The Memphis Orchid Society had its origin as The Mid-South Orchid Society, with 39 charter members from Memphis and surrounding areas of Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. The first meeting was held on January 9, 1955 in a club room in "The Pink Palace" (Memphis museum), and the annual dues assessment was $3.50 per member, continuing at this level for over 20 years.
In 1959 a membership roster contained 56 names, including 25 of the charter members.
A yearbook dated 1973 included a copy of the constitution of the society, indicating that it was affiliated with The American Orchid Society.
The first exhibit the society entered in an AOS-sanctioned show was in 1974 at a meeting of the Mid-America Orchid Congress in Nashville, and it was awarded a third-place ribbon.
In May, 1976 the name was changed to "The Memphis Orchid Society" and other changes at about this time included the beginning of a monthly newsletter, the change of meeting time from evenings to Sunday afternoons, and the regular location of the
meetings at Goldsmith Garden Center in the Memphis Botanic Garden.
Since this time, with few exceptions, the meetings have continued to be held at the same location at 2:00 P.M. on the fourth Sunday of each month (with regular exceptions for the
Month of our local show, usually in May, and December, when a "holiday party" with a silent auction of plants or other orchid-related donated items has become a tradition).
Since the society's first exhibit in 1974, the Memphis Orchid Society has entered exhibits in approximately 127 AOS-sanctioned shows, receiving 26 AOS show trophies, 6 Orchid Digest trophies, in addition to many ribbons and trophies for exhibits and individual plants, as well as many AOS awards for plants.
After staging several local shows and sales in shopping malls, the society staged its first AOS-sanctioned show in a downtown bank building in February, 1977, where it staged its next 5 "annual" shows, hosting the Mid-America Orchid Congress there in 1982. Since 1985 the shows have been staged at the Memphis Botanic Garden, except for April 1991, when the larger facilities of the Memphis Agricenter and the Marriot Hotel were used for meetings of the Mid-America Orchid Congress and the trustees of The American Orchid Society. Since 1993 the shows have been held on the third week-end in May, the 22nd show being staged May 14-16, 2004.
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