags). The
phrag (which I thought was not awardable) went to a team that wanted to
give awards.

And the worst thing is, the plant I really wanted to take to judging I
left on the bench by mistake. One of the judges on the team that passed
on all the paphs shared a ride home with me, and when she saw the plant I
left at home she nearly swooned. Grrr....

Anyway, even orchid judges can't figure out the system some days. Have
fun!

Rob
--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit

LittlefrogFarm - Growing the plants Rob likes. )

Al wrote:
If you ever part with any of the Paphs that the judges did NOT write 'keep'
on, make sure you write on *those* tags; "not for sales to AOS judges" ;-)


*grin* Someday they will beg me for those plants...

Rob


--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit

LittlefrogFarm - Growing the plants Rob likes. )

Al wrote:
If you ever part with any of the Paphs that the judges did NOT write 'keep'
on, make sure you write on *those* tags; "not for sales to AOS judges" ;-)


*grin* Someday they will beg me for those plants...

Rob


--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit

LittlefrogFarm - Growing the plants Rob likes. )

We had a judge as speaker at our last Society meeting. He's a nice guy, and
interesting, but pinning him down on many things was like trying to pick up
mercury! There have been a number of moves in south FL toward displays that
do not conform to the 'norm' of pyramids, for example, and they have been
winning awards. Our Society has been toying with some different display
ideas, and we ran them by him. No soap! None of our local judges want to be
the first to embrace something new.

Diana

We had a judge as speaker at our last Society meeting. He's a nice guy, and
interesting, but pinning him down on many things was like trying to pick up
mercury! There have been a number of moves in south FL toward displays that
do not conform to the 'norm' of pyramids, for example, and they have been
winning awards. Our Society has been toying with some different display
ideas, and we ran them by him. No soap! None of our local judges want to be
the first to embrace something new.

Diana

On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 22:32:57 GMT, "Diana Kulaga"
wrote:

We had a judge as speaker at our last Society meeting. He's a nice guy, and
interesting, but pinning him down on many things was like trying to pick up
mercury! There have been a number of moves in south FL toward displays that
do not conform to the 'norm' of pyramids, for example, and they have been
winning awards. Our Society has been toying with some different display
ideas, and we ran them by him. No soap! None of our local judges want to be
the first to embrace something new.

Diana


The displays here that get awards are not pyramids. But the
color does flow in a wave across the display. Some are table top
size and almost level, I guess if you diagramed it would be an
oblong box shape. Some are grounded but fill again more of the
"box" than a pyramid. Depends on your background. We often
have screens rigged for backdrops and they define the 'box' that
gets filled. Not much will break the top line or spread into the
neighbors sight line. We do have a group that built a 'mountain'
in three pieces to use as backdrop. It sometimes works and
sometimes does not. But even it is lopsided and not a true
pyramid.

Are you out in the middle of the floor or against a wall? Are
you working from the floor up or from a table up?
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php

Are you out in the middle of the floor or against a wall? Are
you working from the floor up or from a table up?

Depends entirely on the show and its venue. And, 'pyramid' was probably the
wrong word to use, since we never strive for that much symmetry. It would be
boring, IMO. When we have a 10' x 10' square to work with (on the floor), we
build it with tables and whatever else to gain height and then work from
there down, always with color flow in mind. Sometimes we are in the middle
of the floor, sometimes against a wall, so we always bring palms or other
greens for background.

Table tops are generally 6' x 30", and in my opinion are tougher. We still
need to supply greenery for the backdrop, so space becomes limited, and
often you need to adhere to the show theme.

Those are society displays, cooperative efforts. At most shows here, there
are also 30" square table tops done by society members (the host society
does not install a large display). I generally do one for our show in March,
though I am wavering this year. My plants are somewhat recalcitrant after
our storms. No telling what will be in bloom.

