. This site was established by site author and webmaster on 9 May 1998.  I had been looking at the web, and wondered how they put the pages together.  As a result of this inquisitiveness, this site was established.is is a non commercial site, established by an orchid enthusiast with aninterest in computers, for the benefit of all orchid growers. I hope the material will be of interest and assistance to a wide range of readers, encouraging them to develop their interest in these interesting plants, and to get involved in their local orchid society, organisations which develop ones interest in these plants and which provide an excellent forum to extend ones knowledge. I have been involved in orchid growing  since  the late 1970's, after finding out what some interesting plants were that I had seen as a child exhibiting flowers of a local horticultural society in North Canterbury, New Zealand. I like a wide range of orchids, but especially species.  I don't grow them particularly well, as demands of family, work and other interests mean the orchids must survive as best they can.  Perhaps when I retire they will get the attention they really deserve. I was a founding member of the Wellington Orchid Society, holding a number of positions in the society.  I was the editor of  what was for a small society a very significant orchid Journal for 10 years.  I also   wrote and published a number of orchid guides for the Society,  on the culture of cymbidiums, lycaste, oncidiums,  paphiopedilums and the cattleya tribe.These publications were very successful, over 30,000 copies of the cymbidium guide being distributed, and some 40,000   guides sold in total. In addiiton a number of other publications were imported and distributed to members and other orchid growers in this country.  My involvement with that society ceased in the early 1990's for many reasons, and the publications activities of that society  have effectively ceased. For the last 7 years of its life, I was editor of the Orchid Council of New Zealand publication Orchids in New Zealand up to the point where it ceased production  because of cost problems, and declining readership which reflected the general orchid society membership  decline in this country. In recent years I have been a member of the Capital City Orchid Society, my local society a relatively small but enthusiastic and friendly group.   I am by training a professional agriculturalist trained at Lincoln University near Christchurch, running for some 20 years a large rural mortgage portfolio.  More recently I am involved as Chief Property Valuer for a large financial organisation in Wellington,  New Zealand. I hope you enjoy the site.   I am interested in any comments you may have - both good and bad!.  It is only with feedback that I can hope to improve the site and make it of value and assistance to the most readers and growers.

Potatoes, preserves, petunias and pansies or HOW I GOT INVOLVED IN ORCHIDS

It all started many years ago at one of these country shows – you know those events that used to be held in many small communities around the country where the locals brought along their potatoes, preserves, petunias and pansies to show everyone just how clever they were. This year it was an ordinary event – plenty of flowers and vegetables, plenty of talk on the weather, yesterdays ewe fair, and what the neighbour was supposed to have done. But there was something different this year. What sort of plant was THAT!!,   that someone had brought along. I, in my tender years, had never seen anything like it, and I was young enough to think that I had seen everything! What a strange creation of nature – growing in some strange potting mixture. Funny looking heavy stems bearing a great heavy leaf on each, like nothing I had ever seen. And the flower – large pale mauve petals, and what was the funny bottom ‘petal’ that was coloured such a deep gorgeous mauve with contrasting gold markings; was it really part of the flower? And what was that other thing – a touch of perfume from the lady standing nearby, – NO, - it was from the flower. It did not win ‘champion of the show’ – most people just did not know what to make of this strange creation of nature, but to me at my impressionable age it left a permanent mark. I do not know what the plant was (although I now know it was a cattleya), but that image of that single plant has remained with me. I knew it was an orchid, but apart from that I knew nothing else about it. Many years later, a friend introduced my to the late Ollie Dare of Greytown. He grew orchids, and one weekend I was invited to visit his glasshouse. He had some cattleyas, but alsn many other orchids including cymbidiums, all in flower; flowers of all colours and all beautiful in my eyes. With the generosity new recognised as being universal among orchid growers, I cam away with a plant – which many years later I still have and flower regularly. But I also obtained another address of a contact for a society being formed in Wellington. Lew Wyatt, the contact given to me, invited me to his glasshouse to see more of those orchids, and he told me of the details of a new society being formed which was to have its inaugural meeting in a few days.  I attended that meeting with some trepidation, and the sight of so many flowers on display by those attending this meeting showed me what the world of orchids was all about the colours, size and range made me gasp with appreciation. After what I had seen I just had to go to the sales table. I did not know what to purchase, but a very nice lady suggested I try Dendribium kingianum. Little did I know that this was really a further step in an addiction that has lasted for many years, and which shows little sign of subsiding. Now, with several hundred plants I think of how may life had changed as a result of that meeting with an orchid at that country show so many years ago. And of the wonderful orchid people I have met over all those years. But the moral of this story. Don’t go to a country show and fall in love with a strange flower if you want you life to go on as before.

SITE LINKS
CAPITAL CITY ORCHID SOCIETY