August 2018

Greetings everyone, I hope you're all doing well and trying your best to stay afloat. What a wet and cool summer it has been so far, maybe August has something drier in store for us. Don't know about you all, but I have hardly had to water my orchids recently. Don't remember the last time we were so saturated in the summer months.

I hope you all enjoyed Paul Storm last month. What a super guy and an exciting program. I feel like I can still visualize the flashing lights in his presentation! His passion for Schoms was contagious! As we head in to the later part of 2018, we're hitting our sweet spot with guest speakers. Fred Clarke of Sunset Valley Orchids in California is excited to visit the WNCOS again. For all of who have not met Fred before, trust me when I say you cannot miss our next meeting. Fred is as good as they come. He's one hell of a grower/hybridizer and just a wonderful guy to get to know. His enthusiasm and skill level is contagious and exciting, and he's sure to leave us all wanting to go home and become a better orchid grower. Hopefully many of you took him up on his pre-order opportunity. If you did not, you need not to worry as he will be bringing plants for sale in addition to bringing us our raffle table plants. This visit, Fred will be providing us with his program entitled Cycnoches, Mormodes, Catasetums - recent trends. I am suspicious he'll bring some of these seedlings for sale, and I do recall the last time he spoke we had a feeding frenzy at his sales table immediately following his program. So, be there for sure on Sunday, August 12th!

The WNCOS is doing well, we've got a very strong board of officers and a very strong financial backing. We're proud of where we sit today, but know that this did not fall in our laps. Many of our previous and current board members have dedicated many years of hard volunteer work and support to help get us where we are today. We've continued to try and provide an open and transparent atmosphere for the society and have asked for new members to reach out to us and become more active. I'm asking you all again to please feel free to speak with us and inquire as to how else you can be active in your orchid society. We're currently putting together a slate of officers for the 2019-2020 term, but we're not quite there yet. It appears as if we have at least 1 opening on the board. In addition to our board of officers, we've also got strong needs for our 2019 Asheville Orchid Festival committee. At this time, nothing is set in stone and we'd like to see who we've got with interests in helping, and what your strengths may be. I'm not even sure we've got a design and display chairman, which is a huge hole to get filled. We need to get there soon, so I again ask all of you to consider how else you might be able to support the WNCOS. Please feel free to ask questions of us, and share your ideas.

How about that sweet new website of ours? Have you all stopped to take a look yet? New member, and future board member, Grace Ide can build one heck of a website. Please take some time to review www.wncos.org and provide feedback to us. We've got more updates coming, and there's a lot of great content there. Please join me in thanking Grace for her hard work and job well done.

Show and tell: Bring in your best and favorite blooming orchid for a brief show and tell on 8/12. You'll receive a free raffle ticket for your effort, and this activity helps all of our members understand what we're all growing at home. We only ask that you keep it brief and keep this activity moving as we want to give as much time to our guest speakers as possible.

Sunday afternoon, 8/12/18, 2pm downtown at our usual meeting space at the Avl Visitor Center, special guest Fred Clarke! Please consider that we work incredibly hard and spend good money to fly in the best speakers in the world. We are incredibly fortunate to be in such position. Your support by simply attending does a lot for us all, so please keep this in mind when you're debating to watch the big game on TV, get out in the garden, or attend your monthly orchid society meeting. We want to see everyone here! Details on Fred Clarke below...

Thank you,

Mike Mims, WNCOS President