The Writhlington Orchid Project

WAOF Trailer

Luke Barnes — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:48:40 +0000

Site Upgrade: Stage One Complete

Daniel Groves — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:02:30 +0000

Stage one of the website upgrade started at 10:00GMT this morning. Unfortunately due to some server incompatibilities these did not go quite as planned, and so we are now going live again exactly one hour after we planned. Currently you may notice some of the images are currently not loading on the website, this is because they are currently transferring from our old servers to the new servers.

Although the site may not appear any different to the average user, these are the changes we made:

The website was transferred to our new servers and upgraded to the latest software
The site was assigned a new temporary domain-name
The new servers were prepared to receive the usual domain-name [wsbeorchids.org.uk]
The software installation was tweaked to be more efficient than before
The software has been lightened to deliver higher performance

On Monday 23^rd and Tuesday 24^th August 2010 more minor down-time may be experienced. This will be caused by our domain name being transferred from the old servers to the new.

If you have any questions about the current tweaks being made to our website please leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Planed Upgrade

Luke Barnes — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:06:42 +0000

We’re planning a major site upgrade for the 20th August. This means that the site will be down from about 9am until 6pm on this date.

Fear not though! During this ‘down time’ we’ll have updates on our Twitter account, as well as a rather nice looking ‘down for maintenance page’ for you to look at!

Congratulations!

Luke Barnes — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:16:01 +0000

As some of you may be aware, today (19/08) is A-Level results day. As you may have gathered from the graphic above, our web designer, Dan Groves, achieved 3 A’s in Business and ICT and is off to study Web Application Design at The University of Plymouth!

A big “Well Done” from all of us at the Writhlington Orchid Project and an enormous “Thank You” for the past 7 years that you have dedicated to the project. You will be missed.

Rain glorious rain

Simon Pugh-Jones — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:11:48 +0000

John checking the rain water storage tank

Good news blog watchers…..it rained on sports day, a bit of a pain for the unicycle race but great news for the orchids. At Writhlington we water our plants with rainwater because tap water in Radstock has too many dissolved salts (a conductivity of around 500 micro-siemens). Rain water has a conductivity of just 20 micro-siemens so we can add useful plant food to take it up to around 400 micro-siemens before watering it onto the orchids. For the new greenhouses we specified a rainwater storage tank that holds 16,000 litres of water collected from the 240 square metres of greenhouse roof. During the dry period of March, April, May and June the tank level fell to just 4000 litres but after sports day it is full again…hurrah. It is the last day of term so I would like to thank all of the students who have worked so hard for the orchid Project and made 2009/2010 such a fantastic year.

Work Experience – Day 10 – Final Day

John O'Rourke — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:21:54 +0000

And so ends two very enjoyable and interesting two weeks, today was a finishing off day with my report and micropropagation being finished and has now been uploaded (Micropropagation Report – J.O’Rourke). I also helped sow seeds from the native, common spotted orchid which we had collected yesterday from the local area.

As this is my final blog post I would like to thank the Writhlington Orchid Project for their welcoming and friendly atmosphere. In particular I would like to thank Simon for organising the placement and helping me throughout. I would also like to thank Luke Barnes for his help and expertees for the duration of the placement. I wish all the best to the Project in the future and am looking forward to coming to the Autumn Festival in September.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog
John O’Rourke – Year 10 Student, King Arthur’s Community School, Wincanton.

Work Experience – Day 9 + Sports Day

John O'Rourke — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:09:56 +0000

Another very eventful day with the Orchid with the large part of the day given over to school sports day. The morning however was spent seed sowing, something that despite almost two weeks worth of practice I still struggle with – although I am getting better.

Sports Day was a very enjoyable afternoon with Simon Pugh-Jones providing some light hearted entertainment on the Sports Day PA system. We did however get a taste of the British summer with quite a lot of rain towards the end, this though did not dampen spirits. The finale of the sports day was the unicycle race with the competitors having to deal with some very wet and slippery conditions. The race was closely fought with Luke Shackleton taking the title.
Below are a couple of photos of the days events.

Check back tomorrow for my final blog post.

Work Experience – Day 8

John O'Rourke — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:22:17 +0000

A different day today at the Orchid Project but nevertheless very interesting and enjoyable, with the morning spent compiling a report on micropropagation and conservation of orchids. Hopefully, I will be able to put the report up on the website this week for anyone who is interested.
The afternoon was spent learning new techniques, beginning with a re-potting session for orchids that had grown too big for the laboratory jars. After re-potting I also tried my hand at pollination which as you can see from the pictures below is a rather fiddly task. Tomorrow is school sports day and so tomorrow may also be a bit different!

Check back tomorrow for another update.

Work Experience – Day 7

John O'Rourke — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:44:11 +0000

Day 7 of my work experience was again an interesting day with a large proportion of the time spent in the lab. More replating was completed and my seed sowing skills have greatly improved after today’s sowing session. With the end of term nearing and thus my work experience, I hope that the last three days will continue to be just as enjoyable and interesting as the last week and a bit.

