Monthly meetings include a show table of members' plants. Six
ribbons are awarded each month: four awards are selected by an alternating team
of three VAOS member judges. These awards are: one for Best Species, and a First,
Second and Third place award to any plant. The monthly speaker chooses the Speaker's
Choice and the VAOS members vote on the plant for Members' Choice. The following
section describes each of these awards for March 2003. To view a larger image,
click on the photograph.
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First Place Award: Vanda Madame Rattana
x V. Manuadee
Grower: Katie Caldwell
A very well grown plant with three spikes carrying 31 flowers, a fourth
spike emerging. The photograph fails to display the intense color of the
flowers.
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Second Place Award: Cymbidium Star 'Beth'
Grower: Bunny Minnock
A heavily flowered minature cymbidium. This cross was registered in 1969
by Gallup and Stribling. |
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Third Place Award and Members' Choice:
Dendrobium Second Love 'Tokimeki'
Grower: Richard Amos
A multi-spike plant in full bloom. Members were attracted to the immense
display of flowers, typical of its Den. nobile background. The cross was
registered in 1989 and represents complex breeding reaching back 11 generations.
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Best Species Award: Cattleya violacea
Grower: Richard Amos
A seedling of this species with five flowers on three spikes. C. violacea
was first described in 1838 and is found naturally in Venezula, Ecuador
and Brazil. This plant is a species seedling hybridized by H&R. The
species has received twenty AOS awards, including a FCC in 1983 and an
AM in 2001. |
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Speaker's Choice Award: Rhychostylis gigantea
Grower: Bill and Susan Fender
Five spikes at peak bloom on a well culitavted plant. A good example
of a dark red form of the species, which has been cultivated in a variety
of color forms. The species has received 115 AOS awards, the most recent
in 2001. |