PIOS 2010
Now in its fourth year, the PIOS incorporated the 2010 BOC, resulting in just a few changes to the judging, layout and lectures. As it was the BOC, SDOS entered an exhibit, and were duly awarded silver. Due to the high number of exhibits from both the trade and societies, a relatively small display size was requested/supplied, which given the more usual summer flower shortage meant that the display wouldn’t have too many gaps. In the end, there were more plants than enough for the display, with several large pots of hardy orchids to the fore. The long, cold winter seems to have delayed the hardies, and they tended to be in their full glory at this weekend, rather than just going over. The good numbers of Dactylorhizas were complemented by several colourful Disas (also late this year), Masdevallias and other assorted warmer growing plants (see front cover).
Five amateur displays this year won gold. Four of these were the usual suspects (see below), but the other was more of a surprise, as well as winning the Best Society Display trophy as well. This was Hinckley OS, who are a fairly small group, but enthusiastic and passionate about what they do. They had been given an appropriate corner plot where they constructed 2 part greenhouses focussing on ‘old times’ with clay pots etc., and ‘new times’ with black plastic pots etc. None of the plants were good enough individually for rosettes, but the display was eye catching and well done. It will be interesting to see if they can follow this up next year.
NEOS (Gold) had a huge display packed with quality flowers. A large tray of Phal. Bijou Pearl was the centre piece, and a huge pot of deep purple Dact. fuchsii won the best Hardy class. Some superb Miltonias – Ouaisne and Noirmont completed a near perfect display. EMOS (Gold) had their large framed display, and exhibited a huge range of plants. They had a very tall Ophrys apifera with several growths. Laelia (now Sophronitis) purpurata f. carnea was a beautiful white with an apricot trumpet. Lots of Lycastes and Stanhopeas were dotted around. Bournemouth OS (Gold) had a large patio umbrella with a handcart underneath with a lot of plants on it – a theme used by them at the Dijon WOC. It did look a bit dark when it rained outside, but was still effective. They had a wide range of plants from hardies to Vandas, with several well presented Eulophia guineensis. OSGB (Gold) had a very large display that was well crafted to show off a huge number of plants. Best plant was the pendant Cym. lowianum. A good number of hardies were shown, with the 3 spiked Cyp. kentuckiense at its best.
Darlington OS (Silver) had a huge display packed with various plants that couldn’t have been far from winning gold. They had a Chinese theme with their backcloth as well as some impressive plants. A huge Masd. coccinea was quite eye catching. Devon OS (Silver) had the show Grand Champion Species with a huge Bulb. graveolens ‘Roger Lane’. They had some gilded deckchairs, but few other plants of note. Solihull OS (Silver) had a display packed with colour, and nicely banked. Harrogate OS (Silver) had a floor display mounted on small tables/boxes. It allowed the visitors to see plants from several angles; however, it needed a magnifying glass to get a good look at Schoenorchis manipurensis – the champion Vandaceous plant. This tiny plant has been grown by Dr. Stuart Knox for over 25 years, and is now a ball about 3” (8cm) across with miniature pink flowers. It is so small and obscure that the judges almost missed it! TVOS (Silver) had a good display as usual, packed with colour and foliage. Their plants were well colour matched with Disas and Paph. Clair de Lune(s) well to the fore. Wessex, Central OS, and Sussex OS won silver with fairly modest displays.
Other Society displays won bronze, whether thinly populated or single genera – such as Mike Mcillmurray with his national collection of Maxillarias, or the Paph. Society who had the best slipper in show with Ian Dorman’s excellentPhrag. caudatum var warscewicianum with 2 spikes each of 3 fully open flowers with very long tails.
In the trade section Ryanne won Gold, and also the Best Professional exhibit for the ‘umpteenth’ time. Somehow she is able to come up with a different theme, fetch it from France, construct it, and fill with plants. No doubt she will win it again next year (or is that level of expectation the kiss of death!). This year she had erected a jungle tree house with associated epiphytes on the branches and terrestrials on the ground. Dave Parkinson also won gold for his colourful display of Disas despite the late flowering season resulting in a shortage of plants in flower. Asendorfer Orchideenzucht also took gold for an excellent ‘standard’ display packed with plenty of Paphs, but also a superb large flowered V. Black Magic, and best Phal. species with the multi spiked equestris f. alba.
Lawrence Hobbs (silver) had a decent display in large ceramic tubs. Burnham (silver) had a decent display as did Plested. Rolke (silver) once again used their striking blue cloth which really shows off their slippers, as well as a few huge Prostechea cochleatas. KJ orchids had a bit of a mish-mash display with some quality plants as usual. Tricopilia tortilis x turialvae was the Grand Champion Hybrid and best Oncidinae. It was also good to see Paph. esquirolei ‘WOC Dijon’ again (the reserve GC from that WOC) – it is a huge flower. Jac Wubben (silver) had some very nice plants on a more modest display. In-Charm (silver) had a colourful display of Paphs with some nice new hybrids alongside their stock plants such as Gloria Naugle & Dollgoldi. This year they also fetched some flasks of better quality than we tend to see in the UK.
Chantelle orchids were new to me, and they had bare rooted plants at decent prices, as did Water Orchids and Ooi Leng Sun. Heritage and Laneside Orchids both featured UK hardy plants in an ever increasing range, and it was good to see a huge Lizard orchid – Himantoglossum hircinum (or should it be the Goat orchid?). Kopf, and Stocklbusch both had Bronze as did Elsner with a nice display of L. purpurata and Ros. Rawdon Jester. Other vendors had modest displays or were selling books or sundries.
The BOC lecture program was mainly UK based talks which have been to, or are coming to Sheffield. All in all it was a good show, with more exhibits than previously, and with better quality. The poorer winter resulted in UK hardies being better timed, which filled out many displays.
Congratulations to Brian Woodward and the EMOS members for their organisation. JG