WELCOME TO
OSCOV is the primary peak body for orchid societies based in Victoria, Australia.
Victorian Orchids of the Year – 2020
WELCOME TO
OSCOV is the primary peak body for orchid societies based in Victoria, Australia.
Victorian Orchids of the Year – 2019
WELCOME TO
OSCOV is the primary peak body for orchid societies based in Victoria, Australia.
Victorian Orchids of the Year – 2018
WELCOME TO
OSCOV is the primary peak body for orchid societies based in Victoria, Australia.
Victorian Orchids of the Year – 2021
WELCOME TO
OSCOV is the primary peak body for orchid societies based in Victoria, Australia.
Victorian Orchids of the Year – 2017
Frances Josephine Coker – 28 March 1949 to 20 March 2023
Died peacefully in the early afternoon on Monday 20 March.
Loving sister of Marion, Richard and Matthew, proud mother of Chris, Jono & Helen, adoring grandmother of Veevi, Gemma, Olivia, Purvan and William, and dedicated supporter of Jenny, Michael, Quinn and Jasper.
Frances was an avid amateur orchid grower for many years. She completed an Honours BSc degree at the University of New England and worked in meteorology with CSIRO for 10 years before turning to full-time orchid growing.
Frances and Julian established Atlantis Orchids in the 1990s as a leading Australian Orchid nursery specialising in Cymbidiums, Lycastes, Masdevallias, Australian Native Dendrobiums, Odontoglossums, Miltoniopsis and a range of miscellaneous genera. At its peak – Atlantis Orchids had around 40,000 Cymbidium mericlones and seedlings at various stages from 3” pots to 15” tubs. The nursery flowered about 5,000 seedlings each year and kept the very best for propagating on as pot plant and, Frances’ particular interest, cut flower stock. Atlantis Orchids was both a retailer & wholesaler – selling primarily through shopping centres, Frances and Julian worked extraordinarily long hours, and with Frances managing the family finances brilliantly, they built an extremely comfortable and rewarding life. Many famous orchids originated in their nursery including Cymbidium Second Renaissance ‘Jenny Wren’, Lycaste Macama ‘Atlantis’, Cymbidium Jungle Odyssey ‘Tiger Stripe’, Zygopetalum Blue Lake ‘Atlantis’, Cymbidium Sarah Jean ‘Helen’ and Cymbidium Winter Fire ‘Frosty Tips’.
Frances and Julian were also the driving force behind the establishment of The Orchid Societies Council of Victoria, and both were foundation Judges on OSCOV’s judging panel. Together they were members of many Victorian Orchid clubs, and were regulars on the speakers circuit.
Always devoted to her family and friends, often placing their interests above her own. A woman of profound intellect, quiet determination and confidence, unwavering patience and constant compassion. Frances also had a passion for music, art, gardening and her animals. We will be forever grateful for her selfless devotion and will honour her by celebrating her many achievements and her way of quietly enriching all of our lives.
Frances lost her adored husband Julian a little over a year ago but is now reunited with him again in peace and happiness.
Frances’ funeral and wake will be held at 10:30am on Thursday 30 March 2023 at Potters Receptions, 321 Jumping Creek Road, Warrandyte, Victoria.
The 2022 Victorian Orchids of the Year have now been decided! Please check out all of the fantastic winners: Victorian Orchids of the Year – 2022 – OSCOV
In mid-November 2022 the Bairnsdale & District Orchid Goup (BADOG) hosted the Combined Gippsland Orchid Clubs Sarcochilus Show. The Show was a great success and is becoming a very significant event on the OSCOV community’s calendar. Please read the attached report on the Show prepared by BADOG’s President, Cliff Ireland – and keep a look out for details of the Show in 2023!
The OSCOV Judging Panel is delighted to announce the promotion of Kelly-Anne Keily to fully-accredited Judge, Cliff Ireland, Sharyn Bolitho, Graeme Oram & Helen Oram to Associate Judge, and the admision of Henk Venter, John Haniver, Barbara Haywood & Max Haywood as fully-accredited Judges, and Angela Langsford as a Student Judge, on the OSCOV Panel. Well done to all of those promoted – this is a testament to your ability and commitment. We warmly welcome the AOC accredited judges and look forward to your valuable participation in the OSCOV judging system.
