TOPIC - ORCHID BASICS FOR NEW GROWERS

We’re so happy to welcome visitors from our 2025 Orchid Show and Sale. Friends and family are welcome, and lunch will be provided!

This will be an interactive and informative meeting to provide newer growers with some basic knowledge and skills about growing orchids successfully on Vancouver Island. We’re here to answer your questions, show you how to repot your orchid and show you different varieties that other club members have grown successfully. Learn how to get your orchids to rebloom and learn why ice cubes are not recommended (always a “hot” topic!)

Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 11:15 pm. Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions - you will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

TOPIC: WCJC AND AOS JUDGING - JUST WHAT ARE THEY LOOKING FOR?

SPEAKER: ABU SALLEH

Abu’s Bio:

I have been growing orchids for over 20 years now, started off the same as a lot of others, an impulse buy at a local grocery store. Living in downtown Vancouver in a one bedroom condo, miniatures quickly became a passion as well as a necessity...

I joined the AOS Judging program in 2006 when the PNWJC (Pacific Northwest Judging Center) started a supplemental judging site in Vancouver. I became an accredited judge in 2012, and in 2017, I took the application and the dreams of our judges to Miami, presented to the AOS, and WCJC was formed. I am currently the Centre Chair for the WCJC.

Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 11:15 pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, prize draw and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions - you will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

TOPIC : Native Orchids of Vancouver Island - Through the Seasons

SPEAKER: Sasha Kubicek

The meeting will be held at the Royal Canadian Legion Mount Benson Branch, 1630 E Wellington Road, Nanaimo. The Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 11:15 am. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

As an orchid grower, amateur botanist and photographer, Sasha Kubicek spends a lot of time enjoying native orchid species in the wild. Sasha's presentation will explain the seasons of our local orchids, the basics of identification and habitat, when to see native species in bloom, and species variations in colour and form.    

More About Sasha Kubicek

Sasha is an amateur botanist with a special interest in orchids. In addition to growing orchids, he has been exploring Vancouver Island in search of native orchid species, and working to protect orchid habitats.  Through this work he has developed a deep passion for and knowledge of our remaining wild places on Vancouver Island, and the rare plants within them.

An accountant by trade, Sasha co-manages Sea Bluff Farm with his wife Robin, where he oversees the seed saving part of the operation.  The 10 acre certified organic vegetable farm grows over 40 different kinds of vegetables.  In his free time Sasha is an avid boulderer, photographer and explorer of wild places.

We look forward to seeing you there.

TOPIC: Jewel Orchids at Home, a Story of MurdeR

PRESENTER: Andrew Geimar

This meeting will be held at the Royal Canadian Legion Mount Benson Branch, 1630 E Wellington Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 11:30 pm. Following is a coffee break, display of plants brought in by members, and our featured presentation.

Andrew Geimar will be our speaker in October. With his partner Felix, Andrew owns the popular Roehampton Orchids in Toronto. We’ll be organizing a Roehampton pre-order to accompany Andrew’s visit – stay tuned for details.

Andrew will present "Jewel Orchids at Home, a Story of Murder”. He’ll describe his journey growing (and killing) jewel orchids, and how it shaped his attitude toward this lovely corner of the orchid world.  

 Jewel orchids are usually grown for their beautiful foliage. Some have sparkling gold threads in their veins, others look like black velvet. Andrew will give us some basic culture tips for growing jewels, with recommendations for first time growers. His presentation promises to be fun, engaging … and a bit of a departure from regular orchid talks!

Andrew advises that his talk will conclude with a 10 minute virtual quiz game. It'll be FUN! Join us for a lively and informative October meeting!

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions. You will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

If you’d like to learn more about Jewel orchids and their culture, check out the following link. It will take you to a special Canadian Orchid Congress publication on the subject. Our speaker, Andrew, was a contributor to this publication.

https://canadianorchidcongress.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/COC2021_SUMMER_SPECIAL_ISSUE.pdf

Wecome Back!

