Contents

From the President

It is nothing new to hear society executive's voice concerns about retention of their members. Below are a few pointers that may work for your society.

• At meetings, have all executive members keep their `feelers' out for new people; approach them; make introductions and generally make them feel welcome. Be friendly. This may seem automatic but my personal experience can attest that this does not always happen. It is a good idea to have a designated executive member (or non-executive person) assigned to welcome new members and show them all the services available with membership.
  
• Have the president (or the meeting chair) ask for and introduce guests (or new members) and welcome them with applause.
  
• Introduce new members in the next society newsletter.
  
• To get members to renew their membership, an incentive can be given for membership renewal by a certain date. Incentives can be an orchid seedling, plant potting media, repotting of one plant, etc.
  
• Hold a Question and Answer session during meetings to give members an opportunity to ask questions.
  
• Acknowledge expertise in your members (or potential members). Members with experience are a valuable asset and can bring fresh ideas to the club.

We need volunteers to serve on the COC executive. Please consider to let your name stand for nomination at the upcoming meeting in the spring. The COC annual general meeting will be held in Ottawa in April. Mark your calendar and save your pennies.

Happy blooming,

Faithe Prodanuk, COC President

The Notice Board

COC Dues and Insurance for 2008

As a reminder to everyone, the dues and insurance for 2008 is due by January 31, 2008.

The forms for the dues and insurance have been combined on one form this year, and is included in this newsletter and is on the website.

Janette Richardson - COC Treasurer

Email it

Do you want this newsletter in color? Do you want it a week earlier? Then opt for email delivery. Just let me know. - Jerry Bolce - jerry@uwaterloo.ca

Importing Orchids into Canada from the WOC2008 in Miami

Distributed with this newsletter were the documents to be found at http://www.canadianorchidcongress.ca/WOC2008.html.

Native Orchid Conseration Inc., wins Canadian Environmental Silver Award for community conservation of unique wetland

Showy Lady's Slipper Cypripedium reginae Photo credit: Peggy Bainard Acheson

The award recognized the key role that the Native Orchid Conservation Inc. played in the creation of the Brokenhead Wetland Ecological Reserve by raising the wetland's profile and educating the community through public talks and guided nature tours. The reserve contains 23 species of provincially rare and uncommon plants including 28 of Manitoba's 36 native orchid species such as the Showy Lady's-slipper, Cypripedium reginae, which is one of four flagship orchids selected by the North American Regional Orchid Specialist Group. The protection of a wetland in this area is particularly important given that since 1900, more than 70 percent of Manitoba's wetlands have been drained in the name of development for agriculture and for residential and recreational construction.

Native Orchid Conservation Inc. http://www.nativeorchid.org/

Brokenhead Wetland Ecological Reserve http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/pai/mb_network/brokenhead/index.html

Conservation Award Winners http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/cea2007/winners.asp

Can You Help?

The COC is purely a volunteer organization. The volunteers offer their time and skills to provide the Canadian orchid societies with information, entertainment and representation to government bodies. An example is the latest documentation that should give you a better chance of getting your plant purchases home from the USA. Marilyn Light just finished a speaking tour of the Western societies. These tours are organized and subsidized by the COC. Read her report in this issue.

The COC, along with the Ottawa Orchid Society, is organizing the COC Annual Meeting along with a show and conference. We are looking for your participation. Do you have suggestions as to how the COC can add to and improve its services? But please remember, suggestions without volunteers go nowhere. So what can you do?

The COC needs a hosting society for the annual meeting each year. How about yours for 2009 or beyond?

Can you provide material for the newsletter or website? Are you good at artwork? Organizing tours? What else? There are many places where a little help would make a difference.

At this time the COC is looking for a Secretary and a Vice President. Let any member of the Executive on the back page know you are interested.

Ottawa Show and COC Annual Meeting

This is the second notice for the joint COC meeting and Ottawa Orchid Society Show Orchidophilia which will be held in Ottawa at the Nepean Sportsplex on Saturday, April 26- Sunday, April 27, 2008. The theme of the symposium is Orchids around the World . The program is shaping up with the following confirmed to date:

• John Doherty from Zephyrus speaking on Disas,
• Howard Ginsberg, Montreal, speaking on the new mini-Cattleyas,
• Marilyn Light, OOS, on Chinese cymbidiums,
• Glen Decker of Piping Rock Orchids, Maine, on Phragmipedium kovachii,
• Bill Thoms, Florida on orchid culture

Visit the displays of plants and the art gallery with its exhibits of juried photography, fine arts and fine handcrafts. Better still, plan to enter one or more categories in the Show. Recognizing the increased availability of supermarket orchids, there will be demonstrations on orchids as cut flower arrangements for the home.