Here is a list of the Champions & Display results from this year’s Spectacular! MOS – ChampionResults2022
What a great day it was today with the Judging of the 2022 OSCOV Show – here are some of the results: (4) Melbourne Orchid Spectacular | Facebook
Here is a list of the Vendors who have currently committed to attend the OSCOV Show in 2022. It will be a fabulous opportunity to buy some great new orchids after too long for everyone in the orchid wilderness! This list will be updated as the Show approaches . . .
Here are the pics from the fantastic presentation night last Month. Many thanks to the Dandenong Club for the great venue and wonderful food & service, Graeme Williams for the photography, Barry & Marilyn Larkin for arranging the pictorial awards, and all of our winners, presenters and sponsors!
Here’s the Flyer for the 2022 OSCOV Melbourne Orchid Spectacular. Make sure it’s in your calendars! 
The PowerPoint presentation of ‘OSCOV’s Victorian Orchids of The Year 2021’ is now available for download by member societies. Please enjoy!
Planning for the OSCOV Melbourne Orchid Spectacular 2022 is well underway. The dates to lock into your diaries are Friday 26 August 2022 to Sunday 28 August 2022. The location, as always, is KCC Park, 655 Westernport Highway, Skye 3977. For information in relation to the Show – please feel free to message our Facebook page: (3) Melbourne Orchid Spectacular | Facebook
The Victorian Orchids of the Year have now been decided! Please check out all of the fantastic winners: Victorian Orchids of the Year – 2021 – OSCOV
The NEMOS Spring Show 2021 was conducted in a virtual environment because of covid restrictions. Here is a link to the Champions, class winners, and all other entries. Please enjoy these great orchids, and congratulations to all who participated in our Show! https://sites.google.com/view/nemosvss2021/home
Hello orchid enthusiasts! The webpage for the OSCOV Melbourne Orchid Spectacular Virtual Show 2021 has now been updated with links to almost all of the class winners for each of the 853 photos submitted. The Australian Natives page should be completed tomorrow. This event shows just how OSCOV is able to keep running and providing member services despite the difficulties created by covid. Please enjoy! https://www.oscovvirtualshow2021.org/
Judging of the OSCOV Virtual Show 2021 has now been completed! Here is a link to the Champions: https://sites.google.com/view/oscov-virtual-show-2021/home. The class results will be available in the next few days. Please enjoy the wonderful orchids that the OSCOV community has made available.
OSCOV is delighted to publish the Rules for our fantastic Virtual Show 2021. Somewhat ironically – TODAY we would have been judging the in-person Show, so the launch of the Virtual Show right now is auspicious! Please consider the eligibility, submission & judging rules, and direct any queries as specified in the Rules. Let the competition begin!
With the cancellation of the in-person OSCOV Melbourne Orchid Spectacular in 2021 – we are delighted to announce that OSCOV will host a Virtual Show instead. We expect that this will be one of the largest virtual shows that has ever been held, anywhere in the World. The Rules for the Virtual Show are about to be announced, but we can now release the Show Schedule. The Virtual Show will be open to any member of an Orchid Society, or Commercial Trader, that was invited to set up a display at the 2021 OSCOV Melbourne Orchid Spectacular. Stay tuned for more exciting details! Here is the Show Schedule: OSCOV – VirtualShowSchedule2021
OSCOV is extremely disappointed to announce the cancellation of this year’s OSCOV Melbourne Orchid Spectacular. The current lockdown and the Victorian Government’s existing covid restrictions make running the event in less than 3 weeks’ time impossible. Because OSCOV is an adaptable, inventive and resilient organisation – we are planning a number of new initiatives, including a ‘virtual’ Show in place of this year’s Spectacular, an end of year dinner and auction, and a ‘OSCOV Partner of the Week’ promotion spotlighting the Vendors and Sponsors who would have participated in the Spectacular this year. Keep an eye on the OSCOV website and the Melbourne Orchid Spectacular and OSCOV Facebook pages for more details. We hope everyone in the Australian orchid community stays safe and healthy during these challenging times.
The OSCOV Executive is hopeful that the OSCOV Melbourne Orchid Spectacular will be able to be held later this month – but the current covid situation in Victoria and adjoining States is making this increasingly difficult. Under current covid restrictions, only 100 people would be permitted in the venue at any one time – and this would make the Spectacular impossible to hold. In the next few days there will need to be significant changes in the Victorian Government’s regulatory framework, as well as those frameworks of each of South Australia and New South Wales, for us to be able to proceed in 2021. We are monitoring the situation continually and plan to reassess the future of this year’s Spectacular before next Sunday 8 August 2021. Fingers crossed all necessary Government changes are announced in time! If the Spectacular cannot be held ‘in person’ this year – OSCOV plans to stage a ‘virtual’ Show, on a scale that has not been seen in Australia before! Stay tuned for more details.