TOPIC : PeSt Management/ Plant Doctor

SPEAKER: Bryan Emery

The meeting will be held at the Royal Canadian Legion Mount Benson Branch, 1630 E Wellington Road, Nanaimo. The Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions. You will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

(Photo credit: Nicole Ta)

TOPIC: "RecAp of the 2024 Annual SHow"

Guests always welcome! This meeting will be held at the Royal Canadian Legion Mount Benson Branch, 1630 E Wellington Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 11:30 pm. Following is a coffee break, display of plants brought in by members, and our featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions. You will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

**We will be prepared to offer an orchid repotting demonstration if any member would like to bring a plant that they would like repotted. Priority will be for new members to learn the basics of repotting. There is a small charge for orchid mix.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Important Notice - This meeting will be taking place at the Legion in Nanaimo, however IN A DIFFERENT ROOM due to renovations. As well, the meeting will start 30 minutes earlier and end 30 min early than other meetings.

TOPIC: "DISAS"

PRESENTER: Justin Dunning

Guests always welcome!! This meeting will be held at the Royal Canadian Legion Mount Benson Branch, 1630 E Wellington Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 10:30 with a brief business meeting starting at 11:00 pm. Following is a coffee break, display of plants brought in by members, and our featured presentation.

We look forward to having Justin Dunning as our guest speaker this month. He brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm . His talk will be on "Disas”

***Justin is bringing plants to sell at the meeting.***

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions. You will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

It's going to be a fun-filled afternoon with a pot luck lunch, bag draw, and orchid display.

For the pot luck, we'd love it if you could bring a warm dish, salad, appetizers, desserts, or anything else you'd like to share with our members. Ken and Joan have already volunteered to bring a turkey. The legion will be suppling the plates, cups, and cutlery but you might want to bring any serving utensils, those will not be supplied and consider a crock pot or hot plate if you have something that needs to be kept warm.

As for the bag draw, baked goods have always been a hit, but if you have plants, books, or anything else you'd like to donate, that would be fantastic too! It's always great to have a variety of items to choose from.

And don't forget about the orchid display! Members will have the chance to vote on their favorite plant, and we'll be awarding prizes (we haven't decided what they are yet) for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. But, of course, we'll need enough orchids on display to make the voting worthwhile.

We really look forward to seeing you there! It's going to be a fantastic afternoon filled with delicious food, exciting draws, and beautiful orchids.

Celebrating Our 50th Year!

We invite you to join us to celebrate the CVIOS's 50 year anniversary! As we celebrate this momentous occasion, we reflect on the many memories and experiences that have brought us to this point.
There will be a brief monthly meeting, a show table of blooming orchids, and a presentation by founding member and past president, Dora Glover.
Please join us for cake, tea and coffee!
We hope to see you there!

Address - Royal Canadian Legion Mount Benson Branch, 1630 E Wellington Road, Nanaimo.

TOPIC: "Orchid Growing Tips, Tricks, Myths and Science"

Presenter: Bryan Emery

Guests always welcome!! This meeting will be held at our new location at the Royal Canadian Legion Mount Benson Branch, 1630 E Wellington Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 11:30 pm. Following is a coffee break, display of plants brought in by members, and our featured presentation.

We look forward to having Bryan Emery as our guest speaker this month. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience as one of Vancouver Island's most successful orchid growers. His talk will be on "Orchid Growing Tips, Tricks, Myths and Science".

***Bryan is bringing plants to sell at the meeting.***

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions. You will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

TOPIC : Photographing Orchids

The May 21st meeting will feature a “Photographing Orchids” workshop. Alexey, Keith & Nicole will each have a station & share their process, tips & tricks for photographing orchids. They invite members to bring their own cameras & flashes or phones & get some input on how to make best use of them.

The meeting will be held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions. You will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

TOPIC : Native Orchid - Planathera dialata

Speaker: Jasmine Janes

The meeting will be held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions. You will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Topic: photos taken by the HCPC (Harbour city Photography club) and Bernie K. from the Orchid Show

The meeting will be held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions. You will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The meeting will be held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions. You will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The meeting will be held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions. You will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Members’ Christmas Lunch

It’s time for our annual Christmas Potluck Lunch!

Display Contest - We invite you to get creative and bring a Christmas themed display of blooming orchids to enter into the annual contest for your chance to win a prize.

Bag Draw - Please bring an item for the bag draw. This is a fun raffle style event where members enter to win items brought in by other members. You can bring an orchid, Christmas baking or other treats, Christmas crafts or even gift cards.

Bring a potluck item to share as well as your own plate, cutlery and drinking glass or cup. Coffee and tea will be provided.

We look forward to celebrating the holiday season with you!