A fabulous gourmet, four course banquet (and COC auction) is planned for Saturday night at the International Restaurant of Algonquin College. In a superb setting, this will be a meal to remember. Taxes, gratuity and entertainment are included in the $40 ticket. The COC annual general meeting will be held Sunday morning.

The official hotel for the meeting is the nearby Monterey Inn where a special rate of $99.00 per room has been negotiated, a steal by Ottawa standards. Should you prefer, other Ottawa and nearby Quebec hotels are available: downtown (Marriot, Delta, and Crowne Plaza and others) should you wish to be close to the Parliament Buildings and the market; the Chateau Sheraton in nearby Gatineau is on the Quebec side but easily accessible by car to the Sportsplex, The Southway Inn is close to the airport and accessible to the Show via Hunt Club Drive.

The registration fee is $80, which includes the cost of the banquet ($40), the symposium seminars ($20), and access to lunches ( $20). If purchased separately, lectures will cost $5 each at the door.

Several other exciting events are planned for this meeting and will be announced in the February registration package. Registration forms for the COC meeting and Symposium and for registration of plants and art for the OOS Show will be available in early February online at the OOS web site and through the COC newsletter. Don't miss this exciting event. Mark April 26-27 on your calendar. Please distribute the attached poster to interested members of your society and remember to reserve the last weekend of April for what promises to be a very exciting Ottawa Show. Please visit our website at http://www.ottawaorchidsociety.com/ where you will find lots of information about the society.

For more information please contact:

Rick Sobkowicz, OOS President and Show Co-chair:
613-825-0827 ricksobkowicz@rogers.com

Dave Cooper Show Co-chair:
613-256-2853 orchidae@allstream.net

Jean Hollebone, COC rep and COC meeting and Symposium organizer:
613-226-2395 jhollebone@sympatico.ca

Getting to Know Our Orchid Societies

During my recent travels to speak to Western Canadian orchid societies as part of the Western speaker tour, I had the opportunity to meet orchid enthusiasts from curious beginner attending their very first meeting to very experienced growers with a bevy of awards and even a CCE/AOS to show for it. I got to see how others grew orchids despite regional challenges ranging from extreme dryness to constantly high humidity, from lots of sun to persistent winter gloom, and having naturally hard or soft water and sometimes, lots and lots of rain. Despite these challenges, all show tables I viewed had beautiful healthy orchids and those who grew these plants were to a one enthusiastic about our common hobby. Many of the clubs visited had less than 40 members but these were vibrant groups packed full of good ideas.

My first stop was in Vernon BC where I met the founder of the North Okanagan OS, Elsie Geddes and her spouse, Derric who publishes their colourful newsletter. President Val Tribes who hosted me during my stay. It was amazing to see the skies literally open as we flew into the Okanagan Valley: it was sunny and mild my entire stay! I took the opportunity to taste some absolutely huge Okanagan apples before giving a presentation on native orchids. Next on the tour was the Okanagan OS based in Kelowna where the show table was packed with colourful blooming plants. Wow! I particularly liked the Rossioglossum grande or 'The Clown'as it is commonly known. President Gary Schwartz was host and gave me a departure gift of an absolutely huge apple which was savoured as my next 3 flights of that day would leave little time for a snack. Chinook Country OS based in Lethbridge AB may be small but they had a full turnout for my presentation on hybridization within Epidendrum, Masdevallia and Oncidium. President Bernie Huizing showed two of his own hybrid Phrags including one named for spouse Holly.

Hosting me on Vancouver Island was Donna McDonnell, recently moved from the Kingston ON area. We miss her in the East so it was good to catch up and to learn about the challenges faced by a mild but cloudy and damp winter. We visited Cathedral Grove where huge Douglas firs tower above lesser trees and shrubs draped with mossy curtains. The Central Vancouver Island OS meets on a Sunday afternoon. This club had an impressive show table with lots of interesting species and hybrids including C. labiata and Phrag. Andean Fire 'Nanaimo' CCE/AOS that was awarded the in October 2006 at the White Rock OS show. The proud and accomplished owner is Harry Johnson.

Then it was on to Saskatoon, where the Saskatchewan OS is so ably led by President and my host, Sherida Gregoire. I first met the executive at dinner which was a treat in itself. Great ideas are perking in this club. Their selected topic was `Even an Orchid needs some Sleep _ the Question of Periodic and Seasonal Dormancy'. Scheduling precluded their being able to hear the talk on their usual day but I did have the chance to visit the Dutch Growers Garden Centre which normally hosts their functions.

