June 2016

This month we’re hitting the road rather than have a regular meeting. We’ll be gathering at Appalachian Tropicals for a tour of their excellent greenhouse and an opportunity to purchase some great plants. they are only 10 minutes from our normal meeting location so be sure not to miss this opportunity and also to support one of our local growers who have been so generous to us!

They are located at 827 Charlotte Highway, Fairview, NC

(This is across the road form the entrance to the SouthCliff development)

We will be meeting at Appalachian Tropicals at our regular time of 2 PM on Sunday, June 12.

November Elections 
After a month off to recover from an exhausting but very successful Asheville Orchid Festival, The board met in a special session this past week to cover a wide range of issues. One recurring point of discussion was that a number of board members are wishing to depart the board of change their role on the board, led by myself, Brett Hopkins, as I plan to gracefully bow out of any formal role within the society at the end of my term in December. With several months before the election in November, it was agreed that we really want to make a push for more inclusion and create opportunities for our general membership to become more involved. With that in mind, here are a list of efforts we plan to undertake:

• We have moved the board meetings to occur normally immedietely before the regular meeting. our board meetings have always been open to the membership but we’re going to be making a push for more of you to attend and get a sense of what it is like. We’ll be making special note of board meeting times in coming newsletters and we encourage anyone interested in becoming more engaged with WNCOS to attend…no prior experience or particular orchid expertise required!
• We would like to encourage anyone who thinks they may be interested in a more active role to seek out one of the current board members and discuss what roles exist and the experience of being on the board…it really is enjoyable and satisfying.
• We’re planning to push both our board and our annual show planning in the direction of being more inclusive and engaging members in planning our regular meeting events and our show. We want to hear from you if you have any ideas of how to make that happen and any role you would like to play in any WNCOS activity.

In short…We have an amazing society that is one of the best in the country, we as a board are focused on fostering that environment, but we need you, the membership, to let us know what you want…and we want you to help keep this society active, engaging, and enjoyable for all.

Orchiata Group Buy

It’s time again for WNCOS members to order your Orchiata bark mix and New Zealand sphagnum moss. When we order in bulk, we get a tremendous discount. Buying it in the 40 liter bags, we pay $23.00 per bag. I’m seeing 10 liter bags online for $25.00, so the discount is obvious. In order to buy in bulk, we need to order a minimum of 36 bags. There will be some shipping but that amount will be divided by the number of bags ordered. If anyone wants to order bails of sphagnum moss, that will cost $??? per 6.6 pound bail. If these quantities are a bit large for your needs, we can try to pair your requests up with others and split the bags when they arrive. I would like to put this order together as soon as we can so anyone interested, email me,Graham, at G_Ram@yahoo.com  and let me know what you want.
For some of you that have not used Orchiata bark mix, it’s the best on the market. My opinion is shared by very many award winning orchid growers. If you have any questions about which size you need, I will try to help you. Lets set a deadline for orders for May 24th. That gives you 2 weeks to get it together. I look forward to taking your order.

Material and Pricing:
Orchiata 40 Liter bags are all $23 per bag.  Choice of bark particle sizes are:
1/4″ Precision #8
3/8″ Classic #9
1/2″ Power #5
3/4″ Power+ #5A
1″ Super #7

1 Kilo Sphagmoss is $32
3 Kilo Sphagmoss is $75

Email Graham (DO NOT REPLY TO THIS NEWSLETTER) G_Ram@yahoo.com
with your order or any questions you may have. Order window will close on June 19th.