About Us

The Southern Counties Orchid Society exists to encourage the cultivation and further the knowledge of orchidaceous plants, and to enjoy  the company of like-minded people. We are a very diverse group from all walks of life, some of us have just a few plants that we keep on a windowsill, whilst others have whole greenhouses dedicated to orchids alone; Most of us have other interests too. The Society hosts its own show in March each year.

 

We meet on the second Wednesday of each month at The Community Centre in Lancing, West Sussex at 7pm. There is a generously sized free car park, and our meeting room is on the ground floor providing easy access. At most meetings there is a guest speaker, with slides, often there are plants for sale, and a raffle. Tea, coffee and stronger drinks are available from the bar. We also have a table show each month of plants bought in by members , we can admire the successes of others and gain knowledge of how they achieve the results; the plants are judged, and the winner takes home the cup which they hold until the next meeting.

 

You are most welcome to come along as a visitor to enjoy the talk and meet the members.

 

If you wish to contact us by e-mail click here

 

 

A  Members Experiment - Grow Your Own Sphagnum Moss

 

Liz Taylor

 

Live Sphagnum moss,  while making  a wonderful addition to many orchid composts, is neither cheap to buy nor particularly easy to obtain. Having bought some from Laurence Hobbs I wondered if I could pick out some of the best bits and grow  it. I didn’t have any idea of the conditions it would require other then knowing it grows wild in the bogs in Britain.

I bunched some nice green strands of moss in my hand, as if they were a posy of flowers with all the heads together. This first bunch I put upright in a four inch deep clear plastic container, outdoors, in the shade, filled it to the brim with rain water and left it  to it’s own devices. I filled a second, similar container and put it in a shady position in my cool greenhouse. Then I filled several ordinary black plastic pots with moss and placed them in a shallow tray of rainwater in the cool greenhouse but in a brighter position. This tray had something else in it; a ceramic atomiser that I used during the growing season to provide humidity. It is switched on automatically for six hours in the middle of the day, and it gently circulates the water in the tray while it is working. The moss is fed monthly by adding a minuscule quantity of high nitrogen feed. All the moss is growing, but it is the moss in the tray with the atomiser that is really growing well. Next spring, after using what moss I need for repotting, I will experiment further to try and determine if it is the light, temperature or the water movement that is the key  factor.

 

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