Out of Sight - Out of Mind

[epiphyte]

While looking through the Proceedings of the 13th World Orchid Conference for information on xerophytic orchids, a lecture title caught my eye..."The chicken or the egg, is plant habit wrongly subordinate to flower quality" by Ned Nash. It's a great discussion on the subject on how breeding solely for flower quality has turned orchids into pansies. It's based on Cattleyas but applicable to all orchids. Here's an excerpt from the first paragraph...

"However, I feel more than qualified to comment on that familiar refrain 'Cattleyas are Hard to Grow'. How has this belief come into popular acceptance? I submit that it is simply because the vast majority of Cattleya hybrids are made primarily to improve flower quality in some way, while not adequately considering plant growth habit and vigor. Many of the 'quality' Cattleyas available today are, for this reason, not as easy to grow as they could be. There are Cattleyas of quality that are readily available and 'easy to grow', and there will be more. It is up to the public to demand plants whose growth habits are as superior as their flowers."

And from the concluding paragraph....

"The intent was not to criticize most Cattleya breeding, nor was it to discourage potential breeders. The purpose was to help open a new train of thought in the minds of the purchasers of Cattleyas: that they can obtain easy-growing plants and that they should expect them from their suppliers. After all, what good is a FCC cultivar that never blooms or shows its true quality?"

The article squarely places the responsibility on hobbyists to demand better growing Cattleyas but doesn't explain how the hobbyists are supposed to differentiate an easy to grow Cattleya from a harder to grow one. Given that the AOS has whole heartedly embraced the role of telling the public what is 'quality', they are doing a disservice to the orchid hobbyists by narrowly defining quality as large, flat and round flowers rather than broadening the definition of quality to include vigor and tolerance.

If Nad Nash indicates that it's possible for orchid hobbyists to be able to identify easy to grow Cattleyas than surely it's not unreasonable for the AOS judges to receive some training in identifying vigorous and tolerant orchids. More people successfully growing orchids can only be a positive step in the right direction for the orchid community. Well...probably not from the perspective of the elitists who want to narrow and whittle down the orchid community even further by increasing society membership fees, charging $20 to attend orchid shows and making greenhouses a requirement.