TIDEWATER ORCHID SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER MAY 2009

Next Meeting: May 3, 2009, 1PM, Old Dominion University Cafeteria: Annual Purchased Plant Auction. Preview 12 Noon.

Boxes will NOT be provided this year so please bring your own.

President’s Message

            This has been a sad month for Tidewater Orchid Society. We have lost a long standing pillar of our society. Arthur's love of orchids was infectious spreading appreciation and knowledge of these wonderful plants. The Arthur and Phyllis Kaplan Orchid Conservatory stands as reminder of this and his great joy in sharing the beauty of orchids with others.
            May brings us to our purchased plant auction. George worked with Arthur to procure the plants for this year's auction. Please spread the word about our auction to friends and other orchid lovers. We want this to be a great success. Remember that we start early that day; the auction begins at 1:00 PM, with a preview at noon.
            I hope to see you there.

Sincerely,

Ruta Mah

Programs

June, Picnic

August 30, Ernie Gemeinhart, Enlightened Orchids

October 4, Donated Plant Auction

November 1, Frank Slaughter, AOS Judge, Converting Slides of Awarded Plants to Digital.

Purchased Plant Auction

            Your committee has worked hard to obtain approximately 200 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 the growers are the same as last: H & R Nursery in HI; Carmela Orchids, also of HI; Tropical Orchid Farm of Maui, HI. We will again be getting Phrags, Paphs and Bulbophyllums from Windy Hill Gardens in Labadie, Missouri.

            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 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 this Sunday. 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!. 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!!! 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.

George Heuser

Auction Committee Chair