Regina was the last stop. I took an inter-city bus which was a relaxing way to see the prairie. It was not totally flat as I had expected by gently rolling and interspersed here and there with large ponds/sloughs. I looked in vain for pronghorns but did see many ducks. Later that day I was treated to a tasty tapas dinner before delivering my `spirited' talk on orchid dormancy.

My flight home was uneventful but inspiring. As with any 6:30 am flight east, we 'chased' the dawn. To me, the horizon clouds seemed like Saturn's rings and inspired me to write: "Saturn rings announce the dawn or is it night that greets this flight, with clouds to fool us all."

We do need to get to know each other better and not to persist in our limited enclaves. "Clouds" of ignorance and misperceptions should not fool or mislead us: we are Canadians, lovers and growers of orchids everyone. We have much to learn from each other. I hope that we will see many societies represented at the COC meeting which is being held in conjunction with the Ottawa Orchid Show April 26-27, 2008.

Marilyn Light - COC Conservation

Some photos from the Western tour

- Marilyn Light

	President of the Chinook Country OS, Bernie Huizing, shows two of his Phramipedium hybrids including Phrag. Holly Huizing (Andean Fire x schlimii)
Show table at the Okanagan OS, Kelowna BC	Phrag. Andean Fire CCE/AOS grown by Harry Johnson, CVIOS
A view of sunny Okanagan and Val Tribes, President of the North Okanagan OS

COMING EVENTS

2008

• Jan 23-27: World Orchid Congress, Miami, Florida http://www.19WOC.com/
• Feb 9-10: The Southern Ontario Orchid Society at the Toronto Botanical Garden, Edwards Gardens. "http://www.soos.ca/"
• Feb 22-24: Orchid Society of Alberta"Orchidacious!", at Grant MacEwan College South Campus, 7319-29 Avenue, Edmonton. Contact info@orchidsalberta.com, or contact Brian Grant at baam@shaw.ca or 780-460-0141. "http://www.orchidsalberta.com/"
• March 1-2: Victoria Orchid Society Spring Orchid Show at the Students' Union Building, University of Victoria. Contact Noreen Taylor, 250-592-0088, creamofthecrop@telus.net. "http://victoriaorchidsociety.ca/"
• March 1 - 2: The Orchid Society of Nova Scotia at the Nova Scotia Museum of Science, Halifax. "http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Recreation/OrchidSNS/"
• March 8-9: Orchid Society of the Royal Botanical Gardens, 680 Plains Rd., Burlington. Contact Jane Johnstone, rjjohnstone2@sympatico.ca "http://www.osrbg.ca/"
• March 15 - 16: London Orchid Society at the Western Fair Special Events Building, London, Ontario For show information: http://los.lon.imag.net/losshows.asp
• March 28-30: The Manitoba Orchid Society Annual Show and Sale. Contact president@manitobaorchidsociety.ca "http://www.manitobaorchidsociety.ca/"
• March 29-30: Les Orchidophiles de Montreal Orchidexpo 2007, College de Maisonneuve, 2700 Bourbonniere St., Montreal, Quebec. For information: Andre Poliquin 450-653-9590 e-mail: mor-pol@sympatico.ca "http://orchidophiles.qc.ca/"
• April 12-13: Central Vancouver Island Orchid Society at the Country Club Center, Nanaimo, BC. Contact: Sue Christison, 250-246-2447 or email orchidlady@telus.net http://www.cvios.com/
• April 19-20: The Annual Toronto Artistic Orchid Association Show, Chinese Cultural Centre, 5183 Sheppard Ave., East (Markham Road)Phone: 416-292-9293 Email: Louisa Fung louisafung@rogers.com "http://www.taoa.ca/"
• April 26-27: The Ottawa Orchid Society show in conjunction with the COC Annual Meeting and Symposium, Nepean Sportsplex, 1701 Woodroffe Avenue, Nepean, Ontario. Contact David Cooper, Show Chairman, at orchidae@allstream.net. "http://www.ottawaorchidsociety.com"
• Sept 26-29: Western Australian Orchid Spectacular and Conference "Living with Orchids" "http://members.iinet.net.au/~emntee/WAOS.html"
  

The purpose of COC news is to inform members of the meetings, policies of the COC, to profile members, and to provide technical information regarding happenings, trends and techniques in orchid culivation across the country and around the world.

We welcome your suggestions and contributions. Deadline for each issue is one month before the issue dates previously announced.

Recipients of this newsletter are strongly urged to pass a copy on to other members of their society

Officers of the Canadian Orchid Congress