"W.O.S. NEWS"

November 2009

 

 

The Official Newsletter of

WANNEROO ORCHID SOCIETY INC.

Website: http://members.iinet.net.au/~emntee/

Telephone 0434 334 388

PRESIDENT - Tony - email: 9342 3799

SECRETARY - Pauline - email 9305 1462

TREASURER - John email

REGISTRAR - Sandy - email: 9309 1828

EDITOR - Tony - email: 9342 3799

P.O. Box 236, Kingsway, WA 6065.

NEXT MEETING
Will be held, Thursday 19th November at 8pm, at the Wanneroo Community Centre, Civic Drive, Wanneroo. Visitors and New Members always welcome.


TOPIC OF THE EVENING - Reg Kennedy - Lycastes


Note!! Membership renewals are due NOW!!

MEMBERSHIP FEES - Couple/family $34. Single $22. (Includes Badge)
RENEWAL - Couple/family $20. Single $15.

COMMITTEE MEETING : November 30th @ Les's place.


WANNEROO ORCHID SOCIETY
CALENDAR 2010

Please note that the date for set-up of display is prior to Show/Display dates in calendar.
Acceptance of plants for SHOWS until 7pm
Acceptance of plants for popular vote at Displays until 6pm.

Garden Clubs Fair @ Cannington Showground. 13th & 14th February 2010
Garden Week in April
More Shows & Displays as they come to hand. Watch this space.

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October Meeting Results

Popular Vote



OPEN: Fay - Phalaenopsis Ever Spring Light "MTF"



The George Webber Memorial Trophy & NOVICE:

Bill & Pauline - Ascocenda Peggy Foo 'Pink' X Rhyncostylis gigantea"Alba"



FLORAL: Barbara

FLORAL ART/ARRANGEMENT
For November - Free Choice
For December-A Christmas Wish

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CLUB NEWS

Our Xmas meeting will see the usual end of year get together with a special raffle for a Xmas hamper (tickets $1) Please bring any donations for the Xmas Hamper to the November meeting . All proceeds to the Travel Fund.

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Xmas in January will be held again at 4pm on the 17th January 2010 at the home of Bruce and Kaye. Many thanks to them both for opening their home once more. This is a fun evening as those who were with us last year can attest. The Society supplies the BBQ meat so if you plan to join us, we will need you to place your name on the list on the raffle table at the Nov & Dec meetings

 

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Judges BBQ will be held at the Old Mandurah Yacht Club, Mary St, Mandurah, 21st Feb at 11am for noon lunch. Cost to be notified. Watch this space.

 

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Some of you may still not have received your Exemption Certificate from the WA Water Corporation despite the fact that Hannah sent them the list twice, I sent them the list twice and they already had it from the year before. Those of you who put your names on the list at the last meeting should have received your exemption by now. If you have still not received it by now, I can only suggest that you contact… Angela Jones at the Water Corporation (08) 9423 7720 or………….
Angela.Jones@watercorporation.com.au

 

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North Beach Display Winners

1st. Sandy & Tony with a great Phalaenopsis

2nd Mavis & Tony with a Vanda tricolor

3rd Fay with another Phalaenopsis

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Results for October 2009 monthly meeting

NOVICE


Please Note; All names in BOLD type are NEW REGISTRATIONS
Please change your labels.

Laeliinea Alliance:



15B. 1st Les & Val - BLC Stockton Supreme

Oncidinae:



20E. 1st Alex & Judy - Oncidium Sharry Baby "Sweet Fragrance"

Vandaceous:

21B. 1st Bill & Pauline - Ascocenda Peggy Foo "Pink" X Rhyncostylis gigantea "alba"

Phragmipedium Hybrids:



25A. 1st Bill & Pauline - Phragmipedium Schroderae

Paphiopedilum Species



A17 1st Les & Val - Paphiopedilum delanatii X delanetii "Pink Bowl"



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Warwick Shopping Centre - Show Results

See all the pix on line

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The Results of the Wanneroo Central Show

Sadly there was a rather poor showing from our novice growers with only one turning up to support the Show, thus $40 allocated for Best Novice in both Aust. Native & Paphiopedilum went begging.

See all the pix HERE

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Ezi-Gro Orchids are now CLOSED on Sundays until further notice.