The meeting will be held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions. You will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Topic: Growing Orchids from Seed (at home)

Speaker: Glen S.

Description: The presentation will show the items necessary to flask your own hybrid or species orchid seeds.

• Creating a 'glove-box'.

• Prepping the media and flasks.

• Seeding and deflasking.

The meeting will be held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:00 a.m. with a brief business meeting starting at 12:00 p.m. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions. You will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Glen’s Bio:

I became interested in orchids in December 2018 by accident with the question "I wonder what the most expensive plant was"... that question opened a window into the world of orchids. Then a few weeks later, again by chance, I wandered into a CVIOS show at the local mall. Who knew that there was such a thing as orchidists and orchid societies! I bought a couple of "pretty" flowering plants and joined CVIOS.

Through trial, and some egregious and lesser errors the window opened into a fascinating world of science, economics, history, art, leisure, frustration, disappointment and success!

I ask myself a lot of questions like, "I wonder what the oldest orchid is?"... and that question has made me stumble over phylogenetic trees and the evolutionary development of orchids, DNA barcoding, geologic-disjunctions, and orchid pollen on a fungus-gnat encased in 45 million year old Baltic amber... You orchidists know the tale.

Topic: Should I grow semi-hydro?

Speaker: Samantha Chande

Welcome Back!!
This presentation explores the hows and whys of growing orchids semi hydroponically. If you’ve ever lost an orchid to over or under-watering, this simple technique may be for you.

The meeting will be held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:00 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Samantha’s Bio

Samantha Chande is a window-sill orchid grower who manages to keep most of her orchids alive, and even sometimes reblooms them. She has kept orchids alive in the dry winter air of Calgary, dusty, air conditioned apartments in the Middle East, lashed to trees in East Africa, and on windowsills across BC. "

We look forward to seeing you there!

Topic: AGM

This meeting will be held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:30 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions - you will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Topic: Carnivorous Plants

Speaker: Online Presentation

We will be watching a Dutch produced video narrated by Sir David Attenborough called “Plants Behaving Badly: The secret life of orchids and carnivorous plants”. Carniverous Plants make great companion plants for orchids - they live in the same environments in the wild and are helpful in pest control (eg - catching gnats and flies). Members and guests are invited to bring in their carnivorous plants to show.

This meeting will be held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:30 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions - you will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Topic: Plants Behaving Badly - Sex and Lies

Speaker - Online Video Presentation

This meeting will be held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:30 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions - you will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Topic : Review of the Show and Online Webinar - N American Orchid Conservation

This meeting will be held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo (the meetings are in the upper level of the hall and can be entered from the back left hand side of the building) Doors open at 11:30 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions - you will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

Hall management has advised us that masks are no longer required, but we are expected to have valid vaccine passports until April 8th.

Sanitization of furniture would no longer be required.

Hope to see you there!

Topic : Preparing Your Orchids for a Show

Speakers : Alexey, Laurie, Dora and Dusty

Once again, we are back to holding our meetings in person. Meetings are held at the North Oyster Community Centre, 13467 Cedar Road, Nanaimo. Doors open at 11:30 with a brief business meeting starting at 12pm. Following is a display of plants brought in by members, a coffee break, and a featured presentation.

Below are the topics and presenters:

Alexey & Laurie will share tips & techniques for preparing orchids for show.

Dora will explain the procedure & paperwork for entering them in the show.

Dusty will explain the orchid classes & about the fun to be had on a team doing ribbon judging.

via ZOOM - Preparing Your Orchids for Shows

The meeting will start at 1:00 p.m. We will still have our business meeting, a show "table" so you can hold your current beauties up to the camera for all to enjoy, a presentation about preparing for shows and a question period. Because some questions may need some research, please send them to me a few days beforehand so that if they're complicated, I can find someone knowledgeable to answer them.

Whether you're a beginner or expert orchid grower, bring your questions - you will find our members very friendly and knowledgeable.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Christmas Potluck

We look forward to gathering for our annual Christmas Potluck Lunch.

Please bring a Christmas themed display of blooming orchids to enter into the annual contest.

There will be a bag draw so bring an orchid, orchid related item, or any Christmas themed items (baking including!)

Bring a potluck item to share as well as your own plate, cutlery and drinking glass or cup. Coffee and tea will be provided.

We look forward to celebrating the holiday season with you!