The East Everglades Orchid Society is proud to offer our members a new, exclusive judging category for exceptional orchids that fall under the quality and guidelines of American Orchid Society Awards.

This new award, the EEOS Award, will be awarded to the orchid by a team of 2 or more AOS Judges. Any judge can nominate a plant for the EEOS Award, but only AOS judges can accept the plant for judging. All Culture Awarded plants will be considered for the EEOS Award. Orchids will be ribbon judged first, and then will be available for the EEOS Award.

Awarded orchids will be assigned points, based on American Orchid Society standards. Emphasis on flower size and quality will be in effect. The Bronze Award will be given to orchids that receive 75 - 79 points. The Silver Award will be given to orchids that receive 80 - 89 points. For our highest award, the Gold Award, orchids must receive 90 points or higher. Orchids and their owners will be photographed, and owners will be presented with a beautiful medallion.

The records of the awarded orchid will be kept and the owner will be honored to display the name of their plant with "EEOS (# of points)" after it. This prestigious award tells owners that the orchid has received commendations by AOS Judges under the strict and demanding qualifications set down by East Everglades Orchid Society. This will truly be an award to behold!

Our judges agreed to go the extra mile to offer this service to our members, knowing it will take more time away from their enjoyment of our fine programs. Their unselfishness dedication to their professionalism is to be commended. However, they agreed to judge for the EEOS Award under a trial basis. It is essential that they get started judging no later than 7:30. As members who bring in orchids to be judged, we ask you to come a little earlier to register your orchids, then go inside to socialize and begin the mini-class so our judges can get started without interruptions. Please, to make this award available, we cannot stress how important this is. We can make this easier for you if you download the registration forms from our website, or we can include them in our newsletter so you can fill them out before hand. This will save a lot of time and avoid the congestion in the judging area.

With this award, we will acknowledge fine, outstanding orchids of AOS quality. This award will probably not be seen every month, but our judges have agreed to look for such orchids and award them accordingly. We hope we do see many of these awards, since our members grow and bloom many outstanding orchids that should be considered for the EEOS Award.