It is so simple to enter your plants for American Orchid Society judging you will wonder why you have not done so before! If you have never entered a plant for award judging the following simple steps will help take the mystery out of the process.

Bring your beautiful, blooming orchid in for judging, which is the first Wednesday of the month at Odd Fellows Hall, 1931 Howe Avenue in Sacramento. You should plan to arrive at the judging room between 6 and 7pm. You will give your plant to one of our very experienced judging clerks or students who will be happy to help you fill out the required paperwork. You’ll need the following information:

1)  Plant name. Found on the plant’s tag. Our students will help you with this. You’ll need the genus and species or the hybrid’s name. For example: Blc. Ranger Six ‘A-OK’ FCC/AOS, or Phalaenopsis violacea ‘Borneo Moon’ AM/AOS. Sometimes the plant’s hybrid name may not be known. The tag may only read (Blc. Nacouchee x C. Empress Bells), enter that in the proper place on the form. (The students will help you.)

2)  Clonal name for the plant – a clonal name is like a nickname that you get to choose for your plant. In our examples it’s the part in quotes: ‘A-OK’ or ‘Borneo Moon’.

3)  Parentage. If your plant is a species, you just write ‘species’ on the form. If your plant is a hybrid, we need to know its parents, for example (Blc. Nacouchee x C. Empress Bells). Again, the students will help you with this.

4)  If the plant has a previous AOS award, enter what type of award and point score. In our example you’d enter FCC/AOS or AM/AOS. Again, the student will look up the point score from AOS records if you don’t know.

5)  Your name, address, phone number, and email address if you have one.

All plants need to be in the clerk’s room between 6 and 7pm to give the clerks time to prepare the plants for the judging team. “Preparation” includes removing any personal identification(s) from the plant so the judges won’t know who the plant belongs to, researching past awards, if any, and studying the plant for themselves as part of their education. This all takes time, so please give them time to perform these tasks. The clerks are in the room at 6pm to accept plants. Judging starts at 7:00pm.

You are invited to stay and observe the judging.

Should your plant be awarded, the cost is $40 if you are a member of the AOS and $60 if you are not a member of the AOS. The cost of the award is payable when AOS sends you the invoice, you do not pay the Judging Center

If you should have any questions about the process, please ask the clerks, students or the Center’s chair, Susan Wedegaertner.

Looking forward to seeing you and your plants in the judging room!