The 22nd New York International 

Orchid Show 

Rockefeller Center

The 22nd Show
Rockefeller Center was at its best!

In a way, this show was the biggest challenge the most of us had ever faced. For a few of us that have participated in all 22 shows, this one will remain in our minds for a very long time. The events of September 11, 2001 with the destruction of the World Trade Center and near destruction of the Winter Garden, it almost stopped the Orchid Show from happening. It took us a long month to recover, but when we did, we did it with the strong determination that terrorism will not deterred us from staging what we all considered to be the most beautiful orchid show in the world. It may not been the largest, nor be the most crowded…but in our hearts and minds, it was… and it always be the most beautiful. 

We are all very proud to be part of the Greater New York Orchid Society. We come from different worlds, work different jobs and live in different areas. However, we all have one common bond, that is the orchids, and after September 11, we developed an even stronger bond that is New York City. These common bonds, together with the strong determination and a great group of people and with the extraordinary assistance from Rockefeller Center, is what made it all possible, and made the show a great success.

The 22nd show was indeed beautiful and best attended yet! Rockefeller Center has never been as crowded as it was Palm Sunday. Perhaps the lighting of the Christmas tree in late November, being the exception. With the thousands of flowering plants being displayed in the nearly 50 floor exhibits, to the 40+ floral arrangements, and to the two sales areas on the north and south sides, it was a remarkable show! People came from everywhere in a continuous stream that it never seemed to end. From before 10 in the morning, until well after closing in the evening, people were there ready to see the show and ready to buy plants! And the attendance was the best ever, exceeding 100,000 by a large margin, perhaps as large as 50% or 70%, making this by far the largest orchid event in the country.

Again this year, and for the past 12 years, the show poster was painted by Angela Mirro. Angela selected a group of Disa unifloras as the flowers for this year’s poster. And it was very well received by the public. We sold about 250 posters of this year alone plus several past years as well. Again, Glen Decker did a superb job of printing all of the posters, note cards and preview invitations in a very shortened schedule, without a glitch...well, almost…

Aside from the crowds, and in spite of the lack of good lighting in some areas, the show itself was spectacular. In the words of one of the most seasoned judges: “The quality of the flowers and of the exhibits has never been better”. The orchid displays were stunning, and there were, indeed, some unbelievable plants – from the huge Oncidium spacelatum in the GYNOS exhibit to the minute, but still a specimen Dendrobium petiolatum in the J&L exhibit.

All the local orchid societies created wonderful looking exhibits, many getting well-deserved trophies, plaques and ribbons, with the best belonging to GNYOS with its elegant Japanese scene and arranged with some wonderful plants. In total, GNYOS garnered seven major trophies and one FCC award. Thanks to David Booth and Ralph Wahl for putting together such a beautiful exhibit with the expert advise from Patti Lee and the help of many others. Among the commercial growers the OrchidPhile set up an exhibit with a refined oriental flavor featuring her Phals, Oncidiums and mini-Cattleyas. Soroa Orchids as well as Brennan Orchids had impressive arrays of Phalaenopsis. Orchis Floriculturing arranged a beautiful planter display on the Lobby Level with well-grown Cattleyas, four of which received AOS awards. Hoosier Orchids, Pui Chin Orchids and J&L Orchids also presented exquisite displays inside wardian cases.

The floral arrangements, organized by Helen Hersh were stunning. And for the fourth year in a row they included the wonderful Ikebana school of flower arrangement.

Once again, the fragrance judging and exhibit drew great attention. Supervised by Mr. Iku Sasaki from International Fragrance and Flavors. In addition to the fragrance professionals, the team included Marguerite Webb and Harry Zelenko. The trophy was given to Brassovola digbyana 'Mrs. Chase' AM/AOS owned by Waldor Orchids.

The set-up, under the direction of David Horak, Warren and Diana Valentine, and Brian Fischer, with many of our volunteers which began the Saturday before, was by itself a show, by in some cases fabricating new frames from old pieces, and changing the legs on the tables on the fly. It continued on Sunday, and then on Monday when the exhibitors began to arrive and culminated on Tuesday evening when the final touches were put on. From the sidelines, it looked like mass confusion, but actually was efficient and well organized, thanks to both the Rockefeller center staff and GYNOS workers.

