Welcome, Tony. Do you grow any of the WA terrestrials? Several members of our
society went over for the conference recently past. Were you there? Given your
interests, it's a shame the WA climate precludes native epiphytes. That must
also be a bit of a trial for growing the hardcane Dens you have!

On 16 Dec 2005 20:24:29 -0800, "emntee" wrote:

As I have only recently joined this group, I figured it would be as
good a time as any to follow up on the 'who am I, where do I grow, what
do I grow, Who did that!,' and questions of that nature.

Who am I and What Is My Gender?

I am Tony Watkinson and I am definitely a male. Retired to grow orchids
with my wife of 43 years. (that must be some achievement in itself
these days)

Where am I and where do I grow.

We live in Perth, Western Australia where the weather is mild during
the winter with only a very rare frost, but the summers are long and
dry (as in no rain from November to April) and hot. Sometimes we get a
heatwave of over 100F for a week or two. Tricky conditions for orchids.
I have a hothouse 6m x 4m attached to the back of the house facing
north, (Southern hemisphere) and a 'bush house' covered in a form of
shadecloth that is sandwiched inside layers of plastic, (I don't know
what you would call that stuff where you are) and open at the ends.
Both are equipped with swamp coolers which help to keep the heat down
and add to the humidity as well.

What do I grow?

Well I started with Hardcane Dendrobiums an Phalaenopsis, then added
bits and pieces along the way. A friend tried to persuade me to join a
species orchid society but I explained that I really didn't have many
of those. I went home and counted the species. 48! So I joined the
Species Orchid Society of WA and am currently getting toward the end of
my second, two year term as President. I have substantially more than
48 species orchids now but I am not game to try to count them. I still
have many Dens & Phals both species and hybrids.

The decade of my age?

the 6th unfortunately

How long have I been growing orchids?

Since 1989

My biggest orchid accomplishment

Isn't it funny how you look at a question like that and think 'well,
nothing much I suppose' and then the penny drops and you see that you
may well have achieved much more than you realise.

I guess my biggest accomplishment is the web site that I put together
using the pictures of Western Australian native terrestrial orchids
that had been taken by the late Ron Heberle. It is quite huge and uses
the best part of 70 mb. The ongoing costs are met by the Species Orchid
Society of WA as meeting those costs would be quite beyond Mavis and I.

Ron Heberle lived long enough to see the finished product and was over
the moon, as he had expected his lifes work to disappear when he died.

If you want to take a look, feel free but be aware that there are over
1000 pictures there.

http://members.iinet.net.au/%7Eemntee/page18.html

Miscellaneous Info...

Both Mavis and I were born in Britain and came to Australia with our
families when we were teenagers. We have one daughter and two grandson
and an Airdale called Poppet.

Happy growing

Tony
Dave Gillingham
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