OSCOV is pleased to report that planning for the 2021 OSCOV Show is proceeding. Invitations to Vendors and Clubs to participate in this year’s event have been sent and the response from Vendors and Clubs has been overwhelmingly positive – we expect that the Show will be as large and spectacular as ever. Of course, it is possible that covid restrictions applicable at the time will prevent the Show being held, or require it to close early, but at this stage, we hope it will be able to run its full course. There will be covid rules in place at the event, including a cap of 1,000 attendees per day, so make sure you come as early as possible (because if we reach 1,000 attendees on any day, we will not be able to admit any more people on that day)! More updates will be posted here and on Facebook as the 6 weeks remaining until the Show opens count down.
Here is the Schedule for this year’s OSCOV Show: OSCOV – ShowSchedule2021
The schedule of OSCOV Member Societies’ Shows for 2021 has now been published: Orchid Shows – OSCOV. Fingers crossed that covid doesn’t interrupt the smorgasbord of orchid delights that our Member Societies have in store for you all in 2021!
Here is a version of the PowerPoint presentation of the OSCOV 2020 Victorian Orchids of the Year! Please feel free to share this – provided you acknowledge OSCOV in any publication . . . VOOTY-2020-PowerPointFinal(MJCfinal)
Full details of the winners of the OSCOV Victorian Orchids of the Year 2020 are now available on the OSCOV website (please enjoy!): Victorian Orchids of the Year – 2020 – OSCOV
Planning for the 2021 OSCOV Show continues steadily. Invitations to Vendors and Clubs to participate in this year’s event are being prepared and should be dispatched in the next few days. The OSCOV Executive is hopeful that covid-19 restrictions will be sufficiently eased by late-August for this great event to be able to be staged in a manner broadly similar to previous years. The 2020 Annual OSCOV Dinner, which would have been held in conjunction with the 2020 OSCOV Show, was postponed – but OSCOV hopes that this will be able to be held in the next few months. Stay tuned for more details!
OSCOV is delighted to announce the dates for the 2021 OSCOV Melbourne Orchid Spectacular. The Spectacular is scheduled to be open to the public on Friday 27 August, Saturday 28 August & Sunday 29 August 2021, at our usual venue, the Boxhall Pavilion, KCC Park, 655 Westernport Highway (Dandenong-Hastings Rd), Skye, Victoria. After being unable to hold the Spectacular in 2020 due to covid-19 restrictions – planning is now underway for this year’s event. We are sure the orchid community is very much looking forward to again attending the largest annual orchid show in the Southern Hemisphere! More details on this year’s event will be released as they are finalised. Those details will of course be affected by any covid-19 related requirement in place at the time. Keep an eye on the OSCOV website (www.oscov.asn.au), the OSCOV Facebook page ((3) orchid society council of victoria – search results | Facebook) and the Melbourne Orchid Spectacular Facebook page ((3) Melbourne Orchid Spectacular | Facebook) for updates throughout 2021.
The second issue of OSCOV Insights is now available for you to enjoy by reading about activities that OSCOV and its member societies have been up to lately:
Here’s a great new OSCOV initiative – OSCOV Insights! The first issue is now available for you to enjoy by reading about activities that OSCOV and its member societies have been up to lately:
Congratulations now to NEMOS on successfully staging a virtual Spring Show. This has been the next in OSCOV Member Societies achieving member engagement despite the impact of covid. OSCOV is financially supporting our member societies in staging virtual Shows, and looks forward to more being held in the Victorian orchid community.
Here is a link to the results of the Show: NEMOS virtual Show
Congratulations to Southern Suburbs Orchid Society on successfully staging a virtual Spring Show. This has been a great initiative and has significantly enhanced member engagement during these covid times when ‘in person’ Shows can’t be held. OSCOV is financially supporting our member societies in staging virtual Shows, and looks forward to more being held in the Victorian orchid community.
Here is a link to the results of the Show: SSOS Virtual Show
The 2020 OSCOV AGM was held today. As well as the great OSCOV initiatives discussed – the new Executive was announced. Terry Stiles takes over as President, and the other members are: Michael J. Coker (Immediate Past President), Barry Larkin (Vice President), Elena Stiles (Secretary), Alan Baker (Treasurer), Marita Anderson (Assistant Secretary), Gordon Young (Liaison Officer), Andre Cleghorn (Conservation Officer), and General Committee members Stephen Early, Karin Balogh, Denis Oliver & Murray Harding. Julian Coker is the Patron, and Glenda Coutts is our ex officio Registrar. This is a very strong Executive and will lead OSCOV into the future.
