2013 Santa Barbara Orchid Show..........

[MrCym]

Boy, have I been waiting to get going on this one! Lots to tell and photos too. Very busy with customers today so please forgive me if I space the show report out a little bit.

From a Cymbidium/Odontoglossum Alliance standpoint, a very disappointing show. So little new, quality, orchids. Took same old, same old to a whole new level.

In that we were too busy to visit the show until Friday afternoon, I relied on reports from spies for my initial posts. Generally I agreed with the commentators though, as always, I had a slightly different perspective on a couple of the plants.

The CSA judging was just about as bad as I have ever seen. Must be the addition of a couple of "loser judges" that were cobbled together so that the CSA could mount a minimal judging presence. Let's consider some of the absolutely stupid awards.

Grand Champion Cymbidium: a triploid hybrid between Fifi 'Harry' and Bunyip 4n with some unmemorable name like Cym Hung-chow Harry. It scored a B/CSA and an AM/AOS. I have no problem with the AOS award which is based on an evaluation of improvement over parentage. To suggest that the "champion" plant had adequate shape for even a low Bronze medal award defies credulity. Add to this that a superior selection from the same crossing was awarded four years ago by the CSA and it is obvious that the CSA failed to seek improvement and indeed were culpably inept in their selection.

Reserve Champion was given to a green pendulous called Judith Wooldridge 'Hatfield's'. In this scribe's opinion, this plant was the best of a poor lot, worthy of a 78 point bronze medal or thereabouts. Noticed it had been hastily registered with the RHS a couple of days before it was shown so the cross must have been a surprize. All three of the parents/grandparents traced directly to New Horizon Orchids. Nothing unusual there! The maternal grandparent, Chestnut Village, was interesting in that we made it from a hexaploid standard crossed to a diploid. All those who have some crazy idea how this genetical conundrum works should take note! Chestnut Village was then crossed to our Golden Zenith and that was crossed with our Cym. devonianum 'New Horizon' 4n to make the plant shown. Very eye-catching flower but shape was marginal and deteriorated rapidly as the show went on. The uneven spike length also detracted. All in all, the plant appeared to have been hastily groomed and poorly presented. So, a best plant that was in essence the best of a poor lot!

[MrCym]

Now let's talk about some of the judging anomalies in the CSA judging at Santa Barbara. Quite possibly the stupidest ever as far as the Grand Champion goes and pretty dumb in other areas. Firstly, any person with an ounce of common sense would know that a Silver Medal winner on the day would trump a Bronze medal winner on the day but no, of course the reverse happened. Duh. To make matters worse, another plant, the grex Art Mendoza, also gained a Silver Medal on the day which put it ahead of the Bronze Medal winning "not so Grand Champion"!

But time for a reality check. No way the GC could score 75% on shape so it should not have had a CSA award. Lots of negative comment on the Reserve Champion which, because of poor substance, lost its shape by the Friday afternoon. Not appropriate! A plant is judged as it looks at a point in time and good or bad, that was Thursday, not later. However the other SM to a canaliculatum hybrid (Art Mendoza) could not possibly be scored at 75% on form and should have been passed over by the CSA "judges". It had bulbs like pineapples too, wonder where they came from though this is neither here nor there as far as awards go.

The good news of course was that Squogre got neither of the big prizes nor any Silver Medal awards! God is good.

Another piece of very bad judging was the choice of Champion standard Cymbidium. It went to the OLD New Horizon/Geyserland orchid Kirby Lesh 'Spots' aka 'Cinnabar'. No problem with that except that the plant in Ha Bui's display was not a patch on the one in the Squogre display. Ooh, hard to feel sad, in some ways it was a win-win for me!

[CarlS]

We saw the whole show in under an hour. It just seemed to lack any "pizzazz" or excitement at least to my wife and I. Still had a nice drive and great lunch.
Glad you were able to get the new server going in a timely manner.
Carl

[MrCym]

On to the displays of Cymbidiums. Hatfield Orchids had put very little effort into plant preparation or their display and it showed. Poor lighting and unimaginative presentation made for a forgettable 2013 effort.

Apart from the Judith Wooldridge and Art Mendoza that we have discussed already, there was very little to excite interest.John Terberg 'Irish' was pretty but too few flowers on the spike. We have seen much better from our Western Movie parent. Snow Ball 'Hatfield's' was OK but no pizzazz. Genevieve Bujold was awarded Bronze and HCC/AOS but was, in my opinion, crippled with a bifurcation close to the terminal point of the inflorescence. It had murky color in the hall, nothing like the spectacular selection from the same grex shown by Ed Dumaguin in 2012. Oxnard Cutie was not so cute with unattractive foliage. I was surprised to see that one of the plants of Ford Van (Vanguard X Jessica Dubroff) had an unsupported spike that had collapsed. I don't think it was re-staked for the entire show, looked awful. In fact the group of five seedlings were all ho-hum!