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The results of the 2009 Annual General Meeting…

PATRON - FAY
PRESIDENT - TONY
1ST VICE PRESIDENT - BRUCE
2ND VICE PRESIDENT - PETER
SECRETARY - PAULINE
TREASURER - JOHN
EDITOR - TONY
COMMITTEE MEMBER - LES
COMMITTEE MEMBER - BILL
REGISTRAR - SANDY
ASSISTANT REGISTAR - CHRIS
ASSISTANT REGISTRAR - VICTOR
NEW MEMBER CO-ORDINATOR - MAVIS W
LIBRARIAN - SANDY L
OPPORTUNITY TABLE - SANDY
POT SALES - FRANK
SHOW MARSHALL - CLAUDE
ASSISTANT SHOW MARSHALL -KEITH
DISPLAY CO-ODINATOR - TONY
RAFFLE TABLE - ROSA
AUDITOR - WENDY
SOCIAL SECRETARY - HANNAH

CONGRATULATE ALL OFFICE BEARERS

A special thanks to all those who made themselves available to help run the Wanneroo Orchid Society.

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Here is an article by Geoff Hands, author and holder of the British
National Paphiopedilum Collection.

I'm just back from EOC Dresden - which I will write about another time.
However, I got home to find the greenhouse boiler not working and have spent half the night awake worrying about it - have just called the plumber who is on his way....
And in the night I was thinking about the old Charlesworths. They were a very old-fashioned nursery when I first went there, in fact they never changed.
They controlled temperature by opening ventilators (by hand) and/or by shading - and rolled the lath blinds along the wooden rails outside the greenhouse by hand, and/or painted whitewash on the glass - you've guessed it - they didn't use a sprayer, but a brush.

Humidity was raised by having all the plants (the Odonts anyway) standing on empty inverted clay pots ; of course they used clay pots for all their plants - plastic ones were coming in and clay hard to get, but they had a few million lying around . They used a brass syringe - like a large diameter bicycle pump and a bucket of water, and then sprayed the plant pots and the ones the plants were standing on, to allow evaporation and raise humidity.
All very good, but very, very labour intensive, Hence one man and a boy - full time - to look after one 60 foot greenhouse.

I don't think they were that good as cultivators either, although they certainly had the best Odonts by far. But when you bought a plant from them and came to repot it, you would find every bulb from the very first one made by the seedling, all on the plant and in the pot, and often there would be a dozen the size of a pea. In other words they had great difficulty getting plants to start making larger and larger bulbs up to flowering size. This explained why it was that the names of their new seedlings flowering for the first time never changed. I used to think that they must keep remaking the same cross (which is not normal practice anywhere in orchids) - most hybridisers keep moving forward - but Charlesworths were still selling plants from the original cross 20 years after they sold the first - they were selling plants which had taken that long to reach flowering size. No wonder the price was so high - £15 in 1965 was a great amount of money - more than a postman earned in a week.
And they did not plump again easily after the spike was cut.
This made me look for better ways of growing them, but not, I am sure Charlesworths; they were very set in the ways of the previous century. Nothing could be changed.

At the time I am talking about - early 1960's - we all used osmunda fibre and sphagnum moss mixtures as compost. The coarse Italian fibre had gone up to about £40 per bale by say 1965, and the finer Japanese brown osmunda to about £200 (which killed it off as a possibility, and we all turned to first peat and then bark mixtures). The Japanese was the stuff recommended for Odont seedlings with their fine roots.

It was very difficult to get a community pot of seedlings from Charlesworths, they mostly only sold flowering plants (in that genus) - and very few were any more exotic than Odontiodas - no Odontocidiums, Miltassias, Alicearas, Beallaras, or even Odontonias . However on one occasion I, when they owed me (for putting up two of their people for the three days necessary for a show) they did let me have one compot. I took the little plantlets out of the clay pot and put them in a polystyrene box - the sort of stuff used to pack delicate electronics before they are sold)
and used a peat/perlite mix. They went in my greenhouse with its automatic humidification from ground level spray jets on a timer, etc, When I had two or three in flower I asked if the cross had been named (Odont Brimstone Butterfly x Odont Margia - as I remember it) and they were astonished that I had flowered some - they had none anywhere near that... they allowed me to name it (Oda Sheila Hands) but that makes my point.

