For the second month in a row, I have nothing new to report from AOS monthly judging.
Last month went from in-person judging to a Zoom Business meeting. The weather forecast was very iffy due to lake effect snows. Some of our judges were knee deep in snow with poor traveling conditions in between their homes and Ann Arbor. So we did not have orchids to judge.
Today brought similar results. Judges could not travel from the west due to snow. A few from the Cleveland area ran into poor driving conditions and turned around and went home.
We did end up with two plants though but I have nothing to share. The other team looked at a smaller, darker form of Paphiopedilum philippinense. By today's standards, that species needs at least three, more likely four open flowers to stand any chance of an award. The plant today had one flower open with a second bud beginning to open.
The plant that my team looked at was a beautifully grown species of what used to be Pleurothallis saueri. (Genus is now Lindleyalis saueri. I have to check my notes later. I do not think that I have the correct spelling)
That species has just a ten year old CBR , Certificate of Botanical Recognition. A couple of my team members wanted to consider a cultural award because it had 2.5 times as many flowers and buds. But the critical point was, none of the flowers were fully open.
I pointed out that I would have a hard time granting a culture award for a well grown plant but without a single flower that was properly open.
A good chunk of the points of a culture award are granted for size and condition of bloom. 30 points to be exact. How many points do you give a plant who's flowers did not open properly. I sympathized with the notion that vegetatively it was very nice but with buds failing to open properly, that speaks to poor culture. It could be light, water or humidity but it does call into question the overall culture of the plant under consideration.
Result was no award.
Keep fingers crossed for next month.
