2006 mailing list messages

2006 Archived Messages

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From: jan
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Help wanted − a mystery plant; mostly for Dr Khoo
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2006 06:30

I have taken the first small step towards realising my dream: moving to
China. And of course bought myself an orchid − several, in fact, in
Kunming (a city in Yunnan province). I spent as much as 95 yuan (about
£9) on 7 'orchids' − which turned out to be bundles of orchids with 5 −
8 plants in each. I got the proper names for all of them except one, the
lady only knew the Chinese name, which she wrote on a scrap of
newspaper. Unfortunately not very clearly, and since my wife isn't into
orchids as much as I, we're not too sure what to make of it.

So, a humble request to Dr Khoo: can you have look at it and see if you
recognize this one? I've attached a couple of photos and a scan of the
scrap of paper. As far as we can see it says either ### or ###,
but I can't find any references.

From: jan
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: A trip to China
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2006 07:20

I have just returned from China full of inspirations. We were a group of
(mostly Chinese) that went to Yunnan where we saw such marvels as the
Stone Forest and God knows how many places where they sold jade and/or
Chinese medicine. All very exciting; but the high point for me was our
trip to Xishuangbanna; Yunnan is a tropical area, but quite high in the
mountains and thus fairly 'cool' (ie. less than 30 degrees Centigrade at
noon), whereas Xishuangbanna is more downhill and seriously tropical.

There we visited the most beautiful botanical garden I've ever come
across (and I HAVE been to Kew) and what's more: the local rainforest.
The place was crawling with orchids − I didn't notice at first, because
they weren't flowering, but then I realized that a lot of the leaf
litter had a quality I had seen before: orchids leaves, dry pseudobulbs
etc, and then I started looking closer at the trees.

So, now I am mulling over the idea of arranging a trip for a group of
people to go to Yunnan to have a look themselves. It doesn't have to be
hugely expensive; I buy return tickets to Beijing for around £300 −
£400, and I believe our 5 days in Yunnan didn't cost a huge amount
either. My wife knows more about this − she organised this trip and has
all sorts of connections.

But would people be interested? Right now I can only give the above,
very rough idea about prices, of course, and it also depends on the
programme. My ideas are something like:

First go to Beijing, stay there a couple of days; have some general
introduction to China and the trip ahead. Part of this could be done in
UK, I suppose, but there's nothing like learning in situ.

Then off to our target − I'll find out more about where and when if
there is enough interest. Xishuangbanna is one possibility, but we asked
and were told that there are other places much better for orchids. Also
I hope to find a way that will allow people to buy plants and bring them
home legally. Perhaps a nursery that sells seedlings in sterile flasks
as I understand this doesn't require permits (?). Or perhaps a large
nursery that can handle the CITES thing for us? And we'll get hold of a
guide with some serious knowledge about orchids, a botanist from one of
the universities.

And of course, people may want to see more than just orchids in their
habitat − what would be interesting? A few local tourist sights, I
presume, but what I found frustrating on this trip was the fact that we
just raced past all those almost painfully beautiful villages, rice
fields with water buffalos and what have you − I didn't get one good
photo. Next time I'll carry an anchor and bring the bus to a halt when I
want a picture!

A few words about the trip in general: the hotels were very good, 4
stars. The food was good, if not spectacular − but of course Chinese,
what a surprise, not generally hot and spicy, but definitely not bangers
and mash.

The roads are all in good repair (for a certain value of good), meaning
there are no potholes; on the other hand they don't need them, as the
surface is normally not remotely flat. Sometimes our bus danced from
wheel to wheel, a very envigourating experience. Many public toilets are
very public, and most definitely toilets; this is probably the one thing
I didn't feel quite comfortable with, but even I managed all the same.

From: Dr Chong-Yee Khoo
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Help wanted − a mystery plant; mostly for Dr Khoo
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2006 09:10

Congratulations on your upcoming move to China − Yunnan is a place I would like to go at some stage. I hear that the Xingsuanbanna region is particularly rich in plants, including of course orchids.

I've had a look at the photos. Unfortunately, the hand-written Chinese characters only say "shihulan" (your second set of characters) − which means "Dendrobium"! The printed characters say "Thursday", but that's not too much help either.

The habit of the plant suggests a Bulbophyllum, or possibly even an Epigenium, the latter being in the same subtribe as Dendrobium. We'll have a better idea of what this plant is when it blooms.

