16 April 2025
Our latest newsletter is up, there are added pictures of last month benching winners and there are updates to our 2025 MOC Fair & Show page, including links to our vendors that will be there over the weekend.

07 March 2025
Our latest newsletter is up and our next meeting is on Monday 10th March starting at 7:30pm with the regular Ask Arnold session from 7pm @ The Mingara Recreation club.
This month's guest speaker is Ray Clement who will be down for a visit from Tinonee, (weather prevailing for his trip), to present a talk on Western Australia’s beautiful ground orchids & their habitat and why we can’t cultivate them for collections.
I also updated the gallery with the winners of the last few monthly meetings.

24 February 2025
Courtesy of our show marshal's connections, we received permission to publish 13 Growing guides for various genera on our https://www.mingaraorchidclub.com.au/cultural-articles... page. We hope you find these helpful.

08 February 2025
What a great talk last month by our very own Jeff Ahern, Horticulturist, (Bunnings guru for all things for orchids). Thank you to Bunnings for providing Jeff with lots of items for his talk that also went towards our raffle.
Jeff spoke about which are the best readily available fertilizers, like Popul8, Gogo Juice and organics eco-aminogro, when to use them and how. He also spoke about fungicides for when we see root rot, and insecticides like Bug Killa, for mites, scale and other nasties.
February's meeting is on Monday 10th - 7PM @ Mingara Recreation Club, and all are welcome.
Our president, Steve Dunstan, will be giving a talk about AOC Judging and Award Judging.
We will also have our regular Dr Arnold session for those that have patients that need attention. Please contact one of the committee before hand, so we can have the right tools to handle your problem, or we can only treat the immediate symptoms and offer advice of after care.
There has also been lots of updates to the calendar if you are planning a trip.
 

10 January 2025
I hope we all had a good break. Not much to say except Happy New Year!
It is a bit late due to family festivities, but we are holding our first meeting for the year on 13th January - 7PM @ Mingara Recreation Club.

Our long time member/grower Jeff Ahern is Tuggerah Bunnings warehouse resident
horticulturist, and is often in the garden centre helping local customers of Bunnings
with all of their Horticultural and garden needs.

This month Jeff is going to be presenting what Bunnings has on offer for pest and growth management etc. for us as Orchid Fanatics!
Some of the items he is presenting on will be added to the Raffle on the meeting night at the conclusion of the presentation. Look forward to seeing you all there!

I have added the latest newsletter.
 
04 December 2024
The shows have slowed down but now Christmas is upon us! Where did the year go?

The latest newsletter is up - Newsletters

We have a new article up in the Cultural page on Scale and Mealy bug. It's not extensive but it is timely.

We have also locked in the dates for our two Fairs & Shows for 2025 so I've updated the Calendar.

• 28th - 29th June 2025 Mingara Fair & Show
• 13th - 14th September 2025 Mingara Spring Fair & Show

More details will be provided in future announcements.
If you are curious, check out last years pages via the links on the shows page.
We think the new Mingara Motel will be open for business by then if you are looking at staying on the beautiful Central Coast for the weekend.

08 November 2024
Wow, we finally have our first Cultural Article up, and it's on the dreaded Dendrobium beetle. Cultural Articles and Notes

New newsletter is up on the Newsletter page. Please refer to this for the updated Pot Shop details.

Next meeting 11 November at Mingara. Guest Speaker will be David Knight from ANOS CCG on "How to grow Sarcochilus ceciliae” successfully. Arnold will be there as usual with "In the Greenhouse" to assist with any problems and advice.

23 July 2024
Just a reminder that this show is just around the corner on:
Saturday 14th Sept. 9:00 - 4:00 and Sunday 15th Sept. 10:00 - 3:00.

All details can be found on our MOC Spring Fair & Show page.

09 July 2024
The latest newsletter is up on the Newsletter page and it's a big one. Full of plenty of photos from the show and last month's meeting.
I'm still pulling together a gallery for the Fair and Show page and update the normal gallery with last month's winners.

