Royal Horticultural Society Awards

Frederick Moore was a founding member of the Royal Horticultural Society's Orchid Committee and was present at the inaugural meeting on 26th March 1889. Moore attended regularly over the next sixty years and became one of its longest serving members. He received one of the original sixty Victoria Medals of Honour (VMH) in Horticulture in 1897.

John Dominy of Veitch Nurseries, Frederick Sander, and Edwin Hill, gardener to Lord Rothschild attended that first meeting where 16 plants were presented for potential awards. Only six were deemed to be of standard and were awarded two First Class Certificates, one Award of Merit, and three Botanical Certificates.

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Lycaste sp. - probably Lycaste skinneri

Black and white lantern slide. ca. 1900.

President at the inaugural meeting of the Orchid Committee was Sir Trevor Lawrence (1831-1913). He held his orchid collection at Burford House, Oxfordshire, and still holds the individual record for the most Royal Horticultural Society's orchid awards. Sir Lawrence and Moore often communicated and exchanged orchids and Moore also built ties with others who had large orchid collections.

'..Maxillaria fractiflexa - This curious species is...from a plant in Sir Trevor Lawrence's collection, and I am indebted to Sir Trevor Lawrence for the Glasnevin plant.'

(Moore, 1908)

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RHS Award of Merit for Masdevallia chimaera 'Aurea'

'Special Pets'

At the beginning, the Orchid Committee sat twice a month. Moore often attended or sent plants or single stems to London for judging. Orchids receive awards based on their excellence, their general use, good constitution and availability. From 1892 to 1911, sixty-seven Glasnevin orchids received awards from the Royal Horticultural Society Orchid Committee; five are mentioned in Lesser known Orchids. On the 26th November 1895, Moore received an Award of Merit (A.M.) for one of his “special pets”, Masdevallia chimaera ‘Aurea’ (now Dracula chimaera).

RHS Orchid Committee

The Royal Horticultural Society Orchid Committee celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2014. Today it is an international group of corresponding members who advises on a variety of issues. The Royal Horticultural Society's Orchid Committee is the International Cultivar Registration Authority for Orchid Hybrids.

Currently, committee membership, fixed at 24, still draws from broad-based expertise including botanists, amateur growers, nurserymen and plant breeders.

During its history, the Royal Horticultural Society Orchid Committee has assessed some 30,000 orchids. In the early days, some 200 awards were presented to growers annually, more than 30 of them First Class Certificates (FCC). Today the Committee award approximately 70 awards annually with only FCCs awarded once or twice every few years.

The first recorded Royal Horticultural Society award to an orchid was in 1841, when Oncidium pulchellum, now Tolumnia pulcella, received a Certificate of Merit.

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Bulbophyllum refractum. 

Black and white lantern slide. ca. 1900.

Royal Horticultural Society Awards