>I have taken the first small step towards realising my dream: moving to China. And of course bought myself an orchid − several, in fact, in Kunming (a city in Yunnan province). I spent as much as 95 yuan (about £9) on 7 'orchids' − which turned out to be bundles of orchids with 5 − 8 plants in each. I got the proper names for all of them except one, the lady only knew the Chinese name, which she wrote on a scrap of newspaper. Unfortunately not very clearly, and since my wife isn't into orchids as much as I, we're not too sure what to make of it.
>
>So, a humble request to Dr Khoo: can you have look at it and see if you recognize this one? I've attached a couple of photos and a scan of the scrap of paper. As far as we can see it says either ‰Ãìl¿º or ê’ùÕ¿º, but I can't find any references.

From: aeranthes2
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: cattleyas
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2006 14:00

Sivio Geoff started the list off and is still very much a member. He's the best one to advise I think regarding hydroculture. I'm not sure if Geoff is away. If not I expect he'll see this and respond. Good luck with your Cattleyas! Jean

Lucky you jan! How fascinating your trip sounds. It is one of the few places I have always longed to visit but unfortunately feel I couldn't go that far these days! I'm not a good traveller. The orchids look delightful and very strong plants so good luck with growing them. You'll have to keep in touch even if you move to China and let us know how things are going. Jean

From: Hedrick Kwan
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Help wanted − a mystery plant; mostly for Dr Khoo
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2006 16:45

Im not sure what it means..althought I know how to read it. The plant looks like a bulbophyllum....but then again its bifoliate. Care to take a picture with the bulbs and leaves? maybe then we might have a better clue
thanx

From: Ronald Newstead
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] A trip to China
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2006 23:10

Good idea, Jan!
I would be interested in joining a small group of enthusiasts in the sort of
tour that Peter Williams organizes in Thailand, i.e.
On arrival all members of the group are met at the airport and taken to
their hotel .
Local trips are done in a private minibus
There is a division of time (roughly 50/50) between orchids and sightseeing
with time to photograph etc. and with local guides
All hotels have European-style 'loos'. I am too old to squat!
There must be a facility to deal with the CITES paperwork

From: jan
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: CITES, a constructive approach
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 06:10

Yes yes, 'Groan, once again' − no it isn't another complaint about
CITES. We can't change it, so we'd better learn to live with it.

Many clubs, newsgroups, societies etc on the internet have a website,
normally operated by one of the keener members; and there you'll often
find useful information distilled from the knowledge and experience of
the members. I would offer my webspace for this purpose, but it may not
be the best solution, since I intend to move abroad soon and it will
take some time before I will be up to speed in my new home.

One of the things I would put on such a webpage would be a 'CITES HOWTO'
- a description of how to do when importing or exporting orchids, tips
about what is the best way to handle typical problems etc − all the
things that keep people from ever trying. I wouldn't mind writing the
HOWTO document, only I don't know anything about the subject; but that
has never stopped me before. I know there are people on this list who
have experience with importing, even into UK, and I suppose I could
start by sifting through my old emails from this list and extracting
whatever I can find.

1. A database of members' orchids and their experiences
2. Information about more general things, eg. growing techniques.
3. A Wiki − everybody has a Wiki
4. Events of all sorts and reports from them

From: Tricia Garner
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: CITES, a constructive approach
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 17:25

On 09 Feb, in article ,
jan wrote:
> Yes yes, 'Groan, once again' − no it isn't another complaint about
> CITES. We can't change it, so we'd better learn to live with it.

> Many clubs, newsgroups, societies etc on the internet have a website,
> normally operated by one of the keener members; and there you'll often
> find useful information distilled from the knowledge and experience of
> the members.

> I would offer my webspace for this purpose, but it may not
> be the best solution, since I intend to move abroad soon and it will
> take some time before I will be up to speed in my new home.

> One of the things I would put on such a webpage would be a 'CITES HOWTO'
> − a description of how to do when importing or exporting orchids, tips
> about what is the best way to handle typical problems etc − all the
> things that keep people from ever trying. I wouldn't mind writing the
> HOWTO document, only I don't know anything about the subject; but that
> has never stopped me before. I know there are people on this list who
> have experience with importing, even into UK, and I suppose I could
> start by sifting through my old emails from this list and extracting
> whatever I can find.

If you or anyone else would like to produce such a document, I would be
happy to include it on the website.

> 1. A database of members' orchids and their experiences
> 2. Information about more general things, eg. growing techniques.

Most of that kind of information can be found in the Archives, surely?
Using the search facility it should be reasonably easy to collate
information on a particular topic then save/print anything relevant.

I didn't get time to do a Diary of events for this year, but I usually
manage it. Reports would be good − who would produce them?

There are items on the website which have been submitted by group members,
more are always welcome.

