Exhibitor Information

Orchid shows around the world run entry the same broad way: you register your plants ahead of the show under an exhibitor number, and each plant is entered against a numbered class from a published show schedule. Registration usually opens well before the show and closes before staging begins; some shows also accept on-the-day entries, and some do not.

One point is near-universal and worth knowing in advance: matching your plant to the right class is the exhibitor's job, not the show committee's. Judges may reclassify or disqualify a plant entered in the wrong class. Established shows publish a genus-to-class cross-reference to help with this.

SAOC's own entry process for the 19th National Show has not been published yet.

Entry fees for the 19th National Show have not been set. Shows structure them differently — some charge per plant entered, some a flat fee per exhibitor, and shows affiliated to an accredited judging body sometimes add a separate fee for formal award judging on top of the show entry itself. Which of these SAOC will use is for the show committee to decide.

Show classes are the categories your plants compete in. They are normally organised by genus or alliance — Cattleya and its relatives, Oncidiinae, Paphiopedilum, Phalaenopsis, Vandeae and so on — with separate classes for single plants and for groups, plus catch-all classes for genera that do not fit elsewhere. Many shows also run a novice or first-time-exhibitor class, and judges may split a class that attracts a large number of entries.

The classes for this show are listed on the show overview page.

At most shows, judging takes place after staging closes and before the public are let in, with exhibitors not present while the judges deliberate. Larger shows commonly run two tracks at once: the show's own placings — first, second, third — and separate formal awards assessed against a points standard by accredited judges.

Two conventions worth knowing: an exhibitor who does not want a plant formally judged can normally say so, and individual plants inside a society display are usually not entered into individual judging unless the exhibitor marks and registers them separately.

SAOC's judging standards are published in full on the judging pages. Whether exhibitors may be present during judging at the National Show has not been confirmed.

Two requirements are effectively universal across judged orchid shows.

Free of pests and disease. Entries are inspected, and a plant that fails inspection is removed from the bench. This protects every other plant in the hall, so it is enforced strictly everywhere.

Correctly labelled. Your label needs the full name — genus and species, or the full hybrid name with its parentage. Where a hybrid has never been formally registered, the accepted practice is to give the trade name, or the genus name followed by the word "hybrid", rather than leaving it blank. A plant that cannot be identified generally cannot be judged.

Many shows also require that you have grown the plant yourself for a minimum period before it is eligible — the Orchid Society of Great Britain, for example, requires twelve months' possession for its main classes. The principle is widespread; the period varies from show to show, and SAOC's has not been set.

Society and group displays are usually judged as their own category, separate from individual plant classes, with each group given a defined amount of floor space. Where shows allow non-orchid plants in a display for staging effect, they normally cap them — the Orchid Society of Great Britain limits ornamental material to half the exhibit.

Practical questions we could not answer from published show rules anywhere: who is allowed to build a display stand, whether height or structural limits apply, and what materials are permitted. These are listed in the questions below.

Every show we looked at keeps retail plant sales structurally separate from the competitive floor: vendors work from their own trade area with their own setup process, and that is a different arrangement from entering plants for judging.

Whether an exhibitor may sell plants directly from a competitive entry is a different question, and no published show rules we found address it either way. It is one for the committee.

This is the part of exhibiting that published show rules are quietest about. Overnight security for benched plants, who waters them during the run, insurance and liability, and where exhibitors load and unload were not covered in any public exhibitor document we could find — not because shows have no arrangements, but because those arrangements tend to live in internal committee paperwork rather than on a website.

We are not going to guess at SAOC's. Each of these is listed as an open question below, and the answers will be published here once the show committee has settled them.

CITES does not apply to moving your cultivated plants around South Africa. CITES governs international trade — import, export and re-export across a national border. Bringing plants from one province to another for a national show is not international trade, and no CITES paperwork follows from it. CITES would only come into play if a plant were being brought into South Africa from abroad for the show.

What we cannot tell you is whether any domestic rule applies — a provincial plant-movement or agricultural-biosecurity requirement unrelated to CITES, or any documentation specific to propagated indigenous species such as Disa or Eulophia. We searched and found nothing, but finding nothing is not the same as confirming there is nothing. Both are open questions for the committee below.

Growing and showing orchids in cultivation is SAOC's remit. For southern Africa's wild orchids, see Wild Orchids of Southern Africa at wildorchids.co.za.