Fenland Orchid Society

Hello to all my Orchid fans. Well January and February have gone with all the bad weather, hopefully not to come back till next year. This week being the first week in March I noticed things starting in the garden, like one of the hardy Orchids ( Spiranthes Odorato. Chadds Ford ) which this year has 7 new growths, last year only 2.

Back in January I re-potted some of the Pleiones, but not all. The ones that I didn’t re-pot was P. Formosana, I have 2 pots with lots of bulbs in, all the pots were in the greenhouse with no heat at all up till January re-potting was in the cool orchid house, they stayed there till about February 26th. This was far too hot, for some of them like the P. Formosana have now come into flower very early. Now all have gone back to the unheated greenhouse. Bulbophyllums are not so good, hope they will make good soon. Well all for now have a "blooming good time " I will be back later in the year.

 Your very own, NUT CASE.    

 

 

 

 

 

Cambridge Orchid Society Open Meeting

 

At our last meeting I picked up the notice about Cambridge Orchid Society having an open meeting with Ian Butterfield giving a talk and 3D slide show all about Pleiones.

Mary and I set off on Friday, putting the post code in the sat-nav.  We were in good time, just right to do some weekend shopping on the way into Cambridge. With only one and a half miles to go, on we went into the town centre being told by sat-nav you have reached your destination, that was outside the big Cambridge gardens but this is not what we wanted.  Mary began telling me that I was wrong, so I put the address into the sat-nav, a short time later we arrived at the hall.

 There were about 40 to 50 people at the meeting. Their show orchids were spread over 4 tables and just full of orchids, it was a show on its own. We were made very welcome. The 3D show started and what a show, it was fantastic, Ian was most accommodating with the commentary and explained a lot about the passion in his life, his Pleiones, we were most impressed and can only say it was well worth the trip.

 

David and Mary

 

 

 

 

 

 

London Orchid Show

 

Sunday March 21^st at 7-15am Dave and I set out for London to the RHS orchid show. We arrived there in good time at about 9-30, we parked up less than a minutes walk from the halls, and the good thing about going on a Sunday is that you can park for free.

We had a drink and a bite to eat and then made our way to the halls which was to open at 10-00, when the doors opened we bought our tickets and made our way into the hall, as you walked into the hall the smell of the orchids was tremendous.

Dave started clicking away with his camera and after I had viewed a few I got mine out too.

The displays were really lovely and well presented the size of some of the flowers was amazing, there was not so many stands as there have been in the past years.

Lawrence Hobbs was there busy selling his plants as was Peter White, Ratcliffe orchids were there along with Just In Glass who had a good display of orchids made from copper, David Stead was also there from whom I did buy a Cattleya. Ivens orchids were there and also Mcbeans who had a large stand in the centre of the hall with a fantastic display of cymbidiums. Burnham nurseries were there with Sarah Ritterhausen who gave a talk on how to flower your cymbids.

There were quite a few doing hardy orchids which you could buy, they were very tempting but no I did not buy any.

We then left the orchid hall and went to the other hall where they were exhibiting floral art there were floral arrangements of orchids using materials like shoes and metal stands etc. There was also someone showing you how to do flower arrangement, there was also a lot of orchid paintings some of which were done for the RHS as these were orchids that had won over the years.

After we left there we sat in the car had our lunch and then made the two hour journey home, it was a really nice day out and the weather was great too.

 

Sheila Bond