Expo 2019
It is hard to believe that the Expo has been and gone but what a great week we had. Our thanks go to the organising committee for all their hard work in putting this event together. The whole week from set up right through to breakdown ran very smoothly.
There were 27 displays in total from orchid societies, traders and individuals ranging from table-top to large displays. Great creativity with lots of attractive and interesting orchids to look at. The large displays are always eye-catching with the colour and volume of plants on show but one table-top display that attracted a lot of interest was Helen McDonald’s, ‘Memories of Japan’. Great idea Helen, and beautifully put together.
The best displays as voted by the judges were:
Best Commercial Display: Chris Whitby
Best Table-top Display: Nelson Orchid Society
Best Large Society Display: Waitakere Orchid Club
Champion Display (Clive Perry Memorial Trophy): Waitakere Orchid Club
The Waitakere display, ‘Elevation’, took a more modern approach using a black and white tile theme for the floor with eight black and white stands of various heights, evenly spaced to display small groups of plants.
Thank you to everyone who made the effort to mount displays, whether large or small. It is a huge undertaking and without them there would not be a show.
Grand Champion of the show was a Phrag grown by Thomas Petrie, exhibited in Chris Whitby’s display. It is the same plant that was voted the 2018 Orchid of the Year and is on the cover of Orchids 2019. The Reserve Grand Champion went to Phrag lowii ‘Katipo’ grown by Jason Strong. Congratulations guys it is wonderful to see some younger people growing quality orchids.
The lecture programme was well attended by the registrants. We were given inspiring presentations from an excellent range of speakers, both local and international. Scott Barrie is doing some fantastic breeding with his Sarcochilus and I can’t wait to see the results of his latest work. Lee Neale spoke out us about Latouria Dendrobiums and during her talk she mentioned the use of virus test kits to check for ORVS and CyMV. Following the expo I’ve had a couple of people ask me where they can source the test kits from. Agdia Virus test kits can be obtained from Ngaio Diagnostics which is based in Nelson, contact them by email.
A lot of flasks were purchased during the expo. We can expect to see some interesting orchids on display and for sale in the not too distant future I hope.
Iwitahi Annual Summer Camp
Working from Sika Lodge, December 7-8. For more information contact Bill Liddy phone: 06 836 6735 or email him.