After any salary raise, you will have less money at the end of the month than you did before.

From: jan
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Re: CITES, a constructive approach
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:35

I wasn't aware there was a web server already; it has probably been
mentioned any number of times, but trust me to overlook that sort of
thing ;-) I personally blame the parents.

From: jan
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Re: CITES, a constructive approach
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:50

Tricia Garner wrote:
...
>
>>1. A database of members' orchids and their experiences
>>2. Information about more general things, eg. growing techniques.
>
>
> Most of that kind of information can be found in the Archives, surely?
> Using the search facility it should be reasonably easy to collate
> information on a particular topic then save/print anything relevant.
>
I was a bit quick in replying just before. Yes, I'm sure everything can
be found in the archives, but I often find it too much having to go and
search for stuff somewhere − what I thought of was something like the
distilled wisdom of what is in the archives. There is so much worthwhile
knowledge there, but it can sometimes be hard to remember the exact
wording of something you want to find, making it difficult to search for
it. Things like that could be put into a FAQ file.

The database would be more like a real, systematic database − Oracle or
MySQL or something similar. It's not difficult to make an interface (eg.
a web form) that would allow everybody to post their photos and other
things. The reason I thought about it is that I have been thinking about
making one for myself at home, and it seems a bit silly to have a
whopping big Oracle database running and use it just my small
collection, when it could easily handle hundreds of millions of orchids.

Anyway, when and if I get it up and running, perhaps I should send you a
copy of the thing for you to look at and think about?

From: jan
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] A trip to China
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 19:05

I don't know Peter Williams, but the points you list are more or less
what I imagined myself; this is what just about all the local tour
operators offer, really. What I hink I will need to persuade them about
is the need to stop at random points so people can take photos of things
the Chinese see as trivial or possibly embarassing, but which I at least
find incredibly beautiful and romantic, like mountainsides with terraces
of rice fields, water buffaloes and the like. They would much rather
drag you off to one of the many well groomed parks for tourists.

Another thing I need to get my head around is CITES − it seems to be
very hard to get some real, practical knowledge about it, maybe because
the authorities don't know it very well either. I should probably talk
to some big orchid growers about their experiences; at the same time
perhaps I could induce them to grow a wide range of species for export;
well you can always dream, can't you.

I gather you've been to Thailand with Peter Williams, then? How was the
paperwork handled there?

From: jan
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Help wanted − a mystery plant; mostly for Dr Khoo
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 19:10

Hedrick Kwan wrote:
> Im not sure what it means..althought I know how to read it. The plant looks like a bulbophyllum....but then again its bifoliate. Care to take a picture with the bulbs and leaves? maybe then we might have a better clue
> thanx
>
Unfortunately I am now in UK, so I can't take a picture myself, and I'd
rather not have anybody else do it since I've gone to all that trouble
strapping it to a stick of wood. But I think you can just make out one
of the pseudobulbs on one of the photos; they are only about 15mm tall.

Thanks for trying, anyway. As soon as I get it to flower I'll post
another picture.

From: jan
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Help wanted − a mystery plant; mostly for Dr Khoo
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 19:15

Yes, moving to China has been a dream since my childhood. I'm not quite
sure why, really, and at that time it seemed like it was totally
unrealistic; even the thought of travelling to Italy for a holiday was
fairly exotic. Still, here we are.

God, I suddenly feel very old! I don't remeber, had they even invented
the wheel back then?

From: Tricia Garner
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Re: CITES, a constructive approach
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 22:45

> Anyway, when and if I get it up and running, perhaps I should send you a
> copy of the thing for you to look at and think about?

From: Tricia Garner
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Re: CITES, a constructive approach
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 22:50

> I wasn't aware there was a web server already; it has probably been
> mentioned any number of times, but trust me to overlook that sort of
> thing ;-) I personally blame the parents.

No worries :-) It is mentioned in the signature but no doubt is easy to
miss. I started a simple RSS feed a few months ago, mainly for use with
tickers. So far it only has details of recent updates and a moan about ISPs
not delivering list messages but I'm hoping it will fill out a bit in time.
Time being the operative word!

From: Tricia Garner
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Plain text messages request − again
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 10:05

Please would all subscribers make every effort to send their messages in
plain text only, *not* HTML. I have had several messages returned by some
ISPs on the ground that they 'contain active script'. They clearly think
there is something nasty hidden in the HTML, whether there is or not.

Many thanks to those of you who already send plain text only, and to those
who have recently converted :-)

From: "Schoonjans, Peter-Dieter \(IT\)"
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] Re: CITES, a constructive approach
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 10:35

I just played a bit with TikiWiki, and if one is interested, have a look
at:
http://www.z-sphere.com/orchids and see if it could be useful.

