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Trevor And Teresa Gillbanks

 

Trevor Gillbanks and his lovely wife Teresa were about the farthest growers from the ocean that we encountered in New Zealand. They live in a river valley town by the name of Palmerston North.  He is a bit of a tinkerer as seem to be all New Zealanders and seems to be handy in a number of techniques. In the States, we would say he is a "Jack of all Trades".  This almost led to his downfall as a DisaPhile because he decided to build some nice aluminum trays to use as flow tables for his Disas. Unfortunately, this led to the observation that acid water in aluminum trays dissolves enough aluminum to be toxic for the Disas.  Once he figured out what was happening, he coated his trays with plastic and has been rebuilding the Disa population.  Trevor unfortunately divides his time among a number of orchids and interests instead of devoting his time exclusively to Disas like any true DisaPhile. He also publishes a Masdevallia and Disa newsletter, which comes out 2 or 3 times a year. Unfortunately, it is distributed via "snail mail" so it would take forever to get to the States.

(Ed. FLASH!!
 He has discovered Adobe Acrobat and can now send them in the Adobe Acrobat format.  Links to a few issues is at bottom of page.)

In all honesty, while his Disas were nice and he does some good things with them, the thing that impressed me the most were his Pleiones followed closely by his Masdevellias.  They looked absolutely fantastic. I truly have never seen Pleonies with bigger bulbs anywhere.  I would have loved to be there when they were flowering.  He is also one of the few people who has had success with Satyriums and he grows some other unusual terrestrial orchids as well.  He grows exclusively in reconstituted sphagnum moss.  Since he is situated farther from the ocean than any other grower, I would imagine that his temperature swings would probably be the widest.  He doesn't heat at all during the winter and does get some days below freezing.  While Disas seem to be able to survive at temperatures lower than freezing for a while, I have a hard time believing that it doesn't effect them at all. But I didn't see anything that I could positively attribute to cold damage.  I guess I can stop babying mine so much.  Sure will help with the gas bill if I could cut out winter heat!  For watering, he relies strictly on tap water which has a pH of around 7 and a TDS reading of 140 ppm.  Not the best water but the Disas are able to tolerate it handily.  He is another person that is using the SuperSphag for all his potting.  He uses it with pretty much all genera. 

Another hobby that Trevor has taken to is using some of the very colorful local wood to produce some really pretty wooden carved bowls. New Zealand is blessed with a number of really colorful and unusual woods.  This has also been a curse because in the early days, the wood was cut and sold indiscriminately.  Now a days, all that is strictly controlled but Trevor still is able to harvest an occasional stump that he encounters in his travels looking for native orchids.

During the time that we visited, we were introduced to summer rain showers and a number of my pictures didn't turn out.  Trevor  has sent some of his pictures to be included in this coverage and they are appropriately identified.  (Mostly the non-Disas.  Come on man!!!)

This is a big Australian Dendrobium called Dend. X-ruppiosum. Photo by Trevor

The photo to the left is Satyrium Johanna Augustyn. This is another South African terrestrial that is a bit difficult to grow. Photo by Trevor

 The Orchid pictured above is Odm. bictionense'Album'. Photo by Trevor

The photos to the left and above show one of Trevor's Disa hybrids whose name has been misplaced.  I was a bit early at Trevor's also and not a lot was in bloom although there were a good number of spikes coming.

The plant to the lower left had a very interesting coloration in the dorsal sepal

The plant on the right is a big pot of Disa racemosa, one of the harder Disas to flower.  It was happily growing outside and Trev had it sitting in a shallow saucer of water to prevent the pill bugs from getting in and munching on the roots.  It seemed quite happy and was good sized.  It was potted in SuperSphag but had a layer of pebbles on the top to discourage liverwort from growing on the surface.  Now we just need a picture of it in bloom

I hate to keep repeating myself about the SuperSphag potting mix but here is an example of what it looks like just tipped out of a pot.  Obviously there is nice root growth here.  Notice that the mix is a bit compressed however. Also note that there is a laver of moss/liverwort growing on the surface.  If someone could figure out an effective and simple way of keeping the surface free of moss, etc. the Disa world would certainly like to hear about it.

This orchid to the left is Dactylorhiza foliosa. a European hardy orchid.  Grows well outside all year round.  Dormant during the winter months so can withstand snow and frost quite happily.

 

The photo above shows a neat solution to draining a flow table.  Trevor has a riser which keeps the water level at the top of the riser when the pump is going but then during the drain phase, the whole tray slowly drains through the notch in the one side.  Very clever, and I have stolen the idea for use on my flow tables.

This is Masd. Rubicon 'Royal Orange'. Photo by Trevor

This is Masd. Tuakau Candy. Photo by Trevor

This is Dracuvallia Ngaris Gem. Photo by Trevor

This is Dendrobium Sunglow. Photo by Trevor

The photo on the left is Orchis maculata. Photo by Trevor

 

 

This is Pleione Surtsey Josie. It's too bad that I can't show you more of his Pleiones. He really has an impressive collection! Photo by Trevor

The bottom four photos were all taken by Trevor and illustrate some of fantastic coloration found in the New Zealand native woods.

This bowl was turned out of Maire wood. 

 

This also demonstrates Trevor's mechanical ability for turning wood slabs into beautiful bowls, etc.

This is a clock face turned out of Kahikatea wood which is NZ White Pine. 

This clock face was made from Rimu wood.

In this final picture, Trevor turned a bowl from Rewa Rewa wood which is NZ Honeysuckle.
 

The following links will pull up four recent past issues of Trevor's informative Disa & Masdevallia Newsletter




That's about it for Trevor this time.  I will add some photos when he sends me some more of his Disa and Pln. blooms when they appear next year.  Right Trevor?

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