Julian Coker and his wife Frances are proprietors of Atlantis Orchids, a nursery that specialises in cymbidiums, as well as other cool-growing orchid species and hybrids. Julian is a Past President of OSCOV and an Emeritus Judge of the Victorian Orchid Judging Panel, referred to hereafter as the OSCOV Judging Panel. He is well known throughout Australia as an accomplished speaker on cymbidiums and other orchids and as a prolific author of articles on a wide range of orchid topics.
Alan Hope is an OSCOV judge and Deputy Liaison Officer of the OSCOV Judging Panel. He is an associate editor of the Journal of the Orchid Species Society of Victoria. Alan is a vice-president of the North East Melbourne Orchid Society. He grows a wide range of orchids, specialising in paphiopedilums and phragmipediums and lectures widely on paphiopedilums, Asian orchid travels and orchid culture.
Rex Johnson lives in Underwood (northern Tasmania). He and his wife Lyn are experienced orchid growers. Between them they grow a wide range of orchids in a climate that most Victorians would find challenging. As well as being AOC judges in Tasmania, they are both fully accredited members of the OSCOV Orchid Judging Panel and visit Victoria on a regular basis. Rex is a prolific speaker on a variety of subjects, including his experiments with a range of potting mixes.
Ern Kettle is well known to most orchid growers as a familiar figure at Collectors’ Corner, where he is a senior staff member. He is also Registrar of the OSCOV Judging Panel and one of only two Emeritus Judges on that panel. Ern is a life member of both the Ringwood and Melbourne Eastern Orchid Societies, and Immediate Past President of the former.
Brendan Larkin , the son of Barry and Marilyn Larkin, has been exposed to orchids all his life. He began competing with other growers of similar age in the junior section of Mornington Peninsula Orchid Society. At age 15 years he was invited to join the OSCOV Judging Panel and was promoted to fully accredited judge five years later. His main interest is in the orchids of South and Central America, especially the pleurothallid alliance.
Brian Milligan is an OSCOV judge and Liaison Officer of the OSCOV Executive and its Judging Panel. He is a vice-president of the North East Melbourne Orchid Society and editor of its monthly bulletin. Brian is also editor of the Journal of the Orchid Species Society of Victoria and a director of the Australian Orchid Foundation. His special interests are species orchids, disas, masdevallias, Australian native dendrobiums and orchid history.
Denis Oliver is a veterinary surgeon by profession and a keen grower of orchids in his rather limited spare time. In this volume he writes about his favourite orchids (the Cattleya Alliance) and one of the pests that plague them (scale). Denis is a Past President and Life Member of the Ringwood Orchid Society. He has been the editor of its monthly newsletter for many years.
Michael Pender is an experienced grower who has cultivated many different orchid genera under both warm and cool conditions. He is an OSCOV judge and was Deputy Registrar of the Judging Panel for several years. Mike served as the inaugural Treasurer for the North East Melbourne Orchid Society and is currently President of that Society. He has written widely on orchids, being particularly well known for his articles on soft-cane dendrobiums and disas.