Staking Cattleya Flowers

[DrLeslieEe]

Here’s a great instagram post on floral staking for best presentation. Use soft plant green wire is best.

Warning: May take a while to learn and get use to. And many a broken flowers .

 

[terryros]

Thank you, Leslie.

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Here’s another vdo post:

 

[Ozpaph]

Im not sure i understand the purpose of the 'staking' of the walkeriana. He didnt seem to move the buds at all.

 

[clearsky57]

at the WOC in 2008, i happened to be there extra early as our club decided to put in a display, so i was privy to been able to watch a LOT of unpacking of plants being brought in for exhibits and sales...
all that being said - I had never seen so much staking, propping, wiring and manipulation as i saw (mostly coming from aisan growers. I was amazed at how they would take glycene material and actually overlap the petals, and sort of pin them so there would not be any moving around during shipping (almost like when you see a person pressing leaves for mounting)... Now all that being said, (and Dr. Leslie can certainly chime in here as i would love to hear a judges opinion on the matter) I wonder how much manipulation is too much??
i digress.... whether it be curving spikes on phalaenopsis for an exhibit, or staking a cattleya spike to make sure the flowers are oriented well.. as mentioned above it is a practice thing... (and maybe a few snapped off flowers until you master it. One thing I always do with plants that are intitiating flower spikes, is i will take a marker or piece of tape and mark or tape the pot on the bench with orientation (like north/south/east/west) so that when i pick up the pot and do something with the plant, i put it back in the same orientation. Nothing worse than picking up a plant and putting it back "backwards" as it were, then the flower is trying to find the light source and opens somewhat contorted... If i didn't do anything else that is my one tip for getting flowers to open correctly.

 

[tomp]

Proper and TIMLEY Staking is an art. Manipulation is OK till it becomes obvious.

 

[big923cattleya]

Manipulation is not okay! However people do push the envelope knowing all to well it is hard to prove. I as a judge can not simply say that I can’t score this because I think that this inflorescence has been manipulated. I will have to back up my statement. Suspicions are not proof unfortunately.
I first encountered this at a New York Show at the World Financial Center in the late 90’s. These were cut flowers in a little water filled container or tube. There were actually 3 flowers, one gorgeous dark purple Cattleya. It got an FCC!! We did discus how incredibly flat the petals were. “Ironing” was brought up by some one on my team. This was a Japanese concern who regularly “cold ironed” petals held inside these Mylar plastic sheets. Could we assume that this was the case here?? In Japan at that time, this “ironing” was permissible. But not so with the AOS system. To suspect is one thing, to prove is another!!
The other stalk we suspected of being manipulated I think was an Rlc. Chia Lin ‘New City’. I am probably off on the names but that stem of 2 flowers, gorgeous semi-alba Cattleya, seemed to have been “cold ironed” as well. That inflorescence got an AM of 86 points if memory serves.
Growers all over the world have been known for quite some time using styrofoam wedges in order to manipulate the Cattleya buds as the develop after emerging from the sheath.

I just checked. Rlc. Chia Lin ‘New City’ FCC/AOS was the single purple flower.

 

[terryros]

I wanted to see a picture of the the Rlc. Chia Lin 'New City' FCC/AOS but Orchid Pro shows only an 80 point AM in Hawaii in 2001 and an 85 point AM in Boca Raton? You helped me understand the slippery slope of "training" a spike and flowers versus full manipulation ("cold ironing"). If proper spacing of flowers on an inflorescence creates more points, someone will figure out how to use spacers! Its a beauty pageant.

 

[big923cattleya]

I found out about my confusing the two awards by googling Rlc. Chia Lin “New City” FCC/AOS. The image that popped up appeared to be what I remembered.

Well for an FCC, you might try to gather every possible point that you can.
Akatsuka Orchids has the FCC image I believe from what I saw on Google.

 

[big923cattleya]

We’re these 2 Rlc. Chia Lin ’New City’’s or other clones?
Chia Lin does have a few awards to other named clones. It would not make any sense to exhibit a Rlc. Chia Lin ‘New City’ FCC/AOS because that would not make much sense. If it has an FCC, why exhibit it again? Sure, you could try for a higher pointed FCC but what is far more likely that the second one would be less of a flower some how and get fewer points. Why exhibit something just to have it downgraded?

