September 2018 Bulletin

Transcription

1 September 2018 Bulletin Volume: 51 Number: 11 Plant of the Night for August RLC Rosella s White beauty Page 1

2 Contents: Editorial: page 2 Meeting minutes: page 3 Arthur s Notes: page 4 Show winners: page 4 Novice Nook: page 5 Sam s Spot: page 6 Next Meeting: 17 th September from 7pm George Birss Websites: Submissions: At meetings or via to the Editor before the first Monday of the month Editorial Last month Gary Hodder told us all about Australian Dendrobiums. He showed us some great photos and spoke about the native habitat and conditions of each orchid, along with some culture tips at the end. It was awesome to use the new projector and see high-res photos on a big screen all nice and crisp and clear; ah, bliss. Thanks Gary for an excellent talk and for contributing to the club. Coming up this month we have George Birss talking to us about his new products. George is previously from Orchid Tray Co and has started up his own orchid accessories business. I ve heard quite a bit about the success of our Winter Show last month. Well done and thank you to all the members who contributed plants and/or time to make the show the best one we ve had yet. Thank you too, to Gary Hodder for taking lots of excellent photos. These have been posted on our website and will soon be available on our Flickr page as well. I was saddened to hear that two plants went walkabout and another was badly damaged. My commiserations to the owners. Even so, I hear the Mall management were gushing with praise for our show and for our members who treated customers very well. They said that takings were up while we were there and they love having us. The judges too were impressed by the quality of the plants on display and remarked that the Grand Champion orchid was the best of its kind they d ever seen. Wow! Management 2018: President and Editor: Samantha Stevens samstev@optusnet.com.au Vice President: Peter Meyer peter@petermeyerblinds.com.au Secretary: Rosie Blackhall rosie.blackhall@gmail.com Treasurer: Arthur Midgley pendragonx@optusnet.com.au Committee: Jan Binovec Peter McBryde Joy Gouvoussis Arthur Smyrnios Jonathan Clark We are now one month away from losing our Treasurer. As such we urgently need a new Treasurer to manage the club s financials ONLY. Arthur will continue to do most of his other tasks but he cannot continue with the financials. This role is critical for the society s survival so please, please, please, if you re good with numbers, can use Excel, and can contribute 4-6 hours per month, WE NEED YOU! Cheers, Sam Page 2

3 Minutes of WSOS monthly meeting held on 20 th August 2018 MEETING OPENED: 7:50pm APOLOGIES: Joy Gouvoussis, Jonathan Clark, Phil Festa MINUTES OF LAST MEETING: Moved: John Costa; Seconded: Peter Meter FINANCE REPORT: General Accounts accepted: Moved: Arthur Midgley; Seconded: Peter Meyer General Business: Arthur will not be renewing as Treasurer this year. Therefore we will need someone for the position, to look after the club s accounts, and income from shows. Will also need to attend Committee and monthly meetings. Anyone with bookkeeping experience, and can use Excel, WE NEED YOU!! This is a vital office for the club and it must be filled if the club is going to last another 80 years. Membership fees are overdue. Please pay Arthur in the break and ensure your name gets marked off. $15 for individuals and $20 for families. Direct deposit details: Account name: Western Suburbs Orchid Society Inc Account number: BSB: Please enter your name to appear on our statement so we know who has paid. Funds are dwindling. Please help your club by buying raffle tickets and donating to supper. Winter Show is on again this coming weekend at Ashfield Mall th August. Parking is the same; be careful where and how long you park for, as parking is at your own risk and WSOS will not reimburse anyone for a ticket. Please see Arthur to register your number plate if you re staying for a longer time. Tagging of native plants for sale at shows. All natives and native hybrids must now be tagged before they can be sold. WSOS will need to obtain a licence to sell these, at $100 for 5yrs. From a quick read of the doco this is designed to trace the origin of plants more for protected species and is aimed more at commercial growers. For our purposes this may be overkill and/or completely impossible for us to determine. More research is needed before we can tell if this applies to us or not. Supper volunteers are still required. See Peter McBryde or Jonathan Clark if you can assist. It s very disappointing that we have no volunteers do to supper for the rest of the year. Raffle tickets: Please have small notes or change, as we can t change $50 notes. Also for the supper raffle please take the ticket on the right side only, otherwise you ll never win anything. Assorted volunteers still required: o Benching marshals see Arthur o Supper see Peter McBryde or Jonathan o Historian see Sam o Committee see Sam or Peter Meyer TONIGHT S SUPPER: Thank you Peter Meyer and Peter McBryde RAFFLE PRIZES: Mario Panvino, June Fetherston, Peter Ng, Henry Mar, Dimitri Mitsios, Peter McBryde, Sam Stevens, Frances Turner BIRTHDAY RAFFLE: Reshma Wells SUPPER RAFFLE: Arthur Midgley NOVICE ENCOURAGEMENT: PLANT OF THE NIGHT: RLC Rosella s White Beauty owned by Pheng Sanaphay MEETING CLOSED: 9:15pm Meeting Events: Sep = TBC Oct = AGM and Nat Ciccari Nov = Denis De Silva (TBC) Supper Roster: Sep = Michael Luu Oct =?? Nov =?? Page 3