What I was getting at was a new approach entirely, which is being tried in
other areas of FL with great success. If against a wall, what about a
"garden" effect? It wouldn't be on one level, natch, but would feature
undulating mounds and paths. Our judges have long held that all pots must be
covered with black cloth and then further covered with some kind of ground
cover such as live moss, all of which is starting to sound quite redundant
to me. At last year's Miami show, a grower did a 150 sf display using clay
pots and decorative containers. Not a lot of height and loads of props. And
won. I just think it's time to reach out a bit for a new look, as long as we
keep in mind the need to focus the viewer's eye by using proper color flow.

Then, there was a small display of white orchids, all white, on a black
background. Absolutely stunning and elegant.

Diana (who is so grateful to have some time to get back in the group!)

SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php

Are you out in the middle of the floor or against a wall? Are
you working from the floor up or from a table up?

Depends entirely on the show and its venue. And, 'pyramid' was probably the
wrong word to use, since we never strive for that much symmetry. It would be
boring, IMO. When we have a 10' x 10' square to work with (on the floor), we
build it with tables and whatever else to gain height and then work from
there down, always with color flow in mind. Sometimes we are in the middle
of the floor, sometimes against a wall, so we always bring palms or other
greens for background.

Table tops are generally 6' x 30", and in my opinion are tougher. We still
need to supply greenery for the backdrop, so space becomes limited, and
often you need to adhere to the show theme.

Those are society displays, cooperative efforts. At most shows here, there
are also 30" square table tops done by society members (the host society
does not install a large display). I generally do one for our show in March,
though I am wavering this year. My plants are somewhat recalcitrant after
our storms. No telling what will be in bloom.

What I was getting at was a new approach entirely, which is being tried in
other areas of FL with great success. If against a wall, what about a
"garden" effect? It wouldn't be on one level, natch, but would feature
undulating mounds and paths. Our judges have long held that all pots must be
covered with black cloth and then further covered with some kind of ground
cover such as live moss, all of which is starting to sound quite redundant
to me. At last year's Miami show, a grower did a 150 sf display using clay
pots and decorative containers. Not a lot of height and loads of props. And
won. I just think it's time to reach out a bit for a new look, as long as we
keep in mind the need to focus the viewer's eye by using proper color flow.

Then, there was a small display of white orchids, all white, on a black
background. Absolutely stunning and elegant.

Diana (who is so grateful to have some time to get back in the group!)

SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php

On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 22:39:41 GMT, "Diana Kulaga"
wrote:
It wouldn't be on one level, natch, but would feature
undulating mounds and paths. Our judges have long held that all pots must be
covered with black cloth and then further covered with some kind of ground
cover such as live moss, all of which is starting to sound quite redundant
to me. At last year's Miami show, a grower did a 150 sf display using clay
pots and decorative containers. Not a lot of height and loads of props. And
won. I just think it's time to reach out a bit for a new look, as long as we
keep in mind the need to focus the viewer's eye by using proper color flow.

Then, there was a small display of white orchids, all white, on a black
background. Absolutely stunning and elegant.

Diana (who is so grateful to have some time to get back in the group!)

The first show I ever went to was in Chicago an AOS thing in the
70's. The grower I worked with laid out boxes, tarps and pots.
Covered all background material with garden moss and used logs
and 'natural effects to highlight plants. Other than the fact
that it was a ground to about 5' display in a block defined area
against the wall... It was a very natural looking slice of
growing area. We often have bamboo or other screens to help
divide areas or even black fabric covered cardboard dividers.
Not plant material. Each display uses moss or black or colored
fabric to cover pots and display plants. I will see if I can
find some photos from digital friends to post to abpo.

We had one that was black background - standard divider. One
white phal that had shingled beautifully. She set it up in a
tall glass - one of those oversized wine glass type things. That
was the only piece. We have had a winner with a child's rocker
holding a plant and a plant stand with one and another on the
"floor". It was a table top display with 3 plants.

Our displays are generally a banquet table full length and width.

SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php