In OGD Vol 9 #62, Jean Allen-Ikeson posted an angry message to "Peter and Marc who think that AOS awards are somehow a commercial endorsement for commercial growers".
Jean, there is a world of difference between an organisation endorsing something, and an organisation making commercial endorsements. If you read Marc's original posting, you'll find he said "the AOS has been endorsing plants for years". He didn't use the phrase "commercial endorsement", and he certainly didn't say "commercial endorsement for commercial growers". You inserted the word "commercial" and then changed the context of his statement so you could attack him for saying it. Wouldn't you agree that flaming someone for something they didn't say is a rather childish tactic ? Later in your posting you acknowledge that large breeders (a phrase that clearly includes many commercial growers) get awards for their quality plants. This contradicts what you said in your third paragraph: "The AOS judging system .... recognizes qualtiy wherever it sees it--and never on the bench of a commercial grower's greenhouse". Marc's comment about commercial involvement was: "Several orchid retailers and growers are now marketing along these lines of award winning plants". I don't see how you can object to this; it is a statement of fact. Check the catalogues of your local nurseries and you'll find that mericlones of AOS quality-awarded plants are sold for more than non-awarded plants. You can hardly blame the nurseries for charging higher prices for AOS-endorsed quality ... but please note that Marc did NOT suggest the AOS was colluding in this. And finally, I must comment on the ignorance that is evident in your statement: "And to slam the one system that assures that a huge range of species and hybrids will be recognized for quality is in direct contrast to Asian growers who produce huge quantities of a relatively small variety of meristems/mericlones". You have obviously never been to Asia, or visited an Asian regional orchid show, or read an Asian orchid journal, or even thumbed through a list of recently registered hybrids. Yes, it is true that there are a few Asian orchid-factories which export huge quantities of a relatively small variety of meristems/mericlones to the USA. But to imply that is the sum total of orchid activity in Asia is to display a woeful ignorance of the facts. Orchid-growers in this region outnumber those in the USA by a factor of more than 10,000 to 1. Go anywhere in Asia and you'll find individuals and small companies doing their own crosses and producing their own flasks ... the number of laminar-flow chambers being used in this region outnumbers those in North America by a factor of anything from 10:1 to 100:1. Between them they produce a huge range of hybrids, line-bred species and (increasingly) selfings of rare or unusual species. It is their output that fills the benches of local orchid shows, not the products of companies like Taisuco. AOS judging is the "one system that assures that a huge range of species and hybrids will be recognized for quality" ???? Oh please. Get real. Do you really think all this Asian time, effort and energy is going into producing garbage ? Do you really think Asians are clueless about quality ? I suggest that your orchid-education is incomplete. Why don't you visit either the the Tokyo Dome Show (Japan Grand Prix International Orchid Festival), held from 23 February to 4 March 2007 at the Tokyo Dome 1-3-61, Koraku, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan, or the 9th Asia Pacific Orchid Conference, held from 14-18 March 2007 at the Korea International Exhibition Center, Goyang City, South Korea. Do this and I guarantee you'll again never make insulting comments about the lack of quality and diversity coming out of Asian labs. And (a bonus) you'll get to see the plants that Taisuco doesn't mericlone and export to the USA ... you'll drool. Gong Xi Fa Cai, or (for traditionalists), Xin Nian Kuai Le. Peter O'Byrne in Singapore _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
