| That's just it, though...flower quality awards onle evaluate FLOWER quality. If the plant is an inconsistent bloomer or breeder, that matters very little as the judging team will not be seeing the plant on a bad blooming and will likely not be breeding with it (for the most part). For example, there are plenty of awarded plants out there that later turn out to be triploids. They have large, heavier-substanced flowers like a tetraploid, but they don't breed for beans. That does not mean that the flowers are not quality flowers. After all, the ward goes to the plant, not the owner, not the progeny of the plant, but just that plant. And even without being a breeding plant, a nice award tacked on to the end of a clone makes it much more commercially viable as a meristem because there ARE those people who collect awarded plants.
That is not to say that the judging systems are geared toward making everyone a collector of awarded clones. Plenty of people sit at home with their shelter-adopted mutts and watch Westminster....
As for breeding improvement, flower quality awards are given based on "improvement" over the parents and what is expected from the cross. Also, clones are awarded based on qualities over and above the qualities of other clones of the grex that have been exhibited and awarded. Awards aren't really meant to drive line breeding or hybridizing, in my opinion, but are more geared to rewarding the efforts of the breeder. Granted, only a few awards are granted to the grower, but who among us wouldn't like to be the deft hand that first made a hybrid that recieved a number of awards on various clones? I feel that the judging program is more driven by the breeder, than vice versa. If it weren't, novelty crosses would be awarded MUCH less frequently. THe way judging works is that each plant is judged based on what one should expect from the cross, not against every other thing being awarded. ANd much like dog or cat judges, orchid judges are expected to live and breathe the current trends of breeding and have a general working knowledge of where breeding is going in most all groups of orchids. That is precistly why, as Kevin mentioned, judges from the student right on up to emeritus are expected to keep up-to-date on as much orchid info as possible. Every monthly judging starts off with a slideshow of recent awards and the description of each is read off to the whole JC.
I suppose some people think of orchid judging as pretty superfluous, but then, there are plenty who think of orchid growing in general as pretty superfluous. It's a matter of perspective. Personally, I think one of the best ways in the world to have a working knowledge of the orchid world in general is to be a judge. Of course, you still have your preferences and specialities, but you are expected to be able to fairly and confidently judge any orchid put before you, whether it is 'your thing' or not. For example, despite my general distaste for complex hybrids, I can look at a floofy-butt Phal and see the direction and improvement of breeding.
-Cj  |