February 2016
WNCOS supported our sister society, the North Carolina Piedmont Orchid Society’s show at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens in Charlotte the last weekend in January. the display garnered 15 ribbons! Unfortunately, that was the weekend Snowmageddon hit our region and Daniel Stowe was closed after judging but before the show opened to the public so nobody got to see it.
The Asheville Orchid Festival is fast approaching (only 2 months away) and this month we will be spending our meeting focused on a review of all the plans for the event, and discussing all the options our membership now has to get involved! there is much to be done before the start of the Festival on April 13th, and the size of this event will require a significantly larger involvement form our membership to ensure success. We will be discussing all of the volunteer opportunities and demonstrating our new online sign-up for volunteering! If you are not the technologically inclined sort there is no need to worry, we’ll also have the ability to sign you up at the meeting. We need all of you to really step up and be a part of this exciting Festival so be sure not too miss this month’s meeting!
If you cannot make it to the meeting, you can see all the volunteer opportunities and sign-up for those you want to help support at our Volunteer Page now!
Our very own Steve Frowine will be leading a class at the NC Arboretum on Orchid Parenthood. It will be a three-week class
Saturdays, March 5, 12, 19; 12 to 2 p.m.
$78 Arboretum Member/$88 Non-member
Limit: 24 students Online registration available NOW at www.ncarboretumregistration.org
Phone 828-665-2492This short course will serve as an introduction and guide to this wildly popular group of plants. The classes will provide step-by–step information on how to understand orchid names, how to determine which types of orchids are best for your collection, how to select healthy plants at a nursery or commercial grower and how to provide the right environment to promote optimum growth and flowering in a home environment. Participants will be given a list of potting supplies for the last session where they will have the opportunity to divide and repot their own orchids.Steven A. Frowine Steve is a professional horticulturalist and an active garden writer and speaker. He is an avid gardener and has a special love for orchids which he has grown for almost 40 years. Steve has written four books on orchids including “Orchids for Dummies.†After years of managing plant collections in the continental United States and Hawaii, Steve now resides in western North Carolina.
The event website for the Asheville Orchid Festival is has been live since November. It now has full registration, schedules, and all other details of the event so be sure to head on over to the Asheville Orchid Festival Website and check it out.
The Show committee has finalized the benefits package for all WNCOS members for the Festival this year. These details are as follows:
– The Show and Sale at the Arboretum will be free to all members
– The Preview Party (on Thursday evening) will be free to all WNCOS members.
– WNCOS Members receive free shuttle bus service between the Hilton and the NC Arboretum
– 4 hours of volunteer service will entitle a member to a free single day admission (day of your choice), a $45 value.
– 8 hours of volunteer service will entitle a members to a free full event pass, a $99 value* Please note that admission to the Gala Banquet, and other meal events will require paid registration to partake in those events regardless of volunteer hours spent. This is due to the direct costs to the society for each additional person attending.* Also note that you will need to make a specific request to the Festival Committee in order to receive the free benefits. We will have to validate your volunteer hours and manually enter your registration into the system in order to avoid charges. More details on this will be provided as we get close to the event.
There will be a significant increase in the need for volunteers to help staff all of the activities planned for the Festival. To facilitate this increase, we have created an online volunteer sign-up to allow all of our members to see what volunteer opportunities are available, and to sign up for the ones that best suit you. This system will allow us to better communicate to you all of the volunteer opportunities, it will send you reminders a couple days before your volunteer commitments, and it will allow us to track where we need additional support as we get close to the event. You can check it out and sign up at our Volunteer Page now!