Monthly Meeting

Fred ClarkeWe welcome back this month, Fred Clarke of Sunset Valley Orchids, one of our most favorite and impressive speakers. Fred will present a new talk entitled ‘Modern Blue Cattleyas’ that reviews the successes he has had in developing novel blue and spotted blue cattleyas by using several of the blue or coerulea cattleya species available to hybridizers. Fred also will discuss orchid culture and repotting which is a very timely topic as we enter the spring repotting and dividing season.  Fred will be providing the plant opportunity table so bring yourself and friends for a very interesting and stimulating talk. If you are unable to attend in person, we will be streaming Fred’s talk on zoom.

Most of our members know Fred Clarke well, since he is a frequent speaker, a life member, friