NEWS
As usual, our May meeting took place while the Suffolk Show was on, and we were all delighted to hear that our stand at the Show had won a Large Gold and the Notcutt’s Salver “For the Best Flower Show Trade Exhibit of under 37 square metres ground area”, replicating our success of last year. It’s unclear though, why the trophy was different this year!
Andy Gissing won ‘Best plant on the display’ with his Dendrobium aphyllum.
As well as the photos at right of our members enjoying the award, here’s a video of the stand that I took immediately after completion of the build:
Getting back to our meeting:
- There was news of our summer Garden Party and our forthcoming trip to Henstead Exotic Gardens.
- Angela Exworth-Cook, our British Orchid Council representative, reported on an initiative to create a database of rare orchids held in collections. This has started with the Devon & Cornwall Orchid Society, Scottish orchid growers and the Mathers Foundation.
- There were no show tables as pretty much everything we had in flower was on our stand at the Suffolk Show.
GUEST SPEAKER
Our guest speaker this month (via Zoom) was Malcolm Moodie, who gave us a talk entitled ‘Orchids of Ecuador’ – an account of an OSGB-organised trip there in 2012 This included a visit to the Inca site of Machu Picchu in Peru. As well as showing pictures of the many orchids and other interesting plants seen on the trip, Malcolm enlivened his talk with his various experiences on the trip, the spectacular landscape of the Andes, the remarkable achievements of the Incas, and other local sights.
The guest speaker for our next meeting on 25-Jun will be botanical artist Guy William Eves.