On Monday, the sales areas were assembled under the direction of Eddie Huggins with volunteers and again with the help of Rockefeller Center staff. It was great to see Eddie doing what he has been doing for a long time, possibly for the 22 years of the show. Many thanks are in order here, because Eddie came all the way from South Carolina to help us with the show.

Meanwhile, quietly, in the show office, the computers were doing their jobs under the expert supervision of Aric Wilt and Jim Pluskota. This group entered nearly 1,300 plant registrations for ribbon judging. At the same time, Lori Grunes with another group of volunteers put the judging kits together for the next day.

Wednesday started with ribbon judging under the supervision of Rita Cohen with the help of Diane Strack, Bill Overton, and Wayne Bourdette and continued with trophy judging later that morning and AOS Judging in the afternoon. This year, we had the largest number of AOS judges ever, with judges coming from just about every region of the country. With these many judges and clerks, it certainly appeared to be chaotic at times, but under Rita’s direction everything turn out as planned. At the end, all the ribbons, plaques and trophies were handed out and 13 AOS awards were given from nearly 75 plants originally nominated.

The preview party on Wednesday evening, headed by Mrs. Emily Frick was a blast. For the first time in 12 years, the sales areas were included in the preview, which was great! During the party the main trophies were presented by Thomas Madden, the Managing Director of Rockefeller Center to Mrs. Emily Frick for the best species, Oncidium spacelatum; by myself representing Mayor Bloomberg to Jason Ong for the best plant grown in New York City for Cypripedium pubescens; by Peter Furniss, past AOS president, presenting the AOS show trophy to David Booth for the GNYOS exhibit and by Mrs. Frick, presenting the Fragrance award to Waldor Orchids.

During the entire show, from Wednesday noon until Sunday at 6 PM, at the GNYOS Boutique, Sister Joanna Marruso, Monica Tietsort, Andrea Brown, Joyce and Tim Bowersox, and the Chenkins with their loyal crew of volunteers were raking in the money from the T-shirts, posters, note cards, umbrellas, tote bags, pins and all the other goodies they had for sale. Sometimes their booth was four or five rows deep of people trying to buy goodies. And, of course, Marilyn Shapiro was there, collecting the monies and paying the bills. It seems that Marilyn was always there, collecting the monies and…

And the other activities, the full schedule of workshops organized by Carri Raven-Riemann, and presented by Ellen Ronis, and the walking tours organized by, and mostly lead by David Taft -- They were a great success and well received. Many thanks are due to all the people that presented the workshops as well as all the ones that conducted tours.

I also want to thank Dawn Kaam for her tireless hours during the show. Helping with the set up, moving tables and chairs, helping unload tens of merchandize boxes, some of them heavy, and at the same time organize the office space. She was everywhere, from early in the morning, looking to give storage space to the vendors that need them, to talking to the Rockefeller personnel about the deliveries coming in from Hawaii and California, to going to Kinkos late at night to have the judging material duplicated, from being the first one in, in the morning, to being the last one to leave and closing the office at night.

Lastly, my sincere thanks go to the one person that was the most instrumental in securing the venue for the show after the September 11 attack. She was at every meeting we had with Rockefeller Center management, and help us through some of the difficult moments that David Horak and I had in putting things together, with the right words of encouragement and practical solutions. Thanks Julia Winpenny…without your help we could have not done it!

Finally, many thanks are due to the management and personnel of Rockefeller Center. Their professionalism was incredible. From Tom Madden and Glenn Mahoney and the management group to the staging personnel, the security and clean up crews. They all did a wonderful job. Thanks again!

None of the massive effort that is the New York Show could have been accomplished without the enormous assistance, cooperation, courtesy, and generosity of the volunteers, both members and non-members of GNYOS. The hours spend by them cannot be repaid. From the first delivery of the show materials, to the endless hours of judging, to the last bit of clean up, it was a remarkable achievement by the people that took part. As usual, I will not mention names, knowing well that I will miss listing more than a few. They know who they are… and all of us can say thanks for making this show the best ever!

And just think, how much better the show will be next year!

Carlos Fighetti