Keith Andrew, who at one time did some good Odont breeding in his nursery, can be quite funny about Charlesworths, saying that you could always buy a plant from them and know you could grow it better, they were that bad; part of this maybe competitiveness or jealousy between old trade rivals, but there is a germ of truth in there somewhere. The reason Charlesworths went out of business is that they didn't make any money, and the reasons McBeans bought them was at that time McBeans were making a lot - Charlesworths grew by 19th century methods, McBeans were using 20th century technology…

I hope some found my reminiscing of interest.
Geoff Hands

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Results for October 2009 monthly meeting

OPEN

Please Note; All names in BOLD type are NEW REGISTRATIONS
Please change your labels.


Laeliinae:



1C 1st Neil & Barbara - Lc. Burgundy Gem



1F 1st Keith & Judy - Epidendrum Unknown



1F 2nd Keith & Judy - Epidendrum Unknown

Paphiopedilum Hybrid:



13A 1st Fay - Paphiopedilum Jerry Buote



3E 1st Keith & Judy - Paphiopedilum TB Karen Magic

Cymbidium:



2A 1st Keith & Judy - Cymbidium Firevieux "Hadfield Triply Cliff"



2C 1st Keith & Judy - Cymbidium Unknown



2C 2nd Keith & Judy - Cymbidium Tuffet Tigereye

AUSTRALIAN NATIVE TERRESTRIAL:



9a 1st Mavis & Tony - Elythranthera emarginata

AUSTRALIAN NATIVE EPIPHYTE:



8B 1st Keith & Judy - Sarcochilus First Light

Phalaenopsis:

5E 1st Fay - Phalaenopsis Ever Spring Light "M T F"



5B1st Fay - Phalaenopsis Line Renaud X Phalaenopsis Soroa French Kiss

Dendrobium:



4B1st Neil & Barbara - Dendrobium Honey

Many thanks to Victor for sending me the Meeting Results. Ed.


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Our representative can help you with the correct choice for your application.
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Ask Dave or Alyson about their Special Deals for members of the
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Phone. 9404 7155. Fax. 9404 7156

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Cymbidium Notes for November
Courtesy of Roy Brown


Repotting should be in full swing, but by the middle of November the temperature will be fairly high, so it would be advisable to have all the repotting done by the first week of November at the latest.
When dividing your plants try not to break them up into sections that are too small, a three pseudobulb piece will have a better chance of flowering the following year.
Try not to overpot your plant. Select a pot that will hold the plant and it's root system, and will allow for a further two years growth.
When you are repotting, hold the plant firmly in one hand, twenty centimetres above the top of the pot and using your fingers, work the fresh pine bark between the plant's roots.
Fill the pot to twenty centimetres from the rim firming the bark as you go. The plant should now be sitting neatly in the centre of the pot with the base of the pseudobulb just below the top of the bark. Give the plant a good watering and place it in a cool shady position for about a week until the roots start into active growth again.
When the flower spikes are finished and the plant repotted, you will find the new seasons lead will shoot ahead; so keep them growing strongly, increase the fertiliser to weekly or fortnightly intervals. In the growing season, Cymbidiums love plenty of light, water and a regular feeding program.


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Final Points Results for 2008/2009

OPEN:

1st Phil. 403 points

2nd Noel & Eva. 207 points

3rd Keith & Judy. 89 points

NOVICE:

1st Maureen. 99 points & The Jess Trophy

2nd Bill & Sandy. 55 points

3rd Bill & Pauline. 34 points

FLORAL:

Maureen. 21 points

GEORGE WEBBER MEMORIAL TROPHY:
A tie for 1st place between……..

