April - Orchid Council of New Zealand

TAURANGA ORCHID SOCIETY
P.O. BOX 669, TAURANGA 3140
President:
Barry Curtis
Ph.5494984
Secretary:
Treasurer:
Natalie Simmonds
Brian Simmonds
Ph.5430847
Ph. 5430847
bc.na.simmonds@kinect.co.nz
Editor:
Barry Curtis
Ph.5494984
curtiscallas@compassnet.co.nz
APRIL 2015 - NEWSLETTER NO. 367
NOTICES:
No DAY Meeting this month. See you all at the Show in Te Puke.
BAY OF PLENTY ORCHID SHOW. “AUTUMN SHOW TIME”
Set-up Thurs afternoon 9th April, (Set-up, 2pm-6pm help needed, & Friday 8am-10am.).
SHOW DAYS. Fri 10th April & Sat 11th April, Daily from 10am till 4pm.
APRIL EVENING MEETING: Tues. 21st April, 7.30 pm at Wesley Church Hall, 13th Ave, Tauranga.
AGM followed by Speaker Roger Allen with a power point talk on his visit to the
“Gardens in the Bay” Singapore.
MAY DAY MEETING: Wed. 6th May. At the home of Doris Shea, 15 Cedar Grove, Matua.
(Committee Meeting will follow at Alec & Lynley Roy’s afterwards.)
BAY OF PLENTY ORCHID SOCIETY
ORCHID SHOW
Te Puke War Memorial Hall
With the Theme; AUTUMN SHOW TIME.
Setting-up, April 9th Thurs afternoon, 2pm –6pm & Friday morning, 8am –10am
Show: April 10th Friday, 10am to 4pm.
Judging, Apr. 11th Sat 9.30am --10am, then open for the Public until 4pm. Followed by Pack-Up.
Growers & Sellers who will be at the Show:Russell Hutton, Bill Liddy, Roy & Lee Neale, Julie Downs- Scarves, Tauranga Orchid Society,
Joe & Betty Vance, Grahame Leafburg, Anne Mason- Soap, Jim Gilchrist, Phillip Zhou,
Cliff Coles, Selwyn Hatrick/ Alan Rockell, Carl Christiansen.Bay of Plenty Orchid Society.
Hunt out your plants for this Judged Show, and any extras are also required for the Sales Table.
Where possible please deliver orchids on the Thursday, as this greatly assists those setting up the display.
A rush of plants on the Friday morning can cause problems for the Display Organiser.
* All plants for Judging must be well labelled, with the plant name and owner’s name.
* All Display plants must also have the owner's name on them.
Most members are having difficulty finding orchids in flower at present. This will not only affect the
Display but also the Sales Table. So make a special effort to hunt out “any” plants, pots, books, bulbs,
seedlings of all types, to make the Sales Table and the Show a success.
* If you are selling plants on the Tga Sales table, we are using the usual system. Write your Name and the
Price on a Coloured Plant Label and place it in the pot. (The old system of brown cardboard tickets is still
quite acceptable, if you have some at home.)
* If you can offer to man the Sales Table for an hour or so, during the Show, please contact Alec.
* The Bay Club is not getting help from Lions or the School to help set up the Show, and would be very
appreciative of assistance on Thursday afternoon, and on Saturday, to clear up afterwards.
Admission $3 per Adult and Children Free.
2.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Tues. 21st April
At present we have notification that one of our Office Holders will not be standing again, so we
would like to have a few more members consider putting their names forward for the Committee.
Our Treasurer is happy to keep the Annual Subscriptions at the present low rate of
$19- Single and $26- Family.
This is only possible because of your fantastic support of our fund raising events like the
Annual Auction and our Annual Orchid Show, but next year we will need to have an increase.
March Day Visit to Audrey Hewson.
The weather was not ideal, with light drizzle, as we gathered at Audrey and Maurice’s new
home in Greerton. This was the first time we had been there and everyone was hugely
impressed with the effort they had put into the property.
Maurice has built a grow house for
Audrey’s collection of Tillandsias and
everything is looking so healthy and
happy.
The original gardens have had a major
make over and are now packed with
plants, shrubs and even a miniature
peach tree that provided a wonderful crop
this year. Pot plants are another specialty
of Audrey’s and provide a wonderful splash of colour around the
porch areas. It was interesting to see that a ‘few’ orchids are
beginning to sneak back into her garden.
Maurice has a well packed vege garden tucked in a far corner, loaded with produce. It does
show that you do not need a ‘quarter acre section’ to provide many of your healthy greens.
Thank you for inviting us to your new home. The renovations inside and the fabulous
gardens outside have certainly set a standard for us. It was a real pleasure to share your
wonderful gardening skills.
