Award of Merit: Paphiopedilum philippinense ‘Khairul-Bariah’.

On May 19th, I posted about our Paphiopedilum philippinense which was quite magnificent in my opinion. That slipper orchid produced six beautiful cascading flowers that simply reminded me of the tropics and exotic beauties in the wild. Arne kept saying he wondered if he should take it in for judging. He checked and found a judging center down in Washington DC. Then he kept going back and forth debating whether it was worth the time driving down to DC (he hates driving into DC...). Then he doubted if the orchid was good enough to be judged. Well, I decided not to get too involved in this process and let him decide on his own. 

A) June 8th. The flowers are still in bloom since late April. Photographed with the preliminary certificate.

Well, this post is to announce that Arne did drive down to DC and got his orchid judged. Our Paphiopedilum philippinense did indeed receive the Award of Merit on June 7th 2014! I'm sure this experience will inspire Arne to drive to Washington DC more often in the future. The official certificate will be available to us between one or two months time. Below is a brief story from Arne about his trip to Washington DC yesterday. I wanted Arne to write about his experience at the judging center because I was at work when this happened. He had a good time and I'm really proud of him and his 'not-so-little-hobby'.

B) Upclose of the preliminary certificate from the American Orchid Society (AOS).

I never thought the day would come when I took any of my orchids for judging by the American Orchid Society. The judges do not discriminate between professional growers and amateurs or whether you have a green house or grow your plants in a small confined space like me. To that comes the fact that an average Paphiopedilum philippinense is quite an impressive plant in itself and the species as such has received numerous awards in the US over a period of several decades. What made me decide to have my philippinense awarded was the appearance of a sixth flower. I checked several pictures of the plant and the number of flowers seemed to be between three and five. Maybe I saw one single plant with six flowers.

An orchid is judged at a judging center. In our case that means a drive to the Capital Judging Center in Washington DC. I guess we should be happy we live quite close to DC because this plant is huge. Anyway, I put it in the car with two pieces of wood, towels and my fly fishing waders as support and drove off to the National Arboretum. When I arrived I looked over my shoulder and, to my relief, my plant was still in one piece.

The judges inspected my philippinense for about 40 minutes. It received 83 points, which is enough for an Award of Merit. When a plant receives an award the judges ask you to give it a clonal name. From now on my plant is called Paphiopedilum philippinense ‘Khairul-Bariah’, after my wife and author of this blog. You all know her as Karole, her nickname. Just before I left, one of the judges said: “Next time stake it properly. The flower stem could have snapped in the car you know.” Learning as I go on this journey! (Arne Schon).