Important announcement

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE – MEETINGS CANCELLED

It will come as no surprise to you to hear that the OSGB meetings for the next three months are cancelled because of the social distancing and government guidelines of cancelling all gatherings. We will keep you updated once we have a confirmation of meetings beeing reinstated.

Our Management Team will be arranging for alternatives to the meetings and will keep you informed by email and by phone or post. Arrangements for the AGM will also be circulated as the June meeting is also cancelled.

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ONLINE TABLE SHOWS

In the meantime, we would like to continue with the Table Shows.

Please send clear, correctly labelled pictures of any of your orchids which you would like to enter into the judging to website@osgb.org.uk

All of the sent pictures will be

published on the website

The deadline for April is Friday the 3rd and the results will be published before the end of the following weekend. Any entries sent after Friday will enter the competition for May

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OSGB JOURNALS

The Journal will be with you shortly. The deadline to send your articles for the next issue is June 1, and in the absence of any meetings, lectures or shows to report on, articles on culture and other subjects from you are needed.

Please send to our editor at i.lacroix@btinternet.com

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USE YOUR WEBSITE

Please register on the www.osgb.org.uk website, using your email address and membership number, to view previous issues of the Journals and online lectures.

You can also register on our new forum and help get it started and breath some live into it. Please email all suggestions of new categories to website@osgb.org.uk

Please contact any member of the Management Committee if you have questions.

OSGB Spring Orchid Show 2020

This year we have held our Annual Orchid Spring Show in a new location – Valentines Mansion in Ilford.

There had been no similar shows in the area previously, so the Mansion management was very excited that our orchid show was to take place there and be open to the public.

They got engaged in the planning and have helped us greatly in promoting the event.

We were delighted that the Cambridge Orchid Society (COS) and the Lea Valley Orchid Society (LVOS) supported the show with their very attractive and interesting displays. We give them our grateful thanks.

Valentine's Mansion was decorated with photos of orchids provided by Dr Henry Oakeley.

The Cambridge Orchid Societies display was masterminded by Huw Richards who took up the role with admirable dedication. A month before the show, he had organised a test run for the

display. The Chairman of the COS, Graham Clark, also supported the show with an exhibit of his air plants. He has a fantastic collection, which proved a magnet for visitors.

(see the video by Paul Knight on the right)

The Chairman of the Lea Valley Orchid Society, Michael Radley (who is also the OSGB Programme Secretary) and his wife Gillian led the build-up of an elaborate display, and also entered plants for judging.

Display by LVOS (pic Diana Petrokaite)

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Masdevallia hybrids displayed by Paul Knight (pic by Henry Oakeley)

Martin Randalls cattleyas (pic by Diana Petrokaite)

Several OSGB members put on separate

displays of orchids that they specialise in.

Paul Knight showed his splendid masdevallias and Martin Rendall’s cattleyas delighted visitors with their blousy and scented bloom display.

(picture on the left)

Terrarium display by Diana Petrokaite (pic by Marcin Kulinski)

One of the society’s newest members, Diana Petrokaite, set up a mini-display of her orchids grown in terrariums, providing extra interest by showing some of her praying mantis species alongside the plants;

we hope to see more of her work in the future (picture on the left)

We are really grateful to all members who entered plants in the competitive classes.

The full list of judging results and trophies awarded will be presented at the OSGB Annual General Meeting in June and published in the next journal.

H. Millner with a part of her display (pic by Henry Oakeley)

Helen Millner supported the show with an elaborate educational display, which ensured our visitors were able to learn more about orchids, their habitats and how to grow them. On a side note, we are happy to report that the day after the Spring Show, Helen Millner was elected the Chairman of the British Orchid Council.

During the show, we were on hand to offer cultural advice to all visitors – a separate table with various composts, pots and other material was skilfully minded by Catarina Anjos, Kristine Baker, Laurence Baghdadi, and Anil Induruwana. They took only a short break during lunchtime and continued to advise the public all day, thank you for the dedication.

All our visitors were offered a variety of plants for sale: flowering and baby orchids, both species and hybrids ranging from tropical to winter hardy, as well as some attractive spring bulbs, all provided by these fantastic sellers from Spicesotic plants, Roy Barrow, Jacques Amand and Orchid Alchemy.

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Despite the ongoing threat of COVID-19 the show was very well attended, with more than 400 people there, and around 250 of them were general members of the public, who bought the ticket to get in and were not associated with any of the Orchid Societies. This allowed us to raise the funds to cover the cost of hiring the Mansion and we made sure to influence and attract a lot of them to grow orchids at home. Members of the local community were very pleased with the event and expressed their hope that we would return in the coming years.

The OSGB would like to send their deepest thanks to everyone who made it possible.

There will be more pictures of the event to follow in the gallery.

World Orchid Conference postponed

The Taiwan Orchid Growers’ Association (TOGA) has announced that both the World Orchid Conference (WOC) and Taiwan International Orchid Show (TIOS), which were due to be held in March, have now been postponed until the second half of this year because of the spread of the coronavirus (Corvid-19).

All those who have registered will be notified when the new dates have been decided and there will be information later on how refunds of the registration fee will be made.

If you have booked a hotel in Taiwan, TOGA will help you to cancel the reservation.

These decisions are based on the official government advice and TOGA wishes to apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused.

If you have any questions you can contact Donna Chou from TOGA:

Email: togaorg010@gmail.com.tw

Website: http://www.toga.org.tw