The Editor.
******************************
Have a laugh.
Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.
I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.
I know a guy who’s addicted to brake fluid. He says he can stop any time.
How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.
I changed my iPod name to Titanic. It’s syncing now.
3.
Report on VISITING SPEAKER - CARLOS LEHNEBACH, Sunday 15 March.
Present, 18 members and 2 visitors.
This special meeting was held at the home of Natalie & Brian, at 3-30 pm and was followed by a pot
luck tea, and replaced our normal monthly meeting. Carlos was on a ‘visiting speaker’s tour’, and
had spoken in Napier on Saturday evening, and continued to Auckland Monday.
Carlos came to New Zealand from Chile to study his passion, native orchids, and completed his
Masters and PhD in these topics. He began working for Te Papa and received a grant from the
Royal Society for 3 years to continue research in NZ Native Orchids.
His main areas have concentrated on “the
pollination of Gastrodia“, the Potato Orchid –so
named because of the large tuber the plant grows
from. As an aside, this tuber was rated as a
delicacy by the Maoris and was roasted like a
kumara. With the introduction of wild pigs these
orchids are now very hard to find.
Carlos’ study concentrated on the types of tiny
Fungus Gnats that pollinated these flowers, what
attracted them to the plant and how successful they
were.
Another study was into the distribution and types of Corybas- the Spider
Orchid. This is one of our most secretive native orchids as they grow close
to or even below the leaf litter on the ground. Throughout NZ there are many
Corybas, each with its own distinct variations and name. Carlos’ task was to
collect and compare these orchids from around NZ to decide if they were
individual species or just variations. Once again fungus gnats came into the
story as each orchid had its own specific type of fungus gnat to pollinate it.
And were these gnats related to each other?? How, oh how can you tell
minute gnats apart?
This leads to the 3 rd part of Carlos’ study. The use of DNA in the conservation of NZ native orchids.
To solve the Spider Orchid puzzle above, he collected fungus gnat eggs laid inside the spider
orchid, crushed them, to extract their DNA (with the help of other scientific departments) and used
the DNA comparisons to match up the Corybas types. This is an ongoing task and becomes more
complicated than I can explain in this newsletter.
Carlos explained all of his actions and investigations with a wonderful power-point talk, leading us
through a world of complicated science, orchid hunting, painstaking observation, amazing
photography- (To see a movie of a gastrodia orchid flower closing a trap-door, locking in a fungus
gnat so that it had to squeeze past the pollen cap which stuck to the top of its head. Just amazing!)
And finally a very clear, amusing talk that showed his dedication and intense interest in his studies.
Thank you so much Carlos for sharing ‘your world’ with us. Please excuse any misinterpretations on
my part, in trying to explain your talk. We all had a wonderful afternoon.
Many thanks to all those members who brought along such a wonderful range of food for our BBQ
meal that followed the talk, and special thanks also to Natalie & Brian for offering their home. They
had also driven across to Taupo to collect Carlos in the morning and returned early that afternoon.
The Editor.
Notices: WANTED. Chris Whitby is seeking plants of the Angraecum family, and related genera. If
you can be of assistance please contact Chris on 021 911 377 or alternatively you can leave a
message with Brian on 07 5430 847.
4.
Visit by Waitakere Orchid Society, Sunday 22 March.
The Waitakere Society were on a weekend bus trip that travelled to the Waikato on
Saturday, visiting the Hamilton Gardens and two Waikato growers. They then drove to
Tauranga to stay at Cameron Rd Motel and have tea at Chinatown in Fraser Cove.
On Sunday, Alec Roy joined their bus to act as guide
and they visited Diane Hintz and then Elizabeth Bailey’s
collection. By 11:45am they arrived at Te Puna Quarry,
where our Club members had set out drinks and were
organising a BBQ lunch.
Our club members guided the visitors around the park
taking them to the orchid section and butterfly gardens
and then a ramble back through the paths to the
pavilion. Some of their less able members we driven
around the park and they were most appreciative and very impressed with everything they
saw.
By the time everyone was back, a wonderful spread had been organised and our guests
and our own helpers enjoyed a most enjoyable lunch together.
Lee Neale, as their President, thanked everyone involved for such an interesting day, for
the delicious lunch and wonderful garden visits. Soon they were back on the bus heading
home. They stopped off for about 45 minutes to visit my place in Katikati, where they
wandered through the gardens, avocado trees and orchid houses. Nobody seemed in any
hurry to depart, but Roy Neale; (trip organiser) had them on the bus by 3 pm. to head back
to Auckland.
Thanks once again to all those who offered their gardens, assistance and supplied such a
great lunch. You all did our Club proud.
Barry Curtis.