4 Arthur s Notes Counts: Number of plants benched = 62 Number of exhibitors = 14 Total views WSOS of the Flickr photo pages = 705,000 Number of photos on the Flickr photo pages = 2318 Orchid Benching: Thank you to the 14 members who exhibited 62 plants at the August meeting. Plant of the Night was RLC Rosella s White Beauty owned by Pheng Sanaphay. Congratulations to Pheng, his plant is a beautiful large white Cattleya hybrid with pristine well shaped blooms. Winter Orchid Show at Ashfield Mall: Congratulations to the Champion rosettes and prize winners. The quality of the orchids entered was very high and the only negative on the show entry front was that there were no Novice Class entries again. A list of the Champions and prize winners appears elsewhere in this bulletin. Thank you to all the members who helped with setting up, the sales table, and security and the pull down. It is unfortunate that two Cymbidiums were stolen from the display. Sales were good and generally the quality of plants on the sales table was up on previous years. It is difficult to sell out-of-bloom plants without name tags or information about flower colour. Winter Show Major Prize Winners: Champion Orchid Paph sukhakulii Lucy Reserve Champion Orchid Cym Midnight Passion 408 Exhibited by Jonathan Clark Exhibited by Dimitri Mitsios Novice Champion Orchid No entries Champion Cymbidium Cym Midnight Passion 408 Champion Australasian Native Den unknown Champion Any Other Orchid Paph sukhakulii Lucy Special Award Cym Midnight Passion 408 Exhibited by Dimitri Mitsios Exhibited by Minh Bau Exhibited by Jonathan Clark Exhibited by Dimitri Mitsios Page 4

5 Novice Nook WITH DR FRED IS YOUR ORCHID THRIVING? A healthy, thriving orchid is easy to recognize. Not only is it disease free, but the leaves and stems are upright and do not droop. The colour is a uniform mid-tone green. Multiple new shoots are coming on and developing quickly. The roots are often the neglected window on the orchid s soul. Healthy growing roots have a green tip and burrow into the mix or across its surface. A healthy plant that has found its niche is more likely to flower and resist disease. It is often difficult to work out why an orchid is not thriving because many things are usually happening at the same time and many things can cause similar symptoms. There are usually clues. A good start is to read up on an orchid s cultural notes to see if you are providing the right conditions. Inspect the plant for disease remembering that scale and other pests are opportunistic and prefer damaged and poorly located plants. They are also masters of concealment even hiding amongst the roots. Black tips on the leaves usually indicates either excessive nitrogenous fertilizer or a build up of salts in the potting mix. These should be leached out regularly during the growing season with a thorough hosing. A similar appearance can also simply indicate adverse growing conditions. Black spots on the leaves can follow strong nitrogen fertilizers but may indicate fungal infection requiring treatment and repotting. Water drips on the leaves overnight can lead to bacterial or fungal infections especially in Phalaenopsis. Brown or black spots are also commonly seen in sunburn (too much direct sun). Accordion leaves on Miltonias and Odontoglossums indicate insufficient humidity and adverse growing conditions especially in winter. Yellowing leaves could be normal aging (if on old bulbs and starting at the tips), but if all the leaves are affected this is more likely due to cold or too much sunlight. Nitrogen deficiency is unlikely if the plant is being fed regularly so resist the temptation to pile on the fertilizer. Instead Inspect the roots. You may suspect root damage if the leaves become limp and wrinkled, and then yellow and drop off. This is because the roots cannot absorb water or nutrients. The damage from bad potting mix or root chewing pests such as snails and scarab grubs is readily seen by knocking the orchid out of its pot. This is always a good diagnostic manoeuver which checks out the roots, the mix and the underside of the leaves. Scale and the silvery sheen of spider mite are best seen this way. During a normal dormant phase, roots may temporarily look blind until new growth starts. Garlic snails are tiny and roots are a preferred food so check for signs of chewing. At other times, if the roots have black tips and look dead and lifeless, the common problems are overwatering and over-potting. Remember that if the roots go the plant dies. Change the potting mix to something more free draining, remove dead material and try a smaller pot. A change in aspect Insufficient warmth or sun in winter are common causes of reduced growth and flowering. As the best location varies with the season, a number of moves may be needed during the year. It helps to be aware of the many microclimates available in your garden. To find the orchid which is not thriving you need to inspect your plants regularly and thoroughly. A torchlight visit to the shadehouse can also solve many puzzles due to snails, slugs and cockroaches. Heat stress can be seen in cool growing species in summer heat waves, first as leaf droop, then yellowing or brown spotting of the leaves, then sudden leaf drop. Indicator plants and frequent inspections can give early warning. Relocate the orchids to the coolest part of the shade house or bring indoors to the bathroom until the heat passes, water and keep humidity high. Shows in 2018: 5-7 th October Southern Orchid Spectacular st October WSOS Spring Show Page 5

6 Sam s Spot Welcome to Spring, yay! It was somewhat cold to start with but as I write this the temperature outside is 22 degrees, so things are looking up. With a bit of rain recently the garden as a whole is looking green with new sprouts everywhere. In the orchid zone there are buds and flowers in every direction. I ve had a couple of my smaller Cymbids pop out, along with a handful of Oncidiums and a few Dendrobiums. There s lots of buds on other Dendrobiums, including many of my softcanes, so I might get a good show this year if the chewers stay away. My very large speciosum has 25 spikes (wow!) on it this year and with luck they won t be chewed on. Fingers crossed! Lastly I have four Phals in bud, two of which are starting to open. All in all a very good crop this year. In the herb and veggie patch things are growing rapidly and looking very green and healthy. The green manure crop is also powering and will probably be ready to dig in next month. There s no movement on the chilli plants as yet, but I remember from last year they took a while to get going so they may just be gathering strength. The mint always does well at this time of year and is bushing up nicely. I ve more flower spikes on the aloe vera plants just outside my front door. The resurrected chives plant is sending out lots of new shoots which is very encouraging. I think though that the marjoram is on the way out, so I ll need to start another pot of that and one of oregano in the next few weeks. So very soon it will be time to decide on this year s crops and get stuck in. Sam s big speciosum var hillii Page 6

7 A cluster of Sam s Epidendrums, currently in flower (one of the pink ones has been pollinated!) One of Sam s small cascading Cymbids, currently in flower Page 7