So this is the little bugger that decided to bloom last month the day after judging and since the blooms only last 24 hours for me...Well, the little darling decided to re-bloom again this month and I was figuring that with my luck the little sucker would deny me again, but my luck must have changed! After a long day I went to the Orchid Room about 5pm and was shocked that most of the buds had opened! Hooray! For half a second I almost thought about turning around and ignoring it, as the judging is in Tampa about an hour away and I had so much work to do...A quick call to the hubby and he was all for making the trip down, so off we went. I'm not sure that I've ever been so nervous (isn't that silly? who gets nervous about showing a orchid to some judges...) I think my biggest fear was that I was truly in unknown territory. I've shown horses before and I've judged many different things, but I know absolutely nothing about orchid judging. All I knew was that the plant had been award before and that I had more blooms than they had...
I called ahead and let them know that I was coming and that I was clueless
We arrived and I registered my plant, to which the nerves got the best of me and I spelled dendrobium wrong 3 times (I was truly a basketcase) and I could hear Sue hollering all way from 50 miles away "Don't mess it up and spell something wrong", as we were so critical at the last show we went to and a vendor had misspelled 2 genus, and one of them was dendrobian, I think that I actually prayed "Lord please don't let me screw this up!"
Then they asked if I would like to sit in and observe the judging and that experience was awesome, but first I had to put my plant on the display table...Oh my goodness, there were already 6 plants there and they were all huge, with beautiful flowers. I honestly felt a little foolish...and then to make it even worse, I had decided as I was walking in to remove the name tag, as I wasn't sure whether you should leave them on or not...One of the judges from my new club quietly whispered "pluck that little weed out of the pot, quickly" Lord have mercy, wouldn't you know that right where the tag used to hang, a tiny little weed had grown that I never saw! Thank goodness he was kind enough to point out my stupidity!
Well, the judging commenced and about an hour into it, this same judge came over with the my plant and asked if I wanted to remove the hanger before it went up for it's official photograph! What!... The table that I was sitting in on for judging passed on the 3 plants that came before them, and mine had actually gotten an award. He said that he wouldn't tell me which award I'd gotten, as they would announce that at the end, to which I replied "I'm not sure that I would know what it meant anyways..." So the judges at my table quickly explained what the award scale was and which award I most probably received.
I received a CCM (Certificate of Cultural Merit) with a score of 84. Not too bad for my first time ever bringing in a plant!
I'm attaching the photos that I took before we left home just in case it got something, as I knew the flowers wouldn't last until today...
I can't wait to see the official photograph of my tiny little 66 flower, 31 bud cluster of a plant that that is only 18cm big.
I then had to give it a clonal name...what to do, what to do...
There was really only one name that really called out to me "Luca" my 1 year old grandson and fellow Orchid lover! Now we'll just have to try and win another for his newborn little brother Oliver!
Thanks for reading my way too long tale about my adventure into the world of orchid judging!
The lesson learned is that if I can do it, anyone can. As the judge told me earlier this week at our meeting "You don't win any awards if your plants sit at home" True enough...
Den. pachyphyllum-My first attempt at having a plant judged...
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