Glimpses of ANOS Sydney in the 80-90s – through reading the Orchidophiles
Last year before a monthly meeting, Mike Harrison took Yin outside to his car. He then handed Yin a large box and said, ‘some old issues of Orchidophile and Orchadian, enjoy!’. After reading through the Orchidophile (1984-1994) over the last few months, it has given us some insights into ANOS Sydney in the 80-90s. We are fascinated by the changes over this period and since then, both for the newsletter as well ANOS Sydney. Below is summary of observations and thoughts that we would like to share with you.
A. The Orchidophile then – format, appeal and content
This is the monthly newsletter of ANOS Sydney and serves the important functions of sharing information and acting as a channel of communication amongst its members.During this period, it was a 10-20 pages typed foolscap document sent to members by mail monthly. Preparation of each monthly issue was a rather labour-intensive exercise involving a team of people as is evident from the Editorial which appeared in the Oct 1990 issue by Bronwyn Murphy, Editor of Orchidophile at the time.
Yes, it was a hand-written message included in that issue of Orchidophile, presumably after the typing had been completed. Throughout the period, it was not unusual to have different fonts, letter size and even last minute hand-written materials for different articles in the same issue of Orchidophile. Articles written using word processing crept in around the early 1990s but was still not common.
Orchidophile was a document prepared for reading only as it was filled with words and hardly any picture until the early 90s. Usually the only picture appeared in the front cover which in the beginning was always a hand drawing of a native orchid. In those days, if one wanted to show orchids, one had to draw them, as per Sarcochilus Melba, drawn by David Butler in the February 1988 issue.
This was later replaced by photographs (in black and white only) of orchids or orchid habitats starting in March 1992. The newsletter had the usual topics of minutes of last meeting, financial statement, benching results, show results but the highlights were articles written by members on various orchid topics of interest, like orchid trips and cultural methods.
Popularity of the newsletter to the outside world can be gauged by the fact that people from outside the Group had to pay for them if they wanted a copy. It first cost $0.5 and then $1.0. An amount of $120 was recorded as income in annual budget (in 86/87). Just for comparison purpose, annual subscription at that same time was $5!!
B. ANOS Sydney in the 80-90s
1.) Venue change
The monthly meeting venue changed four times – first in Ryde, then Lindfield, North Parramatta and finally to the current venue in Baulkham Hills in March 1991.The shift of venue reflected a move of ANOS Sydney towards Western Sydney, reflecting the change in the centre of rapid population growth.
2.) Membership
A time of expansion and consolidation – in June 1984, membership reached 100 for the first time.Mr John Elton was the lucky 100th member and was granted free membership for I year.Membership increased rapidly in the next few years and this reached 154 in 1987.This number was maintained and in 1994, the membership was 150 and on average, 70-80 members attended the monthly meetings.
3.) Orchids benched in monthly meetings and shows
(i) Terrestrials vs epiphytes
Growing terrestrials was very popular then as reflected in the large number of plants benched during the monthly meetings.
According to a survey of members carried out in 1988, there were more members growing terrestrials (members growing terrestrials only plus members growing both terrestrials and epiphytes) than members growing only epiphytes (50% vs 46%).
There were occasions when the number of terrestrials benched exceeded that of the epiphytes. We can’t help imagining there was a healthy competition between the terrestrial growers and epiphyte growers when Ron Howlett stated in his article on monthly benching in October 1987 “Unfortunately the terrestrial growers were unable to maintain the pressure of the previous month, being able to bench only 47 pots of terrestrials thus allowing the epiphyte growers to lift their heads on again after the largest benching of terrestrials in history of the Group at the August meeting.”. Just image 47 pots of terrestrials being benched in one monthly meeting!
The popularity of terrestrials amongst members and the potential of further improvement was echoed by Jim Lykos when he wrote in 1986 about the Autumn Show:
“The terrestrial orchid enthusiasts amongst our members are still in the process of attaining mastery over the culture of these exquisite and distinctive species. With the increasing number of terrestrial growers and the skill they have already revealed…Pots containing 30-50 flowering plants I hope will become common place.”
