Hints on growing orchids      

     Cymbidiums Dendrobiums Natives Oncidiums Phalenopsis
     Cattleyas Paphiopedilum Hormones WateringCompost

Special Night. by Max Redman

  The October meeting was a very special meeting for the orchid society. It was  our 50th anniversary. Thats right, the first meeting of the society was way  back in 1953. We even had one of our oldest members both in age and also in time in the society, there to cut the cake. Ably assisted by Jess Brown who  has been a member for I believe 48 years.
  50 years, what a long time. Do you remember back then? I personally was a  member of the RAAF and although I was growing orchids they were mainly looked after by my folks. I only got to see them at odd weekends. Back then petrol was one shilling and sixpence a gallon, The pictures cost about two shillings for the best seats and you got two movies plus the news and a cartoon.Orchids were becoming a little more common but they cost a fair bit of cash. For instance :-a flowering size plant of "choice Westonbirt variety" Six pounds ($12-00) when the average weekly wage was Six pounds 5 shillings. Four choice backbulbs including Lyoth,Miranda,Esmeralda and Bodmin moor, 6 10 0. Thats six pounds ten shillings. Of course if you wanted top  class plants like Girrawheen Gloria or Girrawheen Enid or perhaps Grand  Monarch or Charm Elegance then you paid a lot more. I often wonder if any of these old timers still exist as for their time they were not bad. Flowers like Balkis Luath,Rossanna pinkie,Swallow Daffodil and  Hawleys Lucy were the pick of the bunch during that time. Let us hope that the next fifty years will prove to be as exciting and  plentiful as the last fifty. The only way that this will happen is to make sure that you promote the society and bring along your friends and especially children. If you can instil the love of flowers and gardening with ,of course, a special emphasis on orchids, into the younger generation then they will be less likely to get into trouble as they grow up.