Orchids tougher than they look
The artistic talents of two Katikati area men are helping create a memorable show for Tauranga Orchid Society.
President Conrad Coenen of Apata and vice-president Barry Curtis of Katikati have put their heads together to come up with the Queen of Flowers theme which will show just how widespread these plants are.
“Orchids are found on six continents and are one of the largest family of flowering plants in the world,” Conrad says.
“We’re representing where the orchids that we grow come from — Australia, Latin America, Asia and Africa.
“We think of orchids as exotic plants but we have also have native New Zealand orchids and we’ll be displaying a few, although primarily for educational purposes as most flower in summer.”
He and Barry have designed five stands, one for each geographical area, and Barry has also made a larger-than-life crown which will be filled with orchids as the show’s centrepiece.
“I’ve even found some ‘ermine’ for the base of the crown and have spent several nights gluing on ‘jewels’,” Barry says.
“People think orchids must be temperamental plants because the flowers look so exotic,” Conrad says.
“But there are plenty that are easy to grow in this area without any extra heating, including cymbidium and coelogyne orchids from the Himalayas, laelia from the highlands of Mexico, zygopetalum from Brazil or orchids native to sub-tropical parts of Australia, such as dendrobiums and sarcochilus.”
Barry, who runs the show’s popular repotting demonstrations, says most
novice growers don’t realise how tough cymbidium orchids are.
Last year he divided his 2013 national champion cymbidium Cricket ‘Libby’ and didn’t expect it to bloom this year as it settled down, but was thrilled to find multiple flower spikes forming this year.
“The flowers on cymbidiums are so rewarding as they last for months on the plant or as a cut flower.
“And the plants come in a range of sizes so there should be something for everyone.”