It is with great sadness we have to bring you news of the passing of Ken West.
Westy, as he was always known, was an integral part of Orchid growing in Victoria. As an early member of OSCOV he was a judge and committee member for many years. As a long time member of Ringwood Orchid Society and Yarra Valley Orchid Society he served in many roles including a time as President and was Show Marshall for both societies. Ken was also a formative member of the Cymbidium Orchid Society of Victoria and was highly involved in its activities.
Westy had a large orchid collection, particularly Cymbidiums which he collected for many years. Like all of us his collection out grew space at regular intervals and he gave plants away, many plants, particularly to new growers as encouragement plants.
In his later years he worked for Paradisia Orchids nursery and at their retail outlet Collectors Corner. It was the perfect place for an Orchid nut like Ken. Working with the plants he loved and in close contact with lots of other growers. As he said, it was a kid in the lolly shop during the flowering season.
We will all miss Westy. A great contributor to Victorian Orchid growing.
Vale – John Kenter 1937-2020
John was a long serving member and Committee member of the Gippsland Orchid Club. He joined the club in 1982, two years after the club was formed and was made a Life Member in 2003. He was also a member of the West Gippsland and Cymbidium Orchid Society of Victoria clubs.
John was a highly respected OSCOV judge and a very accomplished and successful grower of a wide range of orchids. He received a number of awards, the first in 1994 for Masdevallia Pinchincha at a combined Gippsland Show, which was the first awarded Masdevallia for a Gippsland Club. He went on to receive at least 13 Quality Awards after that, mainly for Masdevellias. He also received 2 Awards of Quality, the most recent for Cattleya intermedia, which also earned him the OSCOV Quality Award of the Year for 2018. I had the honour of receiving this award on John’s behalf as he was unable to attend the Awards night. He was extremely pleased and proud to receive this award.
For a number of years and up until 2 years ago, together with John McMillan, he would erect a stand at the Cymbidium Orchid Society of Victoria club Show where they enjoyed great success. John McMillan recalls he always looked forward to the shows as he and John would spend the weekend down Melbourne while the show was on and he enjoyed the friendship and companionship during this time.
John’s judging decisions were always well considered and never hurried. He was a very generous person and many of us benefited by getting some great seedlings from him, some of which went on to gain awards. He had a dry sense of humour and was known at times to play pranks, including spray painting a cymbidium blue and presenting it for judging.
John always made the effort to get plants into the show. He believed it wasn’t about winning prizes, that was an additional benefit, it was the participating and putting on a show for the public. His wife Ina, would always come along to the shows and in the early years when we had a section for a floral competition, she would judge this section.
Outside of growing orchids, he enjoyed hunting and fishing and he had a particularly productive vegetable garden. John and our President Chris Pegg, shared the common interests of hunting and fishing, and there were often interesting discussions at our orchid shows where these two swapped stories, “tall tales and true”, of past exploits.
John always had a positive attitude to life and he maintained this even through his illness.
“A good life well lived”.
John is survived by his wife of many years Ina, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
RIP.
Robin Bavinton
Gippsland Orchid Club
Dear OSCOV Community,
The OSCOV Executive has considered in great detail the issues and complications that would be involved in staging the OSCOV Melbourne Orchid Spectacular in 2020.
Unfortunately, all things considered, we have decided that we will not be able to hold the Spectacular this year. The key reasons for this are:
1 we understand that KCC Park will probably not be available as our venue during the scheduled dates for 2020;
2 social distancing and crowd limitation requirements would most likely be very difficult to comply with, and would significantly impact public participation in the Spectacular;
3 the unavailability of insurance, the potential for financial penalties for social distancing breaches that OSCOV cannot control, and the potential for significantly reduced attendance fees, vendor contributions and sponsorships create an unacceptable financial risk; and
4 the uncertainty of the COVID-19 impact on our society, and the probability that external regulations will continue to change without notice, mean that the certainty that we need to provide to our Vendors, Society exhibitors, the general public, and other stakeholders, cannot be provided in any other way.
We very much regret having to make this decision, but for all concerned, we feel it is the only decision we can make.
The annual OSCOV dinner (including the presentation of the 2019 Victorian Orchids of the Year), which is usually held in conjunction with the Spectacular, will also not be held in August. However – if we are able to host the dinner later in the year, we hope to do so.
