02/10/2025
Orchid Show this weekend!
The Wanganui Orchid Society is looking forward to hosting its spring show over the weekend of 4-5 October. The venue this year, as for the 2024 show, will be the Blind Low Vision hall, 102 Peat Street (next to the netball courts, where there is ample parking). The Show will be from 10.00am to 3.30pm on Saturday and 10.00am to 3.00pm on Sunday. As well as sumptuous displays of orchids at the Show, there will be sales of plants – and not just orchids. Several vendors will be selling a range of garden and house plants, including the popular bromeliads. There will be a $2 entry fee to help cover the hireage of the hall. Refreshments will also be available for a small charge.
Orchids are incredibly diverse – they are the largest family of plants, with around 28,000 natural forms, as well as innumerable hybrids. Even people who have been interested in orchids for decades are often startled to see a totally different form. They cover the whole range of colours except true blue.
The friendly club is a way for people to get together to enjoy a shared love of orchids, and to learn how to grow them in a supportive environment. The Society meets on the first Tuesday of the month, at 7.00pm at the Forrest Lounge at Dempsey and Forrest, 208 Guyton Street. Over winter the club meets on the first Sunday of the month at 2.00pm. A friendly competition is held, orchid-related matters are discussed, and there is often a discussion about orchid culture, followed by a cup of tea or coffee. Sometimes trips are arranged to orchid growers in other regions – recently, the club visited Landers Orchids near Hawera, who grow the orchids sold at the River Market in spring. Anyone interested in joining the club can pick up a membership form at the Show.
Solana Jones joined the club in 2022, and grows orchids at her home in Aramoho. She has recently been given a second-hand glasshouse, which she is in the process of reconstructing, and which will be ideal for the species of orchids that she grows. Solana has been employed at the Springvale Garden Centre for four years. The Garden Centre stocks orchids from several nurseries across the North Island. Apart from the popular cymbidiums and moth orchids (Phalaenopsis), the garden centre sells more exotic and unusual orchids. Both Solana and Jess La Roche, another staff member, can advise customers on the culture of the different types of orchids. Jess is also an enthusiastic member of the Orchid Society.
Both women find Whanganui an ideal place to grow orchids, with our temperate climate and few frosts. They are fascinated by the endless forms of orchids of all sizes, colours and patterns. They also grow house plants, which are very compatible with orchids. Solana is an active member of the club, assisting with the page and assisting at meetings. She will be responsible for setting up the club display at the Show, as she has a flair for presentation, and how to display the plants to best advantage.
Photo: Solana Jones shows off one of the cymbidiums stocked at the Springvale Garden Centre.
