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CAMBRIDGE ORCHID SHOW – SUNDAY 15TH MAY
IT IS SEVERAL YEARS SINCE WE WENT TO A SHOW ORRGANISED BY OUR CAMBRIDGE FRIENDS – THE FATEFUL SHOW AT CHILFORD VINYARDS – SO WE DECIDED THAT THIS WAS THE YEAR TO RE-APPEAR.
UP EARLY ON SUNDAY MORNING!(IT MUST BE AN IMPORTANT) WE SET OFF WITH THE AIM OF ARRIVING FOR THE START OF THE SHOW -10.30am. THE SAT NAV SAID WE WOULD BE LATE, BUT WE SOON MADE GOOD PROGRESS AND ARRIVED IN GT. SHELFORD JUST A MINUTE EARLY - BUT THERE WERE NO DIRECTION SIGNS TO BE FOUND ( OR WE SIMPLY MISSED THEM) – HAVING MANAGED TO TURN ROUND – A LITTLE DIFFICULT WITH A CONSTANT STREAM OF TRAFFIC, WE NOTICED A HALL WITH A BANNER ANOUNCING THE SHOW WAS SUNDAY (GOOD JOB).
WE EAGERLY ARRIVED AT THE DOOR AND ANNOUNCED THAT WE WERE FROM FENLAND – SEEMED TO GO DOWN WELL (PERHAPS THEY DON’T KNOW US). INSIDE WE WERE CONFRONTED WITH A STAND SHOWING SOME LOVELY PLANTS – ONE WHIC PARTICULARLY STOOD OUT TO ME WAS ENCYCLIA VITELLINA – IN FACT THERE WERE TWO, BOTH HAD LOVELY LONG SPIKES (SEVERAL OF THEM) WITH LOTS OF FLOWERS ON EACH. WE MOVED ON TO FIND A TRADE STAND OF HARDY ORCHIDS – (HERITAGE ORCHIDS FROM MARLOW –BUCKS. ) LOOKING OVER THE AVAILABLE PLANTS WE FOUND THE SALES WOMAN VERY HELPFUL AND PURCHASED A PLEIONE WHICH WAS A KIND OF APRICOT COLOUR.
FURTHER ROUND WAS ANOTHER DISPLAY WHICH WAS FRONTED WITH SEVERAL SOPHRONITIS COCCINEAS- SOME WERE NICE PLANTS BUT ONE WAS A PARTICULARLY LARGE PLANT AND HAD A VERY GOOD COVERING OF FLOWERS – THESE ARE ALWAYS SHOWY BUT I THINK THIS WAS THE LARGEST SPECIMIN I HAVE SEEN – AND LOOKING SO HEALTHY – I HAD ONE ONCE (OR WAS IT TWO?).
LAWRENCE HOBBS WAS DISPLAYING AND SELLING VARIOUS PLANTS WITH SOME LOVELY VANDAS AS USUAL. NOW WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO PETERBOROUGH SHOW NEXT MONTH – WITHOUT A DOUBT THE BEST EVENT IN THIS AREA!
Fran Munford.
June Meeting
June meeting was an in house with Dave Morgan. Members that had put plants on the table for all to see had to tell everyone how they grow them ,where they grow them, and the conditions they grow them in. Liz Taylor was up first with her pleurothallis she keeps it in cool conditions minimum 12 degrees does not go over 25 degrees. It is in fine bark, cocoa chips, and seramis uses rain water to water it. It flowers for about three weeks, needs shade and cool. Only waters when it feels dry, and low level feeding. Roger Gore Rowe was the next to talk about his plant he brought from the London Show this year. It was an Den. Farmeri when he got it, it only had one flower now it has about ten or twelve, most beautiful plant he is really pleased with it as it only cost him £20. A real bargain. It just hangs in his greenhouse. Phalaenopsis Mani Scheria it is five years old and has flowered it from seed from a flask, it flowered for the first time last year and again this year. Has got one on bark which grows very well. If you buy a flask it is best to let them grow till quite tall in the flask once taken out and potted up and put in an propagator it will stand more chance of survival. They do a lot better when put into community pots than on their own. Water average twice a week and temperature of 12. Ken Beale who was our show table winner with his Species Vanda Crista, it is his favourite one , a seven year plant, that he brought from Ted Lloyd many years ago, it’s not a fast grower, it needs to be kept cool. He says it is the least one looked after in his greenhouse. Looking at it you would not think so. It grows easily in the conditions that Ken has it in. In winter the temperature drops to 7 degrees. He has a plastic storage box he fills with rain water and tops it up with a minimum feed every now and again, he uses this to dunk the plant in once a week. It is north facing with a brick wall the other side not in bright sunlight, It flowers every May to June has been known to bloom twice a year. Ken went on to say that any members who want some advice on their orchids to ask Brenda/Ken or Brian/Jan or Liz/Tony as they have so much knowledge about them. He also added that to get the conditions right for the orchids that you are growing, not particularly a variety of different ones that all need different conditions. Mr. Tuck had a Yellow (Hybrid) Cymbidium that he had brought for £3 in Walsingham. It is in the conservatory which gets down to 5degrees. In March it spiked up and was put out in the garden He pots cymbids up in soil as he finds they get on better. Fran Munford had got a lovely Laelia Purpurata var Mandayana. He grew it south facing high up in the greenhouse but it got baked so it got moved . It is potted up in coconut chips with hardly any roots. He waters and feeds it once a week with only a little feed. It usually flowers in the Autumn but is in flower now May/June. The plant he has had for some years. If you had any questions about Orchids was now the time to ask, as did a few members. The night was finished off with refreshments and the raffle. It was a most enjoyable evening.
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September 2011 |
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Angraecum Sesquipedale |
