[David]

By the way, I've already received Ch'ien Lee's reply on the judging and criteria of a CP competition. He also gave us some pointers as to where we can go to refer to other plant compatition guidelines so that we can incorporate the guidelines and terms into our competition.

I'll do a little research and try to come up with something. Then I'll email Ch'ien Lee and also Dr. Charles Clark to get their further advise. Perhaps I'll try to check with other societies/forums/CPers overseas who has done a competition before to get their advise on this.

Here's part of Ch'ien's email to me:

... I think that the general criteria for plant judging should be well known not just by the judges but also by people who are intending to submit plants to the competition. This will give them a better idea of what to prepare for and will result in less "surprises" as to the outcome of the competition.

Here are some basic suggestions:

- how well grown the plant is
- groomed, disease free
- taking into account difficulty of individual species
- evidence of infections & pests
- presentation
- choice of pot, soil, presence of weeds
- how clean the plant is, chemical residue on leaves, etc.
- general structure & layout of plant
- variety
- rarity of species, quality of color form
- size of pitcher in relation to size of the leaf
- size, vigour of plant
- also how long it has been grown

You might also want to take a look at official judging criteria from
organizations like the American Orchid Society (AOS), etc.

Of course it should be well stated that plants showing evidence of having
been wild collected will be disqualified from the competition. Also
probably a good idea that it is required for a grower to have kept a plant
for at least 6 months before submitting it for the competition (otherwise
they might submit plants that have been recently purchased).

Let me know what you think of these suggestions and perhaps with input from others we can come up with a well-written guideline manual... end