PRESENTATION

The traditional Festa das Flores de Joinville – SC (Joinville Flowers Festival, state of Santa Catarina) had in November 2008 its 70th edition being one of the eldest event of the category in Brazil, perhaps the eldest e also one of the most important.
The great news is the institution of the First International Orchid Show with the participation of national and foreign exhibitors (United States of America, Germany, Hawaii and Thailand).
AJAO – Agremiação Joinvillense de Amadores de Orquídeas (the local orchid society), under the presidency of Wilson Eugênio Wuandt, is in charge of the show and the great participation of its associates is indispensable for the success, not only during the stage setting but also during the show, since between almost 1800 pots exposed, 1196 were from its associates.
Since 4 years ago,the exhibition director is Carlos Alberto N. do Amaral (Beto Amaral), landscapist and agronomy engineer, who makes every effort in the organization.
We should say that, in fact, although it is called Flowers Festival, it is practically a Laelia purpurata show because the number of plants of this species is much bigger than another plant from the Orchidaceae family or from any botanical family.
This edition received about 193.000 visitors and the show occupied a great area (7.200m²) in the Expoville complex, which size reaches 22.000m² and every one who have never visited can hardly conceive its size and grandiosity.
Since the entrance, we were surprised with the enormous quantity of exhibited flowers mainly Laelia purpurata. We could say we arrived at Laelia purpurata's land as it is the flower-symbol of the states of Santa Catarina. A true multitude of purpuratas, disposed in shelves ... impossible not to notice the subtleness of the shade of colors inside each variety, impossible not to compare one with other. If, the exhibition on shelves loses in ornamentation when compared with the decorated stands (Phalaenopsis tree, the water falls and the tunnel...) we win by the proximity of the own plants allowing to see them more detailed.
Many other activities (old car exhibition,dance presentation...) were part of the promoted events during the Festival and concerning directly the orchids, a series of lectures, under João Darciso Hellmann coordination, had many scientists and orchidists from Brazil, United States and Germany. The lecture about orchids covered many specific subjects such as the genera Cattleya (identification problems), Oncidium (Brazilian species and hybrids), Encyclia  (Taxonomy), Baptistonia (philogenetic studies) and Laelia purpurata. There were also lecture approaching more generalized subjects such as orchid diversity, conservation through cultivation and breeding. Those works were presented by  César Wenzel, Delfina de Araujo, Fábio de Barros, Francisco Miranda, Ingo Bauer, João Hellmann, Lou Menezes, Szu An Bon and Vitorino Paiva Castro Neto from Brazil, Jörg Frehsonke, from Germany and   Patricia Harding, from USA. The series of lectures were not limited to orchids. Many others subjects concerning the environment, its conservation and environmental education were approached.
During the realization of the 1st. International Orchid Show the judgment of plants had two different group of judges. The first from the AJAO and the second formed by 5 judges from the American Orchid Society.
In the AOS judgment, the Blc Durigan was the great star, besides to receive a AQ (Award of Quality), three clones were awarded with AM (Award of Merit - flower obtaining punctuation between 80 and 89/100) e 7 clones were awarded with HCC (Highly Commended Certificate - flower obtaining punctuation between 75and 79/100), except for one, the plants of Blc Durigam presented were owned by Durigam nursery.
Congratulation to all responsible for the success and the wonderful exhibition.
Congratulation to Joinville.