Outreach to the public
One of our Society members, Karla, is active on the Southwest orchid grower's Facebook page. She is a recently-certified AOS judge. We also are lucky to have a senior AOS judge in our Society. With Norman Fang visiting there were three judges, so we announced a judging opportunity. Karla suggested people posting photos to Facebook bring in their plants, even if they aren't members of the DVOS.
One brought in a Paph. Dollgoldi with four huge flowers, 2 each on 2 stems. The plant takes after the armeniacum parent, with shorter rigid leaves. It has so many growths it looks like a small shrub. The first-time exhibitor received a 91-point FCC/AOS. I didn't ask him permission to publish his name, but it will eventually be shown in the AOS awards section of the Web site. He and his partner joined our Society.
One flower had a blemish on the lateral pouch where it touched the growing lights. Norman said without this it would have earned a very high score. He told the grower that, due to the large number of fans, he should bring it in again when it flowers next time, because it will almost certainly receive a cultural award.
Those of you with AOS judge members should consider holding judging sessions when visitor judges are present. Reach out through social media to nearby people who have recently posted flower photos.
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