Awards at the WOC      

Report from the WOC

The 16th World Orchid Conference was held in Vancouver from April 24th through May 2nd.  Long before, I had to decide if I wanted to go to to the WOC as an exhibitor/vendor or simply as a spectator.   The cost of each sales booth was US $ 1,000 and vendors were not permitted to share a sales booth (unless you were from South America, as it turns out.)  Ultimately, I decided that I would not go as a vendor, only as a spectator.  I considered going as a registrant but, at US $ 291.00 minimum, it was somewhat more than I was prepared to spend.  It would, however, get me entry to all the lectures. 

Some of the lectures appeared to be fascinating and, I was told afterwards, were truly so.  But most of them seemed to be orchid society lectures.  Now there is nothing wrong with orchid society lectures but I expect a WOC to have something just a little bit better, a little bit more special, one notch higher.  For the most part, that was not the case here - or at least it didn't seem so to me.

Another reason for paying the US $ 291.00 registration fee:  as an AOS accredited judge, I would be permitted to participate in judging if I was a registrant.  (As a judge I would get a free lunch but I don't think that many lunches could be worth US $ 291.00.)

In the weeks preceeding the WOC, there were many people who couldn't decide whether to go.  I spoke to some of them.  I helped some friends who wanted to go to the WOC with reservations at the Wedgewood Hotel.  (If you ever go to Vancouver, spoil yourself and stay at the Wedgewood.)  I myself was undecided until almost the last minute.  But I did decide to go.  Some of the people I had discussed the situation with decided to come but others stayed away - in droves.  I was somewhat surprised at the attendance.  The show was marketed as a huge orchid show - not an international get-together for orchidophiles. 

It was a pretty show, well organized and the Vancouver Orchid Society members were in general charming and helpful.  No volunteer should have to do the work that they did!

People did come from all over the world:  I met some from Australia, South Africa, many from Japan and several people from England and Germany but these people seemed to be few and far between.  Most of the people in attendance came to see a big, beautiful orchid show.  It cost $ 10 Canadian (about US $ 7) to enter the show.  For most people, this was a pretty orchid show - a very large, pretty orchid show.  Many people who owned a few orchid plants came to the show.  Now, there's nothing wrong with people with a few orchid plants.  Hell, we all started there!  But this was a WOC.  I wanted to see knowledgeable people.   I wanted to meet people to discuss phals with, breeding possibilities, judging, etc.  I wanted vendors with cutting-edge plants. 

Vendors - Of course, I was interested in the Phalaenopsis vendors.  There were LOTS of vendors of other types of plants and merchandise.   Carol Woodin, who may be the greatest living botanical painter, was there in person.  (Did you know that she won a silver medal for one of her paintings?)   You could buy T-shirts, books, flasks, individual plants, etc.

There were 5 vendors with plants from Taiwan:  Taida Orchids that I purchased plants from once.   Never again!  I purchased blooming size meristems and received plants that had 2" leafspread.  (Sigh...)  There was Sun Moon Orchids.  For more information, ask people who have purchased from them.  Then there were three "local" vendors who obviously have Taiwanese connections.  But the problem was they all had either the same or similar plants.  For example, they were all selling Dtps. Queen Beer (Phal. Meteor x Dor. pulcherrima), a meristem that was available in 1994 when I was first in Taiwan.  

NEW Just a troubling thought that I remembered recently.  Something bothered me while I was at the WOC.  Most of the vendors selling Taiwanese plants had Dtps. Ho's Happy Auckland 'Song', AM/AOS.  But the flowers had a major problem.   Almost every flower had an extra piece of tissue, mainly a thin line somewhere on the petal.  Most were on or near the middle of the petal and most were not the length of the petal.  Meristem mutation.  But that's what happens when people do meristems of meristems of meristems... (You get the idea.)  BEWARE!  If the person that you're buying plants from has the first generation of meristems, you'll get what you're paying for.  Otherwise, caveat emptor.  If you want quality, unfortunately, sometimes you have to pay for it.

Judging - In Japan, at the Tokyo Dome Show, the owner of the Grand Champion plant wins a car and a large sum of money.  Because of that, exhibitors bring some of the most extraordinary plants in for judging.  Who wouldn't like a new car and thousands of dollars?  For some reason, it was decided that judging at this WOC would take place in this manner.  However, there was no car to win and no money.  People in North America are not used to this type of judging.

