06 December 2025
Our new newsletter is up on the newsletter page and updates to known events for 2026 have been updated on the calendar page.
Please note that our meeting on 08/12 will not be a judging event and will be our AGM while visitors are still welcome to drop in they will not be able to vote.
11 November 2025
Our new newsletter is up on the newsletter page and updates to known events for 2026 are on the calendar page.
10 October 2025
Our new newsletter is up and next meeting 13th October.
Our guest speaker is Bruce Gray from Nth Queensland talking native orchids, so come along to listen to another great speaker.
9 September 2025
Our new newsletter is up.
10 August 2025
Our current newsletter is up and we will have more details on the Spring Fair and Show up on that page in the next few hours.
Our guest speaker for our meeting on the 11th August will be Scott Barrie from Barrita Orchids, presenting "Sarcochilus, Now and Beyond".
We hope to see you there despite the wet weather. The official meeting starts at starting at 7:30pm with our practical advice session starting at 7pm.
Fair and Show 2025 update
You can catch up on the activities for the day on our newsletter page, plus check out our MOC and Fair & Show and gallery pages with additional photos from the weekend.
08th July 2025
Wow! What a weekend that was!
While the number of plants registered for judging was a little less than previous years, we put this down to the cold, wet snap we've had. I imagine we have a number of very frustrated growers out there.
I thought some of you might be interested in full commentary of what happens behind the scenes.
Pre-registration helped us and we would like that to improve more next year. Entering registered plants on the Friday is time consuming. Most of the 350 plants needed to be typed in on the day. I think our secretary has permanent crossed eyes!
With registration closed and display set ups completed, we moved onto display judging, which had some snags due to a withdrawn display. We apologise to the judges and we have learnt a valuable lesson. It won't happen again, and we thank you for your patience.
Just little behind the scenes background for judging: we had 18 judges that individually judged the 12 displays across 7 criteria. That is 216 scores that needed to be entered and calculated by averaging them out then sorted into order based on the display category of 1-4 for size, etc. before we knew the winners.
Then we got into the second round of judging where our groups of judges, or panels, are assigned particular classifications to judge. They need to inspect the individual plants and make a call on first and second for each class, and also make the call on the champion for all the related classes. These are also required to be entered into the our system. This was completed during the morning of the Saturday open day before we could generate certificates and online payments for the winners.
I just thought you might be interested to hear some of the behind the scenes work that goes on, and that doesn't include the lead up with arranging the event – like sponsors, vendors, venue and the like.
I can say the that talking to all involved, that it is worth the effort and we will be back again next year.
Here are some of the numbers from the weekend:
I will be adding some photos soon, as it takes a little extra time for a novice like me to identify the individual plants, along with their growers and awards.
28th June 2052
It is all happening.... Registrations and Judging complete last night but there were a lot of numbers to enter last night and this morning. 12 displays with 6 criteria to judge by 16 judges, and then individual judging of the winners for over 350 plants across multiple classes. When I get the official results I will post them on the the show page with pics if I get the time.
Today has been a bumper day with many visitors and some comments on Facebook say it is getting better each year.
The presenters' sessions have been well attended and in general people seem very happy with the range of displays and vendors for purchasing a variety of plants and accessories.
We are still open for the general public free of charge on Sunday 29th June but things will wind down from 2PM with the presentations.
If you missed it still have one more show on the 14th -15th of September, at the Anglican Church hall, Bateau Bay.
11th June 2025
PS: We have exceeded 400 members\followers on Facebook. Welcome to all and I hope you get value from what we present to you all.
30 May 2025
We have added the registration form and show schedule to the Mingara F&S page. This will allow you to save time at the registration desk on Friday. Typed in versions rather than hand written are preferred.
06 May 2025
The new newsletter is up and pictures of last month benching winners have been added to the gallery.
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.
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.
Wow! What a weekend that was!
While the number of plants registered for judging was a little less than previous years, we put this down to the cold, wet snap we've had. I imagine we have a number of very frustrated growers out there.
I thought some of you might be interested in full commentary of what happens behind the scenes.
Pre-registration helped us and we would like that to improve more next year. Entering registered plants on the Friday is time consuming. Most of the 350 plants needed to be typed in on the day. I think our secretary has permanent crossed eyes!
With registration closed and display set ups completed, we moved onto display judging, which had some snags due to a withdrawn display. We apologise to the judges and we have learnt a valuable lesson. It won't happen again, and we thank you for your patience.
Just little behind the scenes background for judging: we had 18 judges that individually judged the 12 displays across 7 criteria. That is 216 scores that needed to be entered and calculated by averaging them out then sorted into order based on the display category of 1-4 for size, etc. before we knew the winners.
Then we got into the second round of judging where our groups of judges, or panels, are assigned particular classifications to judge. They need to inspect the individual plants and make a call on first and second for each class, and also make the call on the champion for all the related classes. These are also required to be entered into the our system. This was completed during the morning of the Saturday open day before we could generate certificates and online payments for the winners.
I just thought you might be interested to hear some of the behind the scenes work that goes on, and that doesn't include the lead up with arranging the event – like sponsors, vendors, venue and the like.
I can say the that talking to all involved, that it is worth the effort and we will be back again next year.
Here are some of the numbers from the weekend:
- Displays for judging: 12
- Registered plants for judging: 350
- Registered classifications: 80
- Number of Judges: 18
- Vendors: 21
- Attendees: A little over 3,000
I will be adding some photos soon, as it takes a little extra time for a novice like me to identify the individual plants, along with their growers and awards.
28th June 2052
It is all happening.... Registrations and Judging complete last night but there were a lot of numbers to enter last night and this morning. 12 displays with 6 criteria to judge by 16 judges, and then individual judging of the winners for over 350 plants across multiple classes. When I get the official results I will post them on the the show page with pics if I get the time.
Today has been a bumper day with many visitors and some comments on Facebook say it is getting better each year.
The presenters' sessions have been well attended and in general people seem very happy with the range of displays and vendors for purchasing a variety of plants and accessories.
We are still open for the general public free of charge on Sunday 29th June but things will wind down from 2PM with the presentations.
If you missed it still have one more show on the 14th -15th of September, at the Anglican Church hall, Bateau Bay.
11th June 2025
- The planned speaker program is up on the 2025 F&S page
- The latest newsletter is up on the Newsletter page for online reading or download.
PS: We have exceeded 400 members\followers on Facebook. Welcome to all and I hope you get value from what we present to you all.
30 May 2025
We have added the registration form and show schedule to the Mingara F&S page. This will allow you to save time at the registration desk on Friday. Typed in versions rather than hand written are preferred.
06 May 2025
The new newsletter is up and pictures of last month benching winners have been added to the gallery.
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
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.