South Burnett Orchid Society members Beryl Waldron, treasurer Gary Kilkenny and president Linda Olsen with Cr Kathy Duff who officially opened the annual show on Saturday

April 21, 2015

There may have been only nine exhibitors but that didn’t stop the Wondai RSL Club’s hall being ablaze with colour on Saturday for the South Burnett Orchid Society’s annual show.

All the exhibitors brought along multiple entries for the show, which meant the tables were packed with all shapes and sizes of orchids.

This is the sixth year that the South Burnett club has organised its annual show in Wondai to coincide with the town’s popular Autumn Garden Expo, which is held at the nearby Wondai Sportsgrounds.

Orchids are one of the largest families of flowering plants in nature, and originally came mostly from tropical areas.

However, since keen gardeners started propagating them in the 19th century, it is estimated that more than 100,000 hybrids and cultivars have been produced, including ones designed especially for cold-climate areas.

Rare species are keenly sought by collectors and can be sold for thousands of dollars …

And orchid collectors speak their own language – talking about dendrobiums, cymbidiums, cattleya etc.

There was a lot of this happening in Wondai on Saturday!

Russ Hopkins, from Caboolture, and his wife Jan exhibited the grand champion orchid, “BC Binosa” … the couple also had the class winner in the “in any other colour cattleya” class with “Golden Canefield”

The grand champion orchid … “BC Binosa”

“Golden Canefield” came 1st in its class
Gary Kilkenny, from Kingaroy, was the South Burnett Orchid Society overall winner

 

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