25 out of 106 AOS awarded Paph rothschildianums between 1969-2004 were awarded FCCs. Does this seem excessive to anyone else?

--Stephen

Maybe a little excessive, but roth has made some leaps and bounds since 1964. A similar thing happened when besseae and armeniacum were new species and early mediocre ones were granted FCCs only to be one upped very often by slightly better ones.

Paph. rothschildianum, even an "ok" one, can be very impressive in person and many judges jumped on them early on. It's almost like they thought the species itself deserved FCC status and they kept finding more and more ideal ones. I fear a similar situation in the future with kovachii. I must admit though, just when I was convinced roth had gotten as good as it could get, the Taiwanese exhibited the 'Perfection' clone and probably just raised the bar again since it is being used a lot as a parent now.

Jon

For me it just shows how impressive a well grown and flowered roths clone can look. What are the percentages when you compare awards by sub genus I wonder?

I really enjoy the fact that its easier to get well grown high quality plants these days.

Cheers
Stephan

I get that it's spectacular, but the % of FCCs is wayyyyy too high. The FCCs, IMHO, are supposed to be reserved for the best of the best and should be closer to 2% of the total awards. Otherwise, I can only assume that newer FCCs are somehow better than older ones, even if their scores are the same. Too much confusion

Stephan, Hrm comparing awards by subgenus is a great idea. Perhaps I will make the count and post it.

--Stephen

The question of too many FCC's to a certain grex is a difficult one to nail down. An FCC in 1969 is generally of much less quality than one in 2005, but it was far superior to the others it was compared to at the time. Once the bar is set at a certain level, how do you judge plants that are even better? Some of the roth plants from the last 10 years are from advanced sib crosses that are just spectacular! Do you stop giving awards even if the plants are continually achieving higher quality?

The question of laterial awards comes in to play also. Plants like Ascda. Yip Sum Wah had 91 awards at last count. Does this mean that judges gave too many awards, or is this grex so superior that that many clones had to be awarded?

Judging is an art, not a science; but it is based on historical evidence and experience. My feeling is that certain plants are inherently more appealing to most of us and therefore attract more attention for awards. That being said, Paph . rothchildianum is the most spectacular and majestic plant of its genus, and deserves all of the awards it continues to receive.

Bill,

Most eloquently put! I agree wholeheartedly!

thanks

Well said, Bill!

yeah....me too....and to think, there was a day I didn't think that about roths - now I have um....how many do I have???

Actually, there will be better rothschildianum in the future, especially since the discovery of a vinicolor rothschildianum...

Oh my - can you elucidate?

It does exist a very dark, nearly uniform, red colored rothschildianum with a very wide dorsal and very wide petals, and flowerspan exceeding 30 cm. This one would prove to be a very superior parent to breed rothschildianum, and actually is in itself better than any FCC rothschildianum currently known.

Maybe in a few years, there will be seedlings of it available worldwide, and this will be the next generation of rothschildianum, definitely, whose no other roths will then be able to compete. There is a picture of it here on the Paphiopedia :

http://www.paphiopedia.com/wiki/images/e/ed/Rothv2.jpg

It is a legally wild-collected plant of rothschildianum, and having seen it in person, it is to my mind the very best rothschildianum ever seen, far superior to Mt Millais or other ones. This one is to Mt Millais what Mt Millais is to Charles E, and that tells a lot !

Is the the highland form of rothschildianum? I heard the flowers are really big and can have up to 6 flowers.

Paphman

Papuanum -
Is the color really as red in person as it appears in this photo?

Yes the color is as red in person as it appears... and it is a lowland form of rothschildianum, some being the largest roths ever seen, with a leafspan up to 6'

you might have to build a new greenhouse just to fit this monster in..........

Mmmm, 6 feet - my kind of plant!
So, who's going to be breeding these? I mean hey, if we're discussing it....

Hrm looks like the AOS is gonna have to come up with some sort of Super FCC award to account for the improved quality.

--Stephen

How big are the flowers? Are they going to be more than 40 cm from petal tip to petal tip?

Paphman