Our first weekend workshop of the year was a great success despite the terrible wet day.
We were ensconced in the meeting room at the back of the Curvilinear Range at The National Botanic Gardens, the out of the way location was well sign posted and across the day we welcomed visitors from all parts of the world.
The members who attended brought some in-flower orchids for the display and raffle as well as some problems to fix. Biggest of these was a huge pot-bound cymbidium brought in by Carmel that Chair Marie Hourigan took to work on with a saw and made five new plants from it.
Pat brought in a fabulous specimen of Dendrobium ‘Berry Oda’ which was donated to he raffle as first prize.
Star of the show though was the display of orchids which lit up the room with their beauty and colour. The display included several genus from some very miniature Oncidium ‘twinkle’, a couple of Paphiopedilums (Paph-i-o-pedi-lum) from David, a Coelogyne (see-LODGE-uh-nee) flaccida from Pat, and beautiful selection of Phalaenopsis and Jewel Orchids.
We raised €100 with the raffle and the re-potting and gained a couple of new members.
The evening meetings have a lot to cram in in a short period, so it was a great occasion to spend sometime chatting with members and discussing in detail the issues they have or their successes.
We will be hosting another weekend workshop in June and we hope to make that an even larger event.
IOS Meeting November 2025 – Part Two Talk by Saul Walker
Saul Walker returns this November to give us the second part of his Talk on The Wonderful Orchids of Oz
An introduction to Saul Walker from the BBC Gardener's Wold website (https://www.bbcgardenersworldlive.com/meet_the_experts/saul-walker/)
Saul Walker’s passion in horticulture
Saul Walker fell in love with horticulture through his Grandparents passion for visiting historic houses and gardens, and after a brief spell as an Archaeologist, he went to train and work as a Gardener for the National Trust at Antony House in Cornwall.
After many years there he was accepted to study on the prestigious 3-year Kew Diploma of Botanical Horticulture at RBG, Kew and was exposed to the fantastic plant collections in the gardens and glasshouses, as well as travelling to Australia, Southern Spain and the French Riviera to study plants in their native habitats.
Following his time at Kew he spent a couple of years as part of the Show management teams for both the RHS Hampton Court Palace and RHS Chelsea Flower Show respectively, however he was unable to resist the call back to his native Devon, where he is now the Head Gardener of Stonelands House- a privately owned 10-acre garden.
Saul’s speciality interests include Woodland Gardens, Orchids, and Exotic plants. A member of the RHS Tender Plant Committee and Trustee of The Hardy Plant Society and the Chartered Institute of Horticulture, he also co-hosts the Talking Heads Podcast with Lucy Chamberlain.
In-Person Raffle
We will also have some orchids for raffle on the night, tickets can be purchased by cash or card.
I really enjoyed the March workshop. Lovely to meet members whose posts I’ve read over the months since I’ve joined. The highlight was seeing how Marie repotted older pot bound plants, also David’s tip on using cinnamon to disinfect roots. I hope to attend in April.
It was great to meet you Fiona and I’m delighted you picked up some tips and met some of the members. See you in April