Message from the President, Glenys MacRae
I’ve had a very enjoyable couple of weekends with orchids. At last Sunday’s Auckland Judges meeting Philip Zhou gave an interesting presentation about his Chinese cymbidium breeding programme highlighting the features judges should be looking for. This was followed by a lively discussion raising a number of points for further investigation and which we hope to continue at the Northern regional meeting later in the year. Later that day I attended the North Shore Orchid Society April meeting where Michelle Whitten gave an informative and entertaining presentation about the sex life of orchids. Great presentation Michelle, don’t be surprised if you receive requests to speak at other clubs.

This Saturday just gone I visited the NZOS autumn show. An interesting range of orchids had been entered in the show which we had fun judging. By the completion of judging a long line of visitors had formed at the door ready to purchase the many plants for sale. It was wonderful to see a large number of people out enjoying a lovely autumn day and I enjoyed having the time to chat with fellow orchid growers.

Orchid Awards 2021
A note for judges: A few weeks ago, each judging panel was sent a USB stick with all the awards data and photos from 2021. Subsequently it was noticed that there were several minor errors in the pdf file. These have been corrected, and the corrected pdf file is up on the council website. Please download the pdf file from the website and discard the one on the USB stick.

National Orchid Symposium Registrations – Hawke’s Bay 2022
Just a reminder for anyone who has not already registered. The weekend is promising to be a highlight of the orchid calendar and we look forward to seeing many of you over Queen’s Birthday weekend in Napier. Can societies please notify Bryan Sutherland who their delegates are for the AGM.

2022 Yearbook – Pub Charity Funding
OCNZ is pleased to announce that its funding application with Pub Charity Ltd has been successful. Pub Charity has granted $5,000 towards the printing and binding cost of Orchids 2022 which is very helpful in keeping production costs down. OCNZ thanks Pub Charity Ltd for its continued support.