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Im not sure i understand the purpose of the 'staking' of the walkeriana. He didnt seem to move the buds at all.

It will be used to separate the flowers from crowding as it opens.

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Through my personal travel experiences of attending and judging shows, I observed the level of acceptable staking and manipulation of flowers vary across the globe.

In Asia, such as in Taiwan and Japan (like when I judged the Tokyo Dome Orchid show), it is expected to present plants in correct stance and shingling of flowers, even if it required some mechanical help. Usually this help is done PRIOR to show and wires removed to show minimum manipulation (although ‘invisible’ wiring allowed).

At WOC, the level of acceptable manipulation varies from judge to judge based on their origin. I’ve seen heated discussions when we were choosing the winners in the final round. Some judges didn’t care if Phalaenopsis side branches were snapped off for a single stem with 20 plus flowers, while others vehemently called it a fatal flaw. Yet that plant held on to second place (reserve champion?).

In AOS, the rule is clear: no manipulation other than staking inflorescences up for support. But this rule serves more as a guide rather than an absolute. Some judges do allow floral wires to place flowers for better presentation.

But one thing all judges are always aware of is fake flattening of flower parts. That is frowned upon and flowers usually look too perfect or fake. It is considered trickery and unethical.

 

[clearsky57]

In Asia, such as in Taiwan and Japan (like when I judged the Tokyo Dome Orchid show), it is expected to present plants in correct stance and shingling of flowers, even if it required some mechanical help. Usually this help is done PRIOR to show and wires removed to show minimum manipulation (although ‘invisible’ wiring allowed).

Doc:
can you explain "invisible wiring" not heard the term.....
thanks

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Doc:
can you explain "invisible wiring" not heard the term.....
thanks

That just means hidden or using discreet green/brown clips or minimum green floral tape that isn’t too obvious, esp when seen from a certain view by judges as they walk by.

 

[David B]

WOAH, WOAH,WOAH. Everyone please look at the AOS score sheet. Below. Absolutely, agree that manipulation of flower segments for better form is forbidden. BUT I very often arrange the flowers on Cattleya so that the flowers are better presented. In the description it can be noted that the inflorescence is staked or unstaked. Please Note on the score sheet that there is no scoring for Habit and arrangement / inflorescence. So consequently one can not be penalized for something that is not scored. This goes way back to the days when cattleya were grown commercially for the corsage industry and flowers were evaluated in a singular manner for that reason. I may stake and somewhat rotate the flowers but I do this as discreetly as possible so as to avoid these clips and wire being obvious. When I see flowers well presented and the staking done in a very discreet manner I appreciate the effort. A side thought on disbudding or side branch removal, this is a hard NO for me. It is common in the flower industry to disbud, thus directing the plants energy into the remaining flowers. I feel this creates a false result in possible flower size and substance. As a retired dahlia/ chrysanthemum judge, I have personal knowledge of what disbudding results can be.

 

[big923cattleya]

While you are correct in what you say, here in the Great Lakes center and in Florida North Central, we found the General Point scale to be more appropriate for some Cattleyas. In looking at the points assigned in each case, imagine you are looking at a beautiful 8" classic lavender Cattleya. Boom, we score it using the Cattleya scale. Now imagine you are evaluating and scoring a Cattlianthae Loog Tone with 12, 4" flowers on an inflorescence? We would typically judge that candidate using the General Point Scale.
We run into the same conundrum scoring single flowered Paphiopedilums versus multiflorals.

But honestly manipulation does not come up as often as it use to, and even at that, it was never something we heard often. Back when I was a student in 1995, manipulation maybe popped up once every other year. Maybe. Now, maybe once every third or fourth year. Not terribly common in either case. So much of what we rely on as judges has to do with personal experience. The more plants you see, the more shows that you ribbon judge at, the more monthly judgings you attend, the better you become as a judge. Is the system perfect, heck no! But is the system we use.