Well, when I saw the plants (mainly cut flowers) that had been brought for judging, I was somewhat disappointed.  Some of the plants were of high quality, others had somewhat less going for them and still others had NOTHING going for them.  I saw the awards that had been given to these plants.  Then I heard about the way judging had been organized.

Teams were made from the people who were accredited judges in their own countries.  Some countries (such as the U.S.) have good orchid judging systems that produce knowledgeable judges.   Several countries (such as Canada) have no judging systems.  Still others (you know who you are) have systems but they train judges poorly, if at all.  No system is perfect but, as in all things, some are better - even much better - than others.   Judging teams were HUGE.  Some had as few as 5 plants to judge.  Others only did displays.  Judging was by the majority.  I understand that the criteria were somewhat vague. 

Needless to say, I saw awards that I could not comprehend and unawarded plants that I thought deserved recognition.  Three Phalaelnopsis on the judging table created a stir.  They were all Dtps. Everspring Prince.  Meristems of one of them were available at about 2" leafspread for only US $ 500.00.  But the plant that I thought was the most interesting was a plant with 2 inflorescences, one with 1 flower and 1 bud and the other with two flowers and 1 bud.  The hybrid was Phal. [(Auckland Buddha x Paifang's Auckland) x Phal. Paifang's Auckland].  The flowers were about 7.5 cm but they were perfectly flat.  The round petals were very deep yellow, evenly spotted with cherry red with a red lip.

Exhibits - As stated above, all plants for judging were placed on tables specifically designated for that purpose.  What this specifically meant was that most exhibits had nothing (or at least very little) of very high quality.  The really good plants were placed on the tables for judging.  There were exceptions.  Three of the ones that I specifically remember were the exhibits of Hillsview Gardens Orchids, Strawberry Creek Orchids and Carmela Orchids.  The Strawberry Creek Orchids exhibit consisted of MANY plants of the Odontoglossum alliance.   The Hillsview Gardens exhibit (which won a bronze medal - they were robbed!) had tons of Miltonias, Masdevallias and several Paphiopedilums.   Hundreds of plants in groupings that were extremely impressive.

The Carmela Orchids exhibit was a tabletop exhibit about 4 x 8 feet and had what were probably the best Phalaenopsis in the show.  The exhibit had a little bit of everything that grows in Hawaii:  Cattleyas, Dendrobiums and the Phalaenopsis.  The Cattleyas were all miniatures including a couple of Slc. Jungle Beaus that were really nice.  The Dendrobiums went from huge (about 5 feet tall) to several cute nigrohirsute hybrids.   But about one-half of the exhibit was Phalaenopsis.  There were 4 or 5 Phal. Taida Lawrence, three of which were, in my opinion, awardable.  There were two Phal. Brother Golden Wish (Taipei Gold x Brother Buddha) as well as several Phal. (Salu Spot x Fireberry).      

That's about it, but if you have any questions, send them in and I'll try to answer them.

NEW I concur with your observations of the WOC. It was a nice really big orchid show, however it wasn't of the "World Caliber" that I had anticipated. I believe this was due to the fact that many of the prominent phal breeders were absent from the show and sales. Some of the comments were that at the 96 trustees meeting, there were problems with customs and agriculture which scared them away from the WOC. - e-mail received

Appreciated your comments on the Vancouver show since I also attended and experienced some of the same feelings - did not register - too much money.  I did not arrive until Thursday afternoon.  I really did not like the "good stuff" being out of the exhibits.  This made it extremely difficult to see who had something good. Since some of the exhibitors had put their business cards on the plant labels in the benched areas, it was difficult to read the names of plants. I also felt that the Chinese vendors were more interested in helping the local Chinese buyers than other customers. 

However, I really liked the way customs was expedited for U.S. purchasers.
I am still glad I went because I enjoyed my trip over to Victoria, Butchardt Gardens, and the museum with all the totem poles.

If all I had done was the orchid show, it would have been a disappointment. - e-mail received

Want to see some WOC pictures?  Click here.