Next
Meeting: May 4, 1:00PM, Mills Godwin Auditorium.
The
annual purchased plant auction. See over.
President’s Message
This year has been flying by quickly.
Our May Auction is around the corner.
I hope you all have been saving your pennies and telling your friends.
If we want to keep up our great line-up of speakers, we need to fill the
coffers. So spread the word and
bring family and friends to the annual purchased plant auction.
The ribbon cutting ceremony for the Arthur and Phyllis Kaplan Orchid
Conservatory was a great success despite the rainy and blustery weather. The conservatory was decked out in all its glory.
This was followed by a wonderful presentation by Steve Urich to our
society about the present and future plans for the conservatory.
This will open new doors to many of our members.
This will also give us the opportunity as a society to work on some level
of interaction with Old Dominion University.
June 1st will bring us to our annual picnic at the Norfolk
Botanical Garden. At this time the
newly elected or re-elected slate of officers will be sworn in.
I want to thank the new trustees and the continuing trustees and
officers. Your work and time is
appreciated.
See you May 4th,
Thanks
Ruta
Mah
Hospitality
Please remember to bring refreshments if you signed up. We anticipate
several visitors because of the ribbon cutting ceremony. If you didn’t sign up
you’re always welcome to share something with us.
New
Member
Please
add returning and new members, or change addresses for current members, on your
rosters
Randy Schonk,
3675 Foxwell Dr.,
Norfolk, VA 23502,
phone 461-1828,
email randysorchids@gmail.com
Thanks, Mitzi
Newsletter
Next
month will be the last newsletter for our year and there won’t be one until
the end of August. If you have any information you need to convey please let me
know by May 15th.
Programs
June
is our annual picnic at the botanical gardens, but we also have an auction for
members. This is the auction where you bring plants you may not want anymore or
have too many of and split the proceeds with the society 75/25, with the 75%
going to you. For beginner growers this is a great time to get nice plants
inexpensively. Although not known at the time of publication we usually have a
free tram tour of the gardens. This is a potluck, paper goods and drinks
provided by the society, and starts later than normal, at 4pm, on June 1. We
always have a great time.
Next year’s schedule will be listed in June’s newsletter. Evalyn has
been working hard and has some great speakers lined up. Have you heard of Phrag
kovachii? Stay tuned.
TIDEWATER ORCHID SOCIETY PRESENTS ITS 2008 ANNUAL
SPRING PLANT
AUCTION AT OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY
IN MILLS GODWIN ROOM 101.
Sunday, May 4TH. AUCTION STARTS EARLY at 1 PM [Note that this is not our usual 2 PM
meeting time]. Plants will be displayed in Room 128 with lists for your
examination from 12:30-1 PM. The
Conservatory will also be open from noon
until 12:45 PM before the auction begins.
Your committee has worked hard to obtain approximately 250 absolutely
great plants for the auction. Over the years we have developed a close personal
relationship with each of our growers and are assured of getting the finest
quality plants as we have in the past. This year, with Gil’s help through a
long friendship he has had with Roy Tokunaga., we have reestablished our contact
with H & R Nursery in Hawaii. Roy was at the recent Merritt Huntington
Symposium in Williamsburg with some absolutely spectacular species. That fact
only enhances our anticipation of what he will send us. Carmela Orchids, also of
Hawaii, with their magnificent Cattleya alliance and Phalaenopsis hybrids and
Tropical Orchid Farm of Maui, HI with those wonderful seed-grown species have
been with us for the past dozen years. We will again be getting Phrags, Paphs
and Bulbophyllums from Marilyn LeDoux of Windy Hill Gardens in Labadie,
Missouri. Marilyn has a reputation as one of the best Phrag. and Paph. growers
in the country and has won the awards to prove it. We look forward to her
plants.
Our thanks to those members, who have volunteered to receive, carefully
unpack, label and house the plants and bring them to the auction: The Bryans,
Walchs, Adairs, and Dot Pierce And
a big “thanks” to Charles Rhodes who is our unsung hero for racing to make
last minute deadlines with the plant lists and Dave Bryan who spends countless
hours attempting to find a picture of each plant to project on a screen to be
certain each of you can see what those not in
bloom will look like. What a service to the Society!
We hope every member of TOS will support this auction on Sunday, May 4th, at 1 PM. Come to have fun and buy plants or if you
can resist buying a new plant or two, just sit by and cheer the other bidders on
and please try to stay until he biddings
is over!. As always, this will be one of the most exciting and entertaining,
as well as educational, meetings of the year. We promise there will be something
for everyone. For new growers, we will seat you next to an experienced grower to
keep you from overbidding and to guarantee that you don’t buy something you
can’t grow. There will always be another plant to buy. Feel free to invite
your friends who might want to buy orchids. We welcome them---and to everyone,
bring your checkbooks and plenty of cash!!! [We will have some boxes for plants,
but you might want to bring a box or two of your own-please]. Culture sheets to
help you grow a plant with which you may not be acquainted will be available. In
addition, all members are encouraged to bring all the blooming plants they can
for the display table to help demonstrate what a particular plant not in bloom
could look like. This helps new members and guests in particular.
The auction is being widely publicized at ODU and we look forward to
welcoming students and faculty as guests to compete in the bidding.
Arthur S. Kaplan. M. D.,
Auction Chairman