Phrag Kovachii awarded

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It definitely happens, but AOS is national and judges are supposed to be aware of national standards/trends and not be regionally unaware or influenced. I hang out periodically at the Atlanta center, and there is always a program of review of new awards and periodic reports of trends different orchid groups. The Atlanta center also maintains a library of taxonomic references. I've had plenty of good looking species flowers turned down (even though the judges had never seen the species in life) because when the taxonomic description was reviewed, the flower fell into the "normal range" of what the species was expected to do in the wild.

If it was an obscure species its easy to get isolated regional results, but kovachii has been making international orchid headlines for years, and its hard to believe that a regional body is behind the times.

Yes, with the lack of quality awards all you have is the CBR's and CHM's to compare too. I can't recall the specs on Glenn's original CHM plant so instructively we could compare this flower to the CHM if someone still has that info around.

There are a lot of different judging philosophies from one center to the next. Some have much less concern over lateral awarding and can produce a lot of different quality awards without concern of "locking out" newer plants based on past award history. Some are very strict with precedent.

So I'd rather not try to spend a lot of time 2nd guessing judges decisions and enjoy the flowers.
I can tell you from being on that roundtable and from the 'pictures' ive seen this plant had really good form, and the color, even on its own with no comparison, was breathtaking,...so , all the judges agreed it was a solid AM/AOS, perhaps it was scored too high? probably..this was an actual judging seminar, comprising of judges from BC to central oregon, several regions
 
Comments from the owner of the plant :)

First, no, the colors aren't accurate in that picture - I will take and post a better picture later - hopefully today. And I will post the award photo when I get it - likely in a week or so. The photographer is my friend :)

Second, I didn't think the flower was all that great when I first saw it either but thought I should bring it to judging anyway. I *think* this is the first of that cross (Laura x Ana) to bloom - Fritz said he hadn't heard of any others. Anyway, the judges LOVED it - two of them scored it above 90 (91 and 94). It has a beautiful pouch / lip which you can't see from the picture above. I'll take some... I'll also post a scan of the award form.

Jerry
 
Welcome Jerry! Thanks for the insight. I'll look forward to more photos. I NEVER get tired of photos of this species! It is hard to judge anything from just one photo. It seems that you agree; 87 points might be a bit high; but, IMO, it's definitely an AM. I'd just have liked to see the score in the low 80's, not the high 80's. That would leave room for lots of equal and improved quality flowers to be awarded AM's too, while reserving the FCC award for only the very, very best. As it stands now, with your plant as an example of what an 87 point AM should look like, almost anything else that comes along with significantly better form is automatically an FCC. I think that in the years to come, with line breeding, there will be plenty of better forms seen. Unless we want there to be hundreds of FCC's around, I think the judges needed to be a bit more reserved when pointing this first quality award.
 
The color does not seem to be that off from the typical; if anything seems a little light. I find it hard to believe that got an 87 also. that doesn't leave a lot of rooom for improvements that will surely come. Thanks for posting and congrats to the owner anyway. Oh he's here now, welcome from NYC.
 
Ok, let's see if I can figure out how to link photos. Going to try first a scan of the award form...

Kovachii_AOS_award.jpg
 
I'm just putting it up on my webserver but looks like I should resize it first - working on that! Ok, that's better - now to take a few pictures of the flower to post... And thanks for the welcome Eric!
 
Taking good pictures especially w/o a good light / background setup is hard. Here's a closeup of the pouch. Colors are fairly accurate - could be a bit browner / less pink.

Kovachii_pouch.jpg
 
last picture - with flash this time. Natural spread is currently approx 14.3 cm.

I believe the CHM awarded plant had a natural spread of 18-19 cm. I'll have to look it up / see if I can find the award photo online anywhere.

Kovachii_with_flash.jpg
 
Yes, pretty exciting :) Plant is from the 1/2 flask I bought when they were first available from Piping Rock... so I have a bunch left :) I'm pretty sure this one started to spike last year and the spike rotted before it got more than an inch high or so. And I have another that spiked this year but it rotted before it got out of the sheath for the first node...

And to respond to an earlier post - they're really not that hard to grow. I sold several from my 1/2 flask which paid for it :) but of the rest, I think I've only lost 1 or 2. I grow them in straight diatomite with some added oyster shell. They're in a tray that's sitting in maybe an inch of water. They're in the back of my greenhouse on an upper shelf so they get a decent amount of light although I'm in Seattle and my greenhouse is down in a valley... And the back wall is all mounted plants w/ a mister so they get misted every other day or so... I think the most important thing is to keep them wet and in a medium that's going to be alkaline. Oh and the other thing is here in Seattle, our water is very pure - maybe 20 PPM total dissolved solids...
 
please god not armeniacum again...

We are on the way for that with a couple of things.

Favorite: kovachii,

Possible outsider: hangianum ( sure whenever one will bloom, it will get an award, AM or FCC...).

Nightmare in Elm Street : micranthum var. eburneum ( they award horrible things, but whenever one blooms it gets an award. The one from Mr.Beetus is still excellent and UNDERratter, go figure... but Bubble Gum etc... are pieces of crap of the worst style.

Maybe Cycnoches Jumbo Gold :D

I have a few FCC armeniacum from before, for fun. So far the only FCC I own and is still worth its FCC is Los Osos (Norris Powell sold to me nice divisions straight out of his motherplant for 50US, still a very good deal). The remaining, I have them for history and fun...
 
spread is about 1/8 inch larger this AM (14.6 cm) and the flower is still nicely flat :)
 

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