We will continue to support our Member Societies and the orchid community in general as much as we can in these difficult times – and we very much look forward to life returning to normal in 2021, including holding the Spectacular again during the last full week in August 2021, and the resumption of our Member Societies’ extensive schedule of orchid Shows and monthly meetings.
If you have any queries in relation to this announcement – please contact me on 0417 334 232 or mcoker@piperalderman.com.au, or OSCOV’s Secretary, Marita Anderson on 0457 721 034 or maritaanderson86@bigpond.com.
Hello to the OSCOV Community,
We hope you are safe & healthy, and coping as well as possible in the unusual environment in which we all live.
Even though so much of life has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic – OSCOV continues to thrive and adapt.
An important development has been the implementation by our Judging Panel of new processes facilitating:
(a) the consideration of orchids for any OSCOV award; and
(b) the submission of entries into the 2020 Victorian Orchids of the Year (VOOTY) (which will be judged in February 2021).
The new award consideration process starts with the submission of specified photographs of the exhibit, and, where possible, a number of OSCOV Judges seeing the exhibit in person. If you would like to submit an orchid for award consideration – please contact Glenda Coutts (0448 913 155 or glenda.coutts@bigpond.com), Bob Mason (0427 437 612 or pemro@bigpond.net.au) or Alan Baker (0413 599 368 or bakerco@live.com.au) and the process can be activated for you. Specific details on the process are included in paragraph 16 in Annexure A of the OSCOV Judging Handbook which can be found here: OSCOV – JudgingHandbook@10.5.20(final). We expect to revert to traditional judging processes as soon as COVID-19 restrictions allow.
The new VOOTY submission process also involves the submission of specified photographs of the exhibit with a completed Application Form. Specific details on the process are included in paragraph (i) on page 11 of the OSCOV Judging Handbook which can be found here: OSCOV – JudgingHandbook@10.5.20(final). The VOOTY Application Form, which includes details of where the Form & photographs need to be sent, can be found here: OSCOV – VOOTYApplicationForm@10.5.20. We expect to revert to the traditional VOOTY submission process as soon as COVID-19 restrictions allow.
Please keep your passion for orchids strong – OSCOV hopes that the initiatives described above will help you get the credit you deserve despite current difficulties!
We are still hopeful that we will be able to hold the Melbourne Orchid Spectacular as planned in late August 2020. Of course, whether or not we can do so will depend on the availability of KCC Park and current social distancing/public gathering restrictions being sufficiently relaxed. The OSCOV Executive will make a decision by no later than 30 June 2020 on whether or not this year’s Show will need to be cancelled. Our decision will be posted here on the OSCOV website, and the Melbourne Orchid Spectacular Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Melbourne-Orchid-Spectacular-164357086923002/). We thank you for your patience in these difficult and uncertain times, and we hope that all in the OSCOV community are keeping safe and well.
The full PowerPoint presentation of the OSCOV Victorian Orchids of the Year 2019 is now available: VOOTY-2019-PowerPointFinal2.
There were some exemplary orchids shown in Victoria in 2019 and many of them were in the running for the OSCOV VOOTY awards! Congratulations to all of the winners.
OSCOV has been fielding questions regarding plans for the OSCOV Show in August 2020 – bearing in mind the current COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. At this stage we confirm that we continue planning for the Spectacular to be held over 28-30 August and we hope the Show will not be affected by the COVID-19 issue. However – it may be that closer to the scheduled time, circumstances change and we may need to revise our plans. In that case – we will endeavour to give all our stakeholders as much notice as possible.
The OSCOV Judging Panel chose the Victorian Orchids of the Year yesterday – congratulations to all of the winners!
Here is a link to the full gallery.
OSCOV has set up a TryBooking page so you can pre-book your tickets to this year’s OSCOV Melbourne Orchid Spectacular! Click here to book.
The 2019 Show Schedule is now available (sponsor details yet to be included):
The PowerPoint presentation of the OSCOV VOOTY awards for 2018 is now available!
The OSCOV Judging Panel decided the 2018 Victorian Orchids of the Year earlier today. The Orchid of the Year was Paphiopedilum Golden Goblet ‘Brian’ grown by Michael Coker. For all of the winners – click here!
The dates for the OSCOV Melbourne Orchid Spectacular in 2019 have been set! The Spectacular will be open to the public on Friday 23, Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 August 2019 from 9:00am to 4:00pm on each of those days! Make sure you put those dates in your calendar.