John H. - 80 points Cym. Black Ruby 'Magic'

Phil - 80 points Paph Hsinying Fairbre

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Our Guest Speakers for the rest of 2009 are………

November - Reg Kennedy - Lycastes

December - Our Xmas Meeting


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From the ShanghaiDaily.com

RARE wild orchids growing on mountain cliffs are prized in traditional medicine, but not for their flowers, for their stems. Zhang Qian explores. An inconspicuous herbal tonic in many Chinese pharmacies is a small ball of what looks like twisted and wrapped straw, but it's one of the nine top "fairy herbs" of Taoism.
This is shihu or orchid, sometimes called golden grass - rather, the stems of one kind of dendrobium (an orchid species. Dendrobium officinale) that are dried, baked and wrapped in little balls just a couple of centimetres in diameter.
They are commonly golden yellow or greenish yellow. The most valuable are rarer, with dark stems and are known as tiepi shihu or iron-skin orchid for the rust-coloured stains on fresh stems. They are considered more potent and are more expensive.
Wild tiepi shihu, with small sprays of flowers, growing on rocks can sell for 8,000-100,000 yuan (US$1,172-14,646) per kilogram. These varieties grow on rocks and cliffs in mountain areas, such as Yunnan Province, and are difficult to find, though they are grown commercially. Chinese believe wild herbs are more potent than commercially raised varieties.
Long ago people used to shoot arrows to knock these plants off cliffs so they could collect them at the bottom or ravines.
Iron-skin orchids are facing extinction and listed as protected medicinal herb.
Common shihu is less expensive and costs only several hundred yuan.
Dendrobium is neutral in energy, but nourishes yin (cold) energy, moisturizes, and is specially good for the digestive system, known as the spleen in traditional Chinese medicine. It is commonly made into soup or tea.
It helps the digestive system absorb other tonics.
Dendrobium grows in the Himalayan region, as well as low-lying tropical forests. It was recorded as a precious tonic in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220) in "Shennong Bencao Jing" ("Shennong's Herbal Classic").
Shihu travels through stomach and kidney meridians to promote body fluids and dispel pathogenic heat. It relieves problems caused by excessive internal heat and deficient yin energy, such as vomiting, constipation, poor appetite, frequent thirstiness and poor eye-sight.
Though shihu does not directly reinforce energy, it is a good tonic for most people since it benefits the digestive system, according to He Lina of the Leiyunshang Pharmacy on Nanjing Road W.
"Good spleen (digestive system) guarantees that we absorb what we eat. If your spleen doesn't function well, any precious tonic is wastes," he says. So eating these orchid stems is preparation for any tonic.
Though fresh orchid stems can be used, dried and processed ones are more popular since impurities can be removed and they can be preserved.
There are more than 1,000 species of dendrobium (only one of more than 20,000 orchid species worldwide) in the world, around 75 of them grow in China. About 40 are used for medicinal purposes.
Tiepi shihu is one of the Top Nine Fairy Herbs in "Dao Zang" ("Taoism Classic") of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Tiepi shihu also strengthens muscle, brain and increases longevity, according to "Bencao Gangmu" ("Compendium of Materia Medica"). It is a famous life-saving folk medicine.

Modern research shows that it can improve immunity, memory, delay signs of aging and help treat diabetes. It is given to patients receiving chemotherapy and helps in those who drink or smoke too much.Shihu can be made into capsules or tea, but the herbal soup is most efficacious, says He.
Soak one to two dried balls in water for about 20 minutes until they soften, then simmer for 15 minutes to make soup.

Since the tiepi shihu can sell for 10 times as much as other varieties, there are many "fakes" using adequate but less efficacious shihu.
The real thing - tiepi shihu
It's yellow or brown and wrapped into an ellipsoid, two to five wraps. It tastes bland or bitter. It's sticky when chewed.

Tea - shihu and maidong (ophiopogon root/mondo grass)
Ingredients: shihu (10g), maidong (10g), rice sprouts (10g)
Add boiling water and drink often.
Benefits: Nourishes yin, dispels heat, aids digestion, promotes body fluid. Treats vomiting, poor appetite, sore throat due to deficient yin and pathogenic heat.

Juice - shihu and sugar cane
Ingredients: shihu (30g), sugar cane (500g)
Preparation: Cook soup with shihu, press cane juice. Combine.
Drink often.
Benefits: Nourishes yin, aids digestion, dispels heat and thirst.

Soup - shihu, gouqi (wolfberry) and chrysanthemum
Ingredients: shihu (15g), gouqi (15g), dried chrysanthemum (10g)
Cook soup, drink often.
Benefits: Nourishes yin, dispels heat, improves eyesight, aids digestion.

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