| South Africa |
The Tenth South African Paphiopedilum Symposium. The Orchid Society of Northern Transvaal, South Africa, will be presenting the tri-annual South African Paphiopedilum Symposium again this year and wish to invite all the regular attendees and the new paphanatics to register for the event. It will be held on Saturday the 3rd of July 2004 in Pretoria, at the auditorium of the Council for Geosciences, which has excellent facilities for such purposes. The venue is situated in Pretoria Rd, Silverton, just north of the Pretoria Botanical Garden, and is easily reached from the N1 highway. As always, we have attempted to have a well balanced programme covering the newest breeding trends in Paphiopedilums and Phragmipediums, aspects of cultivation, new discoveries and very importantly, conservation: We have Dr Norito Hasagawa, owner of Paphanatics UnLtd, USA and worldrenowned Paph breeder, as keynote speaker. His presentation will deal with latest Parvisepalum / Brachypetalum breeding trends. Paul Phillips (Ratcliffe Orchid, UK & USA) will talk about the modern complex hybrids with special emphasis on breeding for the commercial market. Ernst Gunzenhauser of Switzerland will be our third overseas guest speaker and his topic will be Paphiopedilum in habitat. The local, and just as illustrious, speakers will be Nitsi Louw ( Local Paph breeding), Mike Tibbs (Introduction of polyploid Paphs to Paphiopedilum breeding ? to be presented by Alan Pike), Hendrik van der Hoven ( The makers and the shakers) and Lourens Grobler ( Phrag species and hybrids). Show and award judging are very important activities scheduled for the morning of the symposium and all registrants are invited to bring flowering slipper plants (phrags & paphs) along. Both Norito Hasegawa and Paul Philips as well as local Paph nurseries will have plants for sale. Expect to be able to buy state-of-the-art hybrid and species seedlings at reasonable prices. Registration for the symposium will cost R250 all inclusive: lectures, morning and afternoon tea, light lunch and cocktail (cash bar) and a braai immediately after the conclusion of the programme and the annual general meeting of the South African Orchid Council. Spouses who wish to join for the cocktail and braai can do so for only R30. The Paph Symposium has become th event on the South African orchidist?s calendar for obtaining plants of the latest international breeding, getting up to date information on breeding, cultivation, etc of the slippers and for relaxing social interaction. The Paph Symposium is open to all interested slipper enthusiasts, local and overseas. Registration can be done on the form on our website. Preregistration is not absolutely essential but will make life much easier and will be appreciated. Further enquiries, e.g. regarding accommodation, etc, can be made to Martiens Erasmus, e-mail: martiens_erasmus@absamail.co.za, tel. 012 345 3651 or Christo Page, e-mail: twopages@wol.co.za, tel. 012 998 3974 |
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