March I 2017

2017 Asheville Orchid Festival – IMPORTANT FESTIVAL DETAILS

We made it!

Here we are, a week prior to installation day at our 2017 Asheville Orchid Festival. It is going to be an unbelievable event, and we’re going to have more exhibits along with more blooming orchids in the festival than we have ever had before. I am very proud of this accomplishment, and you all should be too. This is exciting!!! It’s taken a tremendous amount of work by our amazingly talented team to get to this point, but we made it. I for one am ready, and hope you all are too.

I’d like to take a minute to thank everyone, the members of the WNCOS for your participation in the festival. I’d really like to recognize our multi-talented show chair, Graham Ramsey for putting together such a strong team who have done a beautiful job! Many of you have signed up to support this years festival in countless ways. You are committed to your society, and to your festival. If you have not yet signed up for a volunteer position somewhere in the festival, you need not to worry. Show up to the festival and we will put you to work somewhere! It’s not really work, it’s serving as a member while having a blast with all our friends! I trust you all are going to come out to the festival at some point anyhow, so why not stay an extra hour or two and lend a hand somewhere. Or, consider bringing a snack plate or something for our team to munch on throughout the weekend.

You should all be very proud, our festival has become nationally recognized and is one of few premier orchid events on this side of the country. Strong language, but believe me…..it’s the truth! We have earned this reputation through countless years of great success, strong leadership, wonderful partnerships, and you, the WNCOS members who always show up with incredible orchids! So, be ready to have an amazing festival weekend together and don’t forget to tell all your friends!

Most importantly, no festival can come together without our blooming orchids. We are back to having a huge exhibit, and we need every single one of your beautiful blooming plants now more than ever before.

Thank you all,

Mike Mims, WNCOS President

 

Arriving at the Arboretum

Plants for our exhibit need to be at the Arboretum Wednesday or Thursday. The earlier, the better! Wednesday a few of us will be there all day, so anytime after 9am should be fine. If you’re bringing your plants on Thursday, please get them there as early as possible but certainly before lunch time. Just come up to the education center, and temporarily park in the circle to unload plants and bring them into the building like any other year. Then go down and park in the parking lot if you’re going to stay awhile. We cannot leave unattended, parked vehicles in the circle for long. If you need help carrying plants inside there will be plenty of people on hand to assist. A few things to keep in mind:

  • Make sure to clean your plants, stake bloom spikes and check for bugs (plants with bugs will be sent home immediately for the protection of fellow members and guests!).
  • Make sure your name is on the pot
  • If you are comfortable classifying plants for judging we’d appreciate you doing so. If not, a spreadsheet of the plants names would be great. If you’re not computer savvy, a hand written list will work!

Registration

Here is a  link to the webpage where you can find the Show Ribbon Judging Rules and Classes and Registration Entry forms

We’ll have plenty of help on-site to help get your plants in the building, help register them, and assist you in any way we can. See you soon at the Arboretum.

WNCOS