Work Experience – Britain in Bloom

John O'Rourke — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:28:55 +0000

The visit of the Britain in Bloom judges was very successful, although their arrival was delayed. We hope to see Radstock getting Gold again after last years success, but we will have to wait and see. More from me tomorrow.

Work Experience – Day 6

John O'Rourke — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:34:59 +0000

As preparations for the Britain in Bloom judges are in full swing, I thought I would post a selection of the flowers on display in the greenhouse, hopefully these vibrant and colourful flowers will impress the judges. I will post later an update on how the visit from the judges went. Click read more to see the images.

Work Experience – Day 5 + Webcams

John O'Rourke — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:47:15 +0000

The re-plating of many of the old jars of orchids continued today along with the sorting of the lab, a picture of the newly re-plated orchids can be found below. This afternoon we are cooking up more re-plating media from bananas as we used all of it up!
Good news for the website is the return of the webcams which have been fixed by Dan and are now up and running on the website. This is the link as it is not yet accessible from the website, wsbeorchids.org.uk/webcam/.

Work Experience – Day 4

John O'Rourke — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:57:13 +0000

Day 4 began with lab work and in particular re-plating, something which after the morning I felt much more confident doing. This afternoon we were joined by members of the greenhouse club for a washing up session of old containers. We now have many more clean jars for many more orchids.

Getting set for Britain in Bloom

Simon Pugh-Jones — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:32:50 +0000

: The beautiful Mexican Orchid Barkeria spectabilis

Next monday we host a visit from the Britain in Bloom judges because as usual we are included as part of Radstock in bloom. We think we are all set, a team to conduct the greenhouse tour, extra signs to highlight plants of interest like the Barkeria shown here and a good supply of truly tasty cakes.

Work Experience – Day 3

John O'Rourke — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:59:29 +0000

Today was the day for the rearrangement of the lab, something that involved four of us for a large part of the day!
All the shelving used to store the jars of orchids have been moved and changed resulting in more space and organisation. The pictures below show the sorting in progress and the new layout of the lab.

Work Experience – Day 2

John O'Rourke — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:43:27 +0000

My second day was again very enjoyable, with a large proportion of the day spent sorting and storing Orchid seeds. With many of the seeds in envelopes, sent from far and wide, it was a lengthy but nevertheless interesting process. There was still time in the day however, to undertake the task of green podding. This involves a steady hand, something which I just about managed!
I am looking forward to the rest of the week and watch out for regular updates on this website. I’ve added below some pictures of the seed sorting

WAOF Posters

Luke Barnes — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:30:44 +0000

With the Writhlington Autumn Orchid Festival fast approaching, we’re very keen to get the word out to as many people as possible.

In order to do this, we’ve made a poster that is available for download. If you live within reasonable travelling distance of Writhlington, we’d love it if you would print out one of our posters and stick it in your window, or village hall noticeboard, or lamp post outside! The more the merrier, so your help in publicising is much appreciated!

Download Poster

Work Experience – Day 1

John O'Rourke — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:11:08 +0000

Today has been a very interesting and exciting start to my two weeks at The Orchid Project. The morning was spent learning micro-propagation techniques such as re-plating and seed sowing. These processes were completely new to me, but I do feel that I am (starting) to get the hang of them. The afternoon was spent helping Luke with a presentation to the University of the Third Age in Midsomer Norton. They were very friendly and enjoyed the talk greatly. I am looking forward to the next two weeks and there will be more updates from me soon.

Work Experience

John O'Rourke — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:35:25 +0000

Hi, I’m John O’Rourke a year 10 student and I am spending my work experience at The Writhlington Orchid Project. I will be spending time learning techniques such as seed sowing and re-plating. I wil continue to update this blog on my progress on the Project.

With Stanhopea tigrina

WAOF

Luke Barnes — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:36:30 +0000

The Writhlington Autumn Orchid Festival is your chance to have a look around the new school greenhouses, talk to orchid experts from the Somerset, Wiltshire & Dorset Orchid Society, purchase Orchids and sundries from various trade, and dine in the brand new Orchid Café.

WAOF will run from 10am-4pm on Saturday 25th September at Writhlington School. Entrance £1.

WAOF 2010 is the first ever Writhlington Orchid Festival and we’re planning to come in with a bang! We have links growing with various departments in the school, including Drama, Art, Business and, most recently, Food Technology.

Among those present will be:

Somerset, Wiltshire & Dorset Orchid Society show. This event will feature the best orchid growers have to offer from across the three counties. The event is judged and it is an excellent opportunity to visit an orchid show.
Writhlington Greenhouses. This event will be taking place at the Writhlington School facilities, so, naturally, you will have an excellent chance to look around our state-of-the-art new greenhouses and learn about specific genera from our enthusiastic students.
Lectures. The Drama department have agreed to let us use their awesome new theatre to stage lectures from various speakers about orchid related topics. Luke Barnes and Zoë Parfitt (Year 11 and 9 students respectively) are already confirmed.
The Orchid Café. What would a day be without food? A group of Food Technology Students make up the Orchid Café and will be serving a range of cakes and scones throughout the day, as well as lunch for those who wish. Tea and Coffee will also be available in the dining hall.