It takes a little bit to get used to, but with maybe a simple reference
sheet, there should not be any problems in creating new pages and
editing links. One should be able to create their personal wiki page
and blog.

From: Ron Bower
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] CITES, a constructive approach
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 20:40

Hello Jan,
Wiki! What is a Wiki? Every body has one! Not so, I haven't got one, that is
as far as I am aware I don't have one. Am I missing out on some thing? Am I
deprived? No doubt a syndrome for some thing, but what? I played around a
bit with Peters Tiki Wiki but did not get very much and I got fed up with
waiting for some thing to happen.My fault no doubt. I often miss the
obvious.
Ronbow.

From: Ronald Newstead
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] A trip to China
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 00:20

Peter had it well organized beforehand with the local officials. He took us
along to see them and complete the paper work there and then. Perhaps Geoff
can tell you some more about it when he gets back.

I gather you've been to Thailand with Peter Williams, then? How was the
paperwork handled there?

Ronald Newstead wrote:
> Good idea, Jan!
> I would be interested in joining a small group of enthusiasts in the sort
of
> tour that Peter Williams organizes in Thailand, i.e.
> On arrival all members of the group are met at the airport and taken to
> their hotel .
> Local trips are done in a private minibus
> There is a division of time (roughly 50/50) between orchids and
sightseeing
> with time to photograph etc. and with local guides
> All hotels have European-style 'loos'. I am too old to squat!
> There must be a facility to deal with the CITES paperwork

From: "Schoonjans, Peter-Dieter \(IT\)"
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: [OrchidTalk] CITES, a constructive approach
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 19:25

My apologies for the frustration a permissioning fault caused. It is,
without doubt, not your fault. Do try again, and if you have questions,
send me your number and I will talk you through.

The idea is that anyone can update the webpages, without one particular
webmaster having to do all the work (What I put on there is just
filling, and as some example code).

All that is required however, is that you set up a login. Click on
'Register', supply username, password and your mail address. An email
is sent to you to verify the address, and that is the end of the
registration. =20

After logging in, you will see 'edit' on the bottom of every page.
Click on preview to see your changes, then click on save to make them
permanent. To create a new page, you have to put the name in between ((
))=20
When the page doesn't exist yet, there will be a ? next to the link. To
actually create the page, just click on the question mark and start
writing again.

Hello Jan,
Wiki! What is a Wiki? Every body has one! Not so, I haven't got one,that is
as far as I am aware I don't have one. Am I missing out on some thing?
Am I deprived? No doubt a syndrome for some thing, but what? I played around
a bit with Peters Tiki Wiki but did not get very much and I got fed up
with waiting for some thing to happen.My fault no doubt. I often miss the
obvious.
Ronbow.

> Other things to put on our website could be:
>
> 1. A database of members' orchids and their experiences
> 2. Information about more general things, eg. growing techniques.
> 3. A Wiki − everybody has a Wiki
> 4. Events of all sorts and reports from them

From: Ronald Newstead
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: MGI PhotoSuite 4 digital photo
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 13:40

I recently bought this orchid (a Dutch import) which was described as "Enc.
Octopus".
What does the Enc. stand for?

From: aeranthes2
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Ron N
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 23:05

Ron it's Encyclia and your plant looks like Encyclia Cochleata. I have a
couple of them and they are known as the perpetual orchid as when it is
large enough i.e. with enough pseudobulbs it can flower constantly. As one
floresence stops flowering the next takes over. It's always a talking point
here when we have visitors as it has such an unusual upside-down flower. −
Jean

From: Peter Fowler
To: Orchid Talk list
Subject: Re: Re- Enc.
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 23:15

The Enc. Stands for Encyclia. It looks like a cross of Encyclia
cochli(e)ata. I have a similar cross of Encyclia cochliata X Cattleya
bowringiana.

MONTH	DATE	DATE	DATE	DATE	MONTH	DATE	DATE	DATE	DATE
January	1-7	8-14	15-21	22-31	February	1-7	8-14	15-21	22-29
March	1-7	8-14	15-21	22-31	April	1-7	8-14	15-21	22-30
May	1-7	8-14	15-21	22-31	June	1-7	8-14	15-21	22-30
July	1-7	8-14	15-21	22-31	August	1-7	8-14	15-21	22-31
September	1-7	8-14	15-21	22-30	October	1-7	8-14	15-21	22-31
November	1-7	8-14	15-21	22-30	December	1-7	8-14	15-21	22-31

2006 Archived Messages

February 8—14