Moondust 'Enterprise' was a remake of an old Geyserland hybrid and had all the charm of an Aussie Sarah Jean offspring! Mad Blanche 'Hatfield's' was just too coarse in the foliage. Sharon Osato was very disappointing, given its Yamanashi Fire X James Toya parentage, short stem, small flowers on a weak plant. Simply Irresistable 'Hatfield's' was quite resistible for me as it had huge bulbs and only one spike. Seemed totally overfed with nitrogen. Johnny Cash 'Ring Of Fire' had a Bronze and AM/AOS, it was barely awardable AOS for me and only one spike on a large plant.

Maybe the biggest disappointment was the Judge Larry Drumm shown. Larry had just passed away at the grand age of 105 a week prior to the show. Maybe he had seen the plant bearing his name and the shock did him in. It was a miserable flower, poorer by far than the three seedlings we have bloomed from this grex to date. You will see several posted on our forum in the months ahead and can judge for yourself.

[MrCym]

On to some other minor displays. San Gabriel CSA Branch had a tired display with one plant, Quick Step 'Shocker' gaining some minor trophy for its spots. It was a weak-growing plant which lost its foliage and reverted to backbulbs very quickly. Wonder who bred that? As far as I could see the best spotted Cym was in the Casa de la Orquideas display which seemed to have been overlookED.

In the Ha Bui display, there was a plant named Satsuma Beach 'Hideko' which won the Beauty Trophy. I agree this year but.... the flowers seemed deformed at the tips. I was told it is a very weak grower.
Other plants in this display included Eleanor Rigby 'Royale', Corakiwi 'My Van',Gladys Whitesell 'Heavenly' and Nicole's Valentine 'Chika', all old hybrids from last century. I mentioned the KL, it was poorly presented. Interesting too that Bert Ruiter picked Nicole's Valentine as the best intermediate in the display!

The Squogre group was supposedly a "Focus on Past Grand Champions" and true to name, they were all in the past! I guess when you don't have anything good and new, the past is all you can fall back on. Tower Of Fire was a heavily marked bicolor that I quite liked except for the miserable Icho Tower lip. Bert hated it! Love The Moon, an old hybrid of ours gained a cultural award which is about Squogre's speed these days. Reinforcing the old and tired was a plant of Pywacket 'Cinnabar Ocelot' cascading from the middle center of the group. I can almost recall making this hybrid, it surely was a long time ago! I suspect old Squogre was pinning her hopes on a plant of Elle Ronis 'Cinnabar' to carry the day but it was murky in color with every lip irregular. Someone should learn NEVER to cross one of our orchids to something bred by "Gormless Greg" Bryant. As mentioned elsewhere, Squogre got a minor gong for her five Cattleyas, hope she concentrates more in this group for 2014.....

Cal-Orchid had the best display and some fabulous Lycastes with a group of Pistachio Mint 'Geyserland' adding to the effect. Squogre might have got an award on it long ago but I think we will have to start hybridizing with it again to show the masses what it can produce when bred sensibly.

Sorella Orchids got a prize for a group of Paph Fairre Helen (fairrieanum X Pacific Shamrock) and I thought they were outstanding and most appealing.

Booby prize would seem to have been the best Mini Cym of the Show in the SB Cym Society exhibit. It was some nondescript mutated clone (foliage and flowers!) that was called "Phoenix" which is obviously bogus.

Apparently Bayaka Pendant is back...... as a CSA judge no less. On Friday morning he led a group of novices around with old Squogre and Lardass griping in the rear. He last ran this charade back in 2006 as I recall when I questioned his lack of erudition at every step and he eventually took off in a huff. The students were less that edified with his Lazarus-like reincarnation in 2013 and alternated between feigning interest and listening to the Squogre bleats about how it was robbed at judging. Oh to have been a fly on the wall!

[SARC]

Okay enough about the Cyms, what was the Odont/Onk showing like?

Its awfully quite around here, we seem to have lost our court jester in the change over.

[MrCym]

Well, I never saw ONE Odont Alliance plant exhibited that made any impression on me at all! Sad but true.

Nigel is activated, we await his posts in fear and trembling.... He'd better be following the forum closely because a Squogre-Pic is coming!

[Nigel]

I have had several emails from people asking about the forum. Rumours were started. Perhaps Andy had swept a prominent North Californian grower off her feet and carried her away over his shoulder like a caveman. Then there was the rumour that the forum site was shut down by the baliffs ( sheriffs ) when Mr. Cym couldn't raise bail following a night on the town in Salinas when he and a foreigner went on a pub crawl. Then I started the one about the amalgamation of B.I.B. enterprises and N.H.O. to form N.H.O. Pacific and Australasia.
But he is back. Better than ever.
Give it your best shot Big Man! Many of us are Orchid Board fans now.