Annual Member's Silent Orchid Auction

Please Note: Our January meeting is not the first Sunday of the month because of the New Year's Day Holiday. Usually our January meeting is the second Sunday, but this year all of the buildings at St. Augustines where we have our meetings are filled; So, our meeting will be held at St. Augustine's Church, normal meeting room, but the third Sunday of the month (January 15th).

Our January meeting is our Annual Silent Auction. Members (and anyone else) who would like to auction off orchids or any other orchid-related material that you think someone else might want, in our Silent Auction. This is different than our May Annual Orchid Auction where we contact vendors about donating plants that we offer one-by-one in an 'active, vocal' auction. During the Silent Auction, all plants are displayed on the tables with pictures and a description of the plant, flowers and culture if possible. Each Member will have their own bidding number, and if they want to bid on a plant/item, they will place a bid on the plant sheet. If someone else wants to bid higher, they can place a higher bid. Bidding will continue until a pre-determined time, when bidding closes and the bidder with the highest bid will win that plant!

There are some important items to consider before bringing a plant to the Auction: If your plant is near death, don't bring it. If it has bugs or disease, then absolutely don't bring it! If the pot is cracked or filthy, or the plant needs to be repotted, please consider repotting the plant. If it has no roots, then please don't bring it as it will likely die. A nice looking plant/pot is more likely to bring a better bid! If you have pots, pictures, magazines, books, potting media, any of these things and more can be offered for the Silent Auction. Since this is a fund-raiser for the Club, a minimum of 50% of the proceeds of the winning bid can be kept by the donater; the remainder will go to the Club. If the donater wants to donate more or all of their 50%, they can do so. I believe that anyone is able to come to the auction, but I believe that one plant minimum must be donated to 'enter' bidding (or there may be a small monetary donation instead...).

If you can, please find a picture of what your plants' flowers will look like and print this out with some cultural information for that species/hybrid. Also if you are dividing a plant, you must give all of the parts a clonal name (the same name). Please also arrive a few minutes early for the Auction so that you can pick up your bidder number, set up your plants/items and look everything over before bidding. If you know what you will be donating, consider sending Carol Haskell a list so that she can make up a bidding list beforehand. Annual Membership dues will also be due at this meeting.

Also, our February meeting in a few weeks will be our Bi-Annual Orchid Mounting Clinic that will be supplied by Andy's Orchids. At the January meeting a list of plants will be passed around, and each Member will choose the three plants from the list of mounting orchids. Also, if anyone would like to pre-order plants from Andy's Orchids to be delivered with the Mounting Clinic Plants in February, write down on the list what plants you want and what size plant/cost, if necessary. Also bring with you in January the money for whatever extra plants you will be pre-ordering from Andy's. If there are enough extra plants ordered, there may be a discount. The Club will be paying for shipping of all plants that will be at the February meeting. If you know that you won't be at the January meeting but will be at the February meeting, send Charles Ufford a list of the three plants you want from the clinic plant list (sent around to all members via earlier email) and any extra plants that you want to order from Andy's.

Our 2011 Annual Fall Show and Sale went fairly well this year. Pictures and a synopsis of the 2011 Show can be seen here. Show pictures (nearly 100!) and the awards list (pdf file) sorted by club have been uploaded to the Show Pictures page as well.

Our orchid club is now on Facebook! Check it out here and let us know what else you think might be good to have on the site.
Our main website now hosts three photo galleries. One is our the Show Pictures page where images from our orchid shows can be viewed, The second is the Virtual Showtable page, which also has a section for you to display your growing areas, and the third gallery is the Native Orchids page (still in planning stage). Several members and friends go on orchid treks each year, and this is where they can post and you can view their pictures. Sometimes they also take pictures of other interesting plants they find along the way.

Also a reminder that our newsletter and website have a section where Members can post a list of orchids or orchid-related items they wish to sell/buy/trade. If you are a neighboring orchid society (including Canada) and will be having an orchid auction, these can be listed there as well as on our events calendar. Send requests to Newsletter Editor Eva Galson and your list will be put in the newsletter and on our website. Please submit your request at least two weeks before the next scheduled meeting - Thanks!

Hope to see you at our next meeting or event!

See the CNYOS calendar for other regional orchid-related events!