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The Durban Team — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:32:03 +0000

Well the tropical weather of Durban is a distant memory and the great new friends we made are 6000 miles away. We will never forget the amazing time we had but it’s back to work in the Writhlington Labs. Here we are at Tuesday’s Lab Club, sowing seed of Epidendrum radicans (the pod split in the school greenhouse on the day we returned) and replating seedlings of Sophronitis coccinea (see an earlier blog about that species). As you can see we are having the usual fun. It’s good to be home. The good news is we are going to keep blogging so watch this space for everything orchid shaped and follow us and the Writhlington Orchid Project through the coming years. We also have some good bits of the durban trip still to share with you.

Teaching pupils at West Park School

The Durban Team — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:50:00 +0000

We have had an amazing day again in Durban. It started with a trip to the West Park School in Malvern on the outskirts of the city. We started with a school assembley where Simon and Lauren talked to the school. We then had a tour of the impressive permaculture work that the school is doing. The pupils at the school train rural schools in permaculture techniques as well as doing their own work. After the tour the two of us gave a workshop to a group of staff and pupils from every class. we talked about growing orchids and showed them how to deflask seedlings. We have left over fifty seedling likts at the school so that each class can have their own seedlings to grow. West Park school is a special needs school and has a fantastic atmosphere. The school is using horticulture and enterprise to provide experiences for the pupils as well as fund projects and it is really exciting to know that we can help them to help themselves by supporting them setting up an orchid project. Right got to pack. Back in the bush looking for orchids tomorrow and then flying back to the UK after an incredible African adventure.

Teaching about replating orchid seedlings

The Durban Team — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:08:44 +0000

In the workshop Zoe B was teaching people how to replate seedlings. These are the plants that we brought all the way from England. By the end of the day the workshops had made more than a hundred jars of sown seed or replated seedlings, wow. All the jars will stay at the Botanic Garden to grow on in their collection.

Zoe P teaching orchid seed sowing

The Durban Team — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:08:02 +0000

Wednesday was workshop day at the Durban Congress. We gave two long workshops on orchid growing from seed. It went amazingly well with groups of 16 and 17 people and they all loved it. Here Zoe P is working with two of the people and showing how to surface sterlise the seed. The people at the workshops came from botanic gardens all over the world and now they all want to set up orchid projects with schools in their cities. The whole day was just brilliant fun.

Amazing gardens

The Durban Team — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:22:38 +0000

This is 6am at the Durban Botanic Gardens with Chris Dalzell the Curator. Chris gave us a fabulous tour of the whole Gardens including the Cycad collection which is where we are in the photo. The Garden also has amazing birds like Pelican and Vervet Monkey. Today we are giving our workshops on orchid propagation from seed in the laboratory here. We have more people signed up for our workshop than any of the others….it’s going to be fun. The talk we gave last night went really well. Actually one of the orchids we found in the wild on Sunday was one that no one knew was at Vernon Crooks. More about that later. We better go and get ourselves sorted for a busy day.

Eulophia speciosa

The Durban Team — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:53:40 +0000

Eulophia speciosa is one of the orchids that Margaret grows from seed in her lab and here it is flowering in the growing house. We like it. The trip around the growing area was realy inspiring and tomorrow we are getting up at 5.30 to have a special tour from Chris the Curator of the Botanic garden before it opens in the morning. A botanic gardens all to ourselves, how good is that.

Weaning plants at Durban

The Durban Team — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:52:53 +0000

In this photo you can see how we found out all about how micropropagated plants from the Durban lab are weaned and grown on. Under the fleece there are thousands of small plants in trays. Most of them are threatened medicinal plants. You can see that production from the lab is very high.

In Durban Botanic Garden Laboratory

The Durban Team — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:50:08 +0000

We spent this afternoon with Margaret in the Durban Botanic Gardens. Margaret runs the lab and after a tour where she showed us all her projects, we sorted out our plants for the workshop on Wednesday, and made sure we had all the equipment we needed. The lab is fantastic and most of her work is raising threatened South African medicinal plants. The plants are raised in the lab mostly by tissue culture and then grown on into large plants ready for sale or use in the Botanic Gardens. It was really interesting.

Congress day

The Durban Team — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:30:11 +0000

Today has been another very busy day. The congress started at 8:30 with speeches, two brilliant school choirs and then lectures. Laurens lecture was great and we also heard about work with medicinal plants in South Africa and other projects all over the world. As you can see we have put up our display and everyone has been really interested in our project.

Eating a Bunny Chow

The Durban Team — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:50:57 +0000

The food here in South Africa is fantastic. We went to a resturant and we had Durban speciality, the Bunny Chow. Bunny Chow is a loaf of bread with the middle taken out and filled with curry. I will have to make some of this when I go home.

Looking for orchids

The Durban Team — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:50:21 +0000

In the reserve as you know we found a number of different orchids. This is how. We walked around the reserve looking on the ground and up in the trees for anything that might be an orchid. In this tree sir wanted to get a better look. Luckily he didn’t fall out.

Thanks Luke!

The Durban Team — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:00:29 +0000

We must say a big thank you to Luke Barnes for keeping the Writhlington School Orchid Project website up to date with our news from Durban. He is brilliant.

Aww, Thank-you Durban Team!

Satyrium longicauda

The Durban Team — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:51:36 +0000

The first orchid we managed to spot was the Satyrium longicauda, this was growing on the edge of a stream, in boggy ground. Mr Pugh-Jones says this is the most dramatic terrestrial orchid he has ever seen growing in the wild. I was pretty impressed too! In the reserve we did not just see orchids. We saw lots of other plants that we recognised like Clivia, Palms, tree fern and a large number of the Daisy family including a wild species of Gerbera. We also saw so amazing animals: a wide range of birds, zebra, impala, wildebeast, Vervent monkeys and creepy crawlies like enormous black and red millipedes. South Africa is a fantastic place. In the evening we registered at the congress and already have new friends from all over the world, cool. Good night from Durban.

Close up of Polystachya Zambesiaca

The Durban Team — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:50:48 +0000

This is a close up of Polystachya Zambesiaca, when we found it we had to compare the flowers with the descriptions in a book called African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation.It was quite tricky but a really good experience.

Finding Polystachya Zambesiaca

The Durban Team — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:49:46 +0000

My favourite of all the orchids we found was the population of Polystachya Zambesiaca on this tree. Before today I have never seen an orchid growing as an epiphyte up a tree in the wild. Now I have seen seven different species! I think i have learned alot about orchids as a gardener, by seeing them growing in the wild and surviving on trees.

Exploring sub-tropical jungle

The Durban Team — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:48:50 +0000

Zoe P here, this morning we had an amazing trip to the Vernon Crook Nature Reserve. Here we are, exploring the grassland and woodland looking for orchids. I am really pleased as we found nine species of orchid and three were in flower.

Arrived in Druban

The Durban Team — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:28:47 +0000

Hi, Zoe P here as you can see we have arrived in Durban, had a good night sleep and today we are going to Vernon Creek Reserve, looking for orchids in the wild, which is really exciting. Then in the evening we are going to the opening for the Botanical gardens conference. This is going to be a fantastic trip and I am very excited and I am looking forward to meeting some new people.

A detour to meet some dead plants

The Durban Team — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:05:58 +0000

We have made it as far as London. We have met with our forth team member Lauren and will be heading to the airport very soon. Lauren took us to see the Kew Herbarium where she works. It is the worlds biggest collection of dead plants …wow! In the photo you can see us looking at one of them. To find out more about the Kew Herbarium you could check the website.