The WNCOS has had yet another incredible year overall. The 2019 Asheville Orchid Festival was once again tremendously successful. Amazing attendance, which allows us to expose, educate and celebrate our love of orchids with our attendees and the region. Lots of rightfully earned ribbons, awards, publicity and buzz were created by the collaborative effort of our board, our festival committee and our membership. Our orchid society here is on very strong footing, we are financially strong and our reputation is one that is well respected and admired. This has been accomplished through years of strong leadership, active members, successful events and festivals, and many other positive things. Through many years of continued success and strong leadership, we’ve been comfortably able to do whatever it is we want. From throwing one of the best orchid festivals in the country, to flying in all the best speakers in the world, and hosting incredible year end parties, we’ve been afforded the ability to do all these exciting things. The WNCOS remains strong and successful, and we want to make sure everyone understands how grateful we are for all of you. We hope and expect to see a fabulous 2020, and we welcome, appreciate, and encourage more participation and new members. It has been an honor to continue to serve as WNCOS President and be in such great company. 

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Hoping this finds everyone doing well! Fall is upon us and we’ve got some exciting news to share with everyone. The SMOS had their annual orchid show this past weekend, and as we had discussed with you, the WNCOS always installs an exhibit in their show. A huge thank you and congratulations go out to Paul and Joanne for taking care of business! Please thank and congratulate them when you see them this month at the auction. Paul and Joanne traveled to Knoxville, did their first installation on their own, spent the weekend in Knoxville and then handled the take out of our exhibit Sunday afternoon. It was all done very successfully as we had several ribbons within the exhibit on some fine plants exhibited by a few of our wonderful members, along with winning the blue ribbon for the best exhibit! That is always wonderful, but doing it on your first attempt is even more special! We even had an AOS award given to one of the plants in our exhibit. Congratulations to Graham Ramsey for earning an AM on his Phragmipedium schlimii var. manzurii ‘Gabi’ AM/AOS, which earned a strong score of 84 points. Overall, we have once again done a wonderful job. 

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Greetings everyone! Hopefully, you all have enjoyed this summer and are looking forward to the beautiful fall season here in WNC that I am anticipating we will have. I personally wouldn’t mind if summer stayed around a while longer, and we had a lengthy fall season as I just dread the cold winter months. Are your plants telling you anything currently? I hope you’re listening and hoping you’ve gotten all your repotting done for the 2019 season. My collection is telling me all up and down my bench, that fall is about here and they’re slowing down. With Phalaenopsis species, for example, I always see a lot of yellow leaves and dropping leaves about this time of year. New spikes have stopped emerging on the summer bloomers, and I’m having to slow down a little bit with the watering.

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Summer is in full swing and we hope this newsletter finds all of you are doing well, and hopefully having some summer fun! Seems like this time of year is when our board of officers and our membership is scattered out and about adventuring and traveling. I just came home from a weeklong trip to New Mexico where we visited Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque. Had an incredible trip overall and it was great to get away for a bit. Even had a chance to visit with Ron Midgett at New Earth Orchids in Santa Fe. Ron was here about 3 years ago speaking to our society and reminded me just how much he enjoyed his visit here. He reminded me that when he spoke to our society we were gearing up to host the AOS and their national spring meeting in conjunction with our Orchid festival. This feels like it was many years ago, but evidently not. 

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Hoping you’re all having a wonderful, adventurous summer! Usually our flowering orchids are slowing down in these hot months, unless of course you’re like me and growing a summer blooming collection. For many orchids this is a great time to be re-potting, re-establishing your plants and focusing on your vegetative growth. Take your paphs and phals for example, these guys will grow like weeds if you are watering, feeding and taking proper care of them. I used to put everything outdoors in the summer months, so long as everything was shaded heavily and protected from the weather and insects. Consider taking your orchids outdoors to a covered patio or a deck/porch for the long, hot days and see what kind of exciting new growth you have on your plants before the chilly nights come this fall.

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This is it folks! This Sunday is our last meeting before the Asheville Orchid Festival and we have a lot to cover with you. Found out all the details at the meeting and sign up for your place to volunteer. We do have a treat for you by way of a brand new program presented by none other than our most recent WNCOS Vice President, Bob Hydzik. Bob has put together a wonderful and educational presentation on awarded cattleya orchids.

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Even though it’s not feeling much like winter, we’re still months away from spring and now 8 weeks away from installation of the 2019 Asheville Orchid Festival ‘An Orchid Expedition’. Several of us have been very busy over recent weeks as we nail down our vendors, exhibitors and associated details for this huge event. While we always have an incredible orchid festival, one objective I’ve got this year is to expose as many people as possible to our love of orchids.  

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The WNCOS had another wonderful year in 2018, and we’re counting on yet another action packed and exciting new-year here in greater Asheville. A wonderful, year ending celebration was enjoyed by everyone in attendance recently at our annual holiday social. Thank you so much to our gracious hosts, Axel and Catherine. We had a tremendous turnout and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in their beautiful home, a perfect ending to an exciting year. The food spread was strong, and that growler of homebrew was divine! I hope I wasn’t the only one who found that on the bar.

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