01 July 2024
Well the annual Fair and Show has come and gone for another year. We haven't had a chance to update the site yet, but please seek us out on Facebook as there are plenty of pictures and comments there. When we have received photos directly or via Facebook, we will pull together a gallery of the 3+ days of work over the weekend. We are sorry to say they won't have captions as there are way too many.
We have updated the links on our links page if you want to follow up with any of our vendors or just repost the picture on our Facebook page and we will see what we can do to find the seller for you.

24 June 2024
Display complete in the Mingara Recreation club foyer ​

14 June 2024
We have a preliminary program of the Orchid Culture and Potting Demonstrations for the show added to the bottom of the MOC Fair & Show page. Take a look to see if there is something of interest to you.

07 June 2024
Our next meeting is 10th of June and our guest speaker for the night is Scott Barry from Barrita Orchids. Scott will be talking on the beautiful Zygopetalum genus.

​31 May 2024
We have uploaded the Show schedule and Terms & conditions to assist with pre filling your registration form. Please see our Fair & Show page for details.
​
22nd May 2024
We have uploaded the Fair & Show registration form for exhibitors so they can download, prefill & print to save time when they are registering.

14th May 2024
Don't forget out annual show on 29th - 30th of June is approaching quickly. If you are a vendor, entrant or just a visitor and require accommodation, the Chittaway Motel is offering a 10% discount for accommodation over the Fair & Show weekend. Mention the Mingara Orchid Club when booking. Numbers are limited.

6th May 2024

*** Vale Keith Johnston ***

Keith was born in 1946 in Balmain NSW, and sadly passed away ‘peacefully’ on Sunday morning
April 21st 2024.

Keith married his soul mate and best friend, Dellas, 58 years ago in Drummoyne. Keith and Dellas have 2 children Scott and Brooke, 3 grandchildren and Ben the dog.

Keith was a member of the CMF for many years and also was in the NSW Fire Brigade until he and Dellas moved to the Central Coast in 1973. Keith became a Youth Officer at Mt Penang Boys Home that became the Kariong Correctional Centre. Keith retired in 2012, and became interested in orchid growing pots and other orchid products, and just happy helping Dellas with building new orchid structures.

Keith and Dellas joined Mingara Orchid Club in 2008, the club's first year. Dellas is currently the club's secretary and has been for some time. Keith was Dellas’ most amazing behind the scene supporter, and always had Dellas’ back, as she says. Keith was a real rock for Dellas.

Before Keith became ill, he was always the first volunteer to assist when jobs needed doing, especially around show time, or if someone just needed a hand with anything; Keith was there to help, or just someone you could talk to when you needed someone to talk to, and have a non judgmental confidential
chat about life issues – that was Keith Johnston.

Keith was a real behind the scenes person who never sought recognition or accolades for his actions, a real genuinely nice person, a true gentleman who was kind and considerate, had a subtle sense of humour and always made time for a chat – a great bloke.

As well as always being there for Dellas, Keith over the last 8 years was the driving force in setting up, organising, sourcing a collection of, and storing at their home orchid related products for the benefit of our club members. He was a great team player. Firstly working with Graeme to grow the MOC pot shop then taking on the responsibility of managing the pot shop, and taking the pot shop away to fairs and shows, providing MOC with great benefits. Keith was always very thankful when members provided him with help around the pot shop. He always thanked helpers with a genuine sincere hand shake and ‘THANK YOU’.

Keith had not been well when COVID arrived, and had started treatment for his illness during the COVID period, but Keith was always available almost 24/7 to assist MOC members, and members of other societies, with their orchid supply needs via the MOC pot shop. This wonderful gesture of Keith’s assisted greatly in ensuring the critical financial income to MOC during COVID and provided an important service to our members, when we couldn’t conduct any meetings or club activities.

Keith’s outstanding efforts where recognised by the MOC committee, and in 2022 Keith was awarded the  prestigious Orchid Society of NSW Meritorious Service Medal provided for a most deserving member.

Keith, we all love you and Dellas and miss you very much.
Rest in Peace Mate.
Steve Dunstan - President for the Mingara Orchid Club Committee