Pterostylis pulchella was the Champion native species in the 1987 Autumn Show - “to a pterostylis-phyt*, it seems that the notion of ideal forms had been realised” – Jim Lykos wrote.
Interestingly, we have never seen a P. pulchella in monthly benching, shows or during field trips so long as we have been members.
There was a tuber bank in operation serving members of ANOS Sydney during part of this period.
(ii)Species vs hybrids
Looking through the benching results in monthly meetings and shows, species orchids were more popular than hybrids. At monthly benching, there were always more species than hybrid orchids on display. Interestingly, in the earlier years (84-86), there was only one hybrid class at monthly benching, namely “Native Hybrids” while there were 5 species classes. There was a great diversity of species in the different species classes, some of which are rarely seen nowadays. With the increased availability of hybrids, more hybrid classes were soon added and the number of plants benched started to rival that of species.
(iii) Hybrids
The types of hybrids changed throughout this period, reflecting the increasing interest in hybridisation and availability of native hybrid orchids. This is particularly noticeable in the case of
Sarcochilus as progress made in hybridisation of this genus was still in the early days. It was not unusual for Sarco. Melba, Sarco. Heidi or Sarco. Weinhart to win first placings in monthly benching and even championships in annual shows.
Sarco. Jewell ‘Dungog’, a secondary hybrid was Champion Hybrid of Sarcanthinae Show 1994 and this orchid was the first hybrid Sarcochilus hybrid awarded by ANOS (1990).
For Dendrobium hybrids, primary hybrids like Den. Ellen, Den. Bardo Rose, and Den. Hilda Poxon were common in the monthly benching and show in the early years. In shows, reflecting the limited diversity of hybrids at the stage, there were less hybrid classes than species classes. Hybrid classes were divided based on parentage rather than colour/size like nowadays, e.g. Dendrobium hybrids with and without Den. kingianum parentage. In 1992-1993, a hybrid, Den. Star of Riverdene ‘Amanda’ generated great interest in the Group. It first won the Champion Hybrid at ANOS Sydney Spring Show in 1992. In 1993, it was Grand Champion of the Show at the 2nd ANOS Conference held at Toowoomba. Den. Star of Riverdene is a secondary hybrid crossed between Den. Star of Gold and Den. speciosum.
In the same show, ANOS Sydney and its members also won the Reserve Champion, first placing in Display Class as well as many first and second placings. Just imagine all the plants had to be transported over 1000 km from Sydney, it was a great achievement and put the group on the map amongst native orchid groups and societies.
(iv) Believe it or not but these are true!
Mike Harrison was a strong supporter of monthly benching and always did very well in the annual score competition. We think he would have won the title of “champion point scorer of the decade, 1984-1994” easily if there were such a title. Apparently, he was someone everyone dreamt of beating in monthly benching (according to Gerry Walsh); Henk van den Berg was a very good Sarcochilus grower, winning first places in ANOS Sydney shows; David Butler was a very good terrestrial grower and he had generously given advices on how to grow them in a number of articles in the Orchidophile.
Activities we don’t have anymore
Zoo Project – a major project commenced in 1979 and continued to the mid-1990s. From what we can gather, the project involved a native orchid display area set up in the Taronga Zoo by the members of ANOS Sydney and a few times every year, members met up at the Zoo to provide regular maintenance.
Rescue dig – an activity organised to salvage native orchids from sites of pending infra-structure projects prior to the clearing of natural vegetation. Orchids were gathered from the dig and were distributed amongst members to grow and propagate.
Conclusions
After reading through the Orchidophiles (1984-1994), we have this mental picture of during certain days of the month, many members anxiously checking their letterboxes waiting to receive and read the latest issue of the Orchidophile hot off the press. They were eager to know who the speaker for the next monthly meeting would be; coming activities planned and were keen to read about Gerry Walsh’s (and others) latest orchid adventures in the bush. However, if they wanted to admire native orchids, be involved in the often-animated discussion of, and learn a few things on their passion (native orchids), they would have to attend the next monthly meeting!!
* May be a typo error or a term made up by Jim to refer to Pterostylis growers.
