Hi Nick, I am not a good person to ask seeing I am not a member of the orchid judging fraternity.
Perhaps you are being Patriotic, but i suspect the award mentioned in your post is HCC/AOC (Australian Orchid Council).
Anyway, nice colours, fairly good shape, but the major factor that cannot be determined without more blooms on the raceme is the habit and arrangement of those blooms.
Yes, good quality clones are expensive here and Den. AvrilâÂÂs Gold has many awards, see link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Awards in Australia

No patriotism intended, just a reflex of my typing fingers. AM/AOS, HCC/AOS just rolls off my fingers. You are right, it should be AOC. Looking at the list of awards gathered by this plant, it is amazing how few of these have made it to the US. I imported a bunch of speciosums and other small plants from AON once, a nightmare! 3 weeks after it was mailed The AG inspectors found something they did not like. I had a choice of having it destroyed, shipped back at my cost or sprayed for $180. I had it sprayed. All the large plants survived, all the small plants died. I'll never do that again.

The inspectors had an interesting take on this. Shipments from South America and some parts pf Asia usually breeze through inspections as the plants have been meticulously cleaned. All the old bracts have been removed and it looks as if the plants have been brushed with a tooth brush. They suspect it has something to do with prevailing wage which is low enough in some of these countries to allow for that kind of time consuming attention. This is not the case with shipment from AU where underneath some of the old bracts offensive organisms are often found. Maybe labor cost is too high there.

Last I heard, most of the major Au growers have stopped shipping to America. Too bad, our loss.

Nick

Pity about the demise of conversations where we could discuss the wonders of the USA Medical/Labour systems versus the terrible (socialist) systems here. LOL.
Anyway, I thought it was only Australian customs that would spray plants with stuff that killed bugs plus the plants.
Flasks are not a problem, the years to flowering are.....
Anyway, at least you have some quality Dens in your collection.

Misunderstanding Arthur, the comparison was between the labor system of South American countries like Ecuador and Columbia with that of Australia. The customs agents suspect that cheap labor, which can laboriously clean plants, is more readily available there than in Australia leading to cleaner (their definition) plants from 3rd world countries.

Not only that but they also drive on the right side of the road.

Nick

All "politics"aside,
Love the bloom. Very striking colours.

I would love to have one of these but $150 is too steep for me at the moment. Nick's are so lovely it is tempting though.

Someone at our orchid society meeting last night told me that they were cloned and he has seen some for a very reasonable price. Keep a look out for that. I have never seen one for a low price but if there are a few thousand knocking around , it might happen.

Nick

With flowers that beautiful, I might even give it a try, even though Aussie Dens have not done well for me.

Tucker