Remember I got a free orchid from volunteering at the annual Southern Ontario Orchid Show in Feb? I guess I am extremely lucky, after one month, it started to bloom! I’ve never had a restrepia before, so it took me a while to realize the new growth was actually a flower spike. It was exciting to wait for the bloom because I have no idea about the color of my species. After maybe a week, here is it:
Canada Blooms 2017
It’s been quite a few years since I last visited Canada Blooms. However, I am glad I did this year. My family and I had a blast there, we walked for five hours with a short pizza break last Saturday at the CNE.
First of all, it has an amazing flower show. As I just finished my first floral design class at Toronto Botanic Garden in Jan, viewing these design pieces are both enjoyable and refreshing of my course materials.
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Southern Ontario Orchid Society Meeting
My first Southern Ontario Orchid Society meeting on March 12 – tons of useful information, a nice surprise, and lots of motivation.
Terry Kennedy gave a long presentation on how to grow dendrobium. It was so informational and helpful for me, because I just recently bought a Dendrobium Super Ise (Nobile type) during Cloud’s Orchids visit. While it’s growing strong and healthy, I finally understand why I don’t see any blooms. It needs cool and dry period in order to develop flower buds. I kept it moist and warm all these time. Although I didn’t get to see flowers, it grows very well, and I can see new cane coming up.
Toronto Orchid Show
It was Southern Ontario Orchid Society’s annual orchid show this weekend at Toronto Botanical Garden. I had a chance to volunteer as clerks at the show! It was a very interesting, fun, and yet educational! Since I love orchids, I think it will be very hard to find any other volunteer work that are comparable to this.
I got up at 6am, left home at 6:30am, and arrived at the show at 7am. As a first timer, I needed to ask around about what’s going on, and what I should be doing; and the first person I spoke to happened to be in the same judging team as me. She has been clerking for 15 years, and just found out she’s been upgraded to judging this year! Talking about how luck I am… With her guidance, the rest was as smooth as it can be. Preparing clipboard, getting ready for the ribbons, knowing the location of each display, recording judge’s decisions, and making sure the awarded plants have the correct ribbon! It was a very rewarding 3 hours spent.
Now, let’s enjoy some orchids:
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Floral Design at Toronto Botanical Garden
I signed up for Classic Design Fundamentals One class at Toronto Botanical Garden this month. There are 4 classes, every Monday night from 6:30pm to 9:30pm, and each class you’ll learn one design. So here we go:
Class 1: Traditional mass design – table centrepiece
The class does not include any material, so I had to shop for the plants/flowers before the class. I had to admit, it was hard the first time, because I have no idea what I would be creating, which flowers would be easier to work with. Anyways, it turned out not bad at all. The instructor said colors worked well together.
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