Ron, the AOC used to produce a yearly book with a percentage of photos of awarded orchids. The problem is that the powers to be think that they have to sock money away for some reason and won't produce this book again, against member requests, "people wont buy it", CRAP, I would and so would most of the people who buy the Taiwan books and Awards Quarterly. The most common question raised by clubs and growers is ' What does the AOC do for us". Answer, Not Much. Yes the book would cost a lot to produce in full color but having it printed "off shore" would be an advantage, many books are these days. These books give Judges, nurserymen, growers an insight into orchids from around the country. With some fair thinking, to add the award details for size of flower and segments, it would be a great learning/comparison tool to assist in the assessing of similar plants presented for awards and to compare with o/seas orchids. The Taiwan books on Paphs are great ( I have books 2 & 3 ), Awards Quarterly is also great but expensive. There maybe some similar publications coming onto the market from another Paph, Phrag, Catt & Phal loving country soon which will again make the Australian system look third world again. It really seems to me that we are all for promoting and aquiring orchids from O/seas at crazy prices, either as plants or flasks when we have the equal or better right here. We should be world leaders in orchids but NO, we/some think that the grass is greener elsewhere, for me, no way, I for one will buy Aussie where ever I can. Atleast, if you happen to have a problem, the bloke you bought the plants from is not that far away. ROY
--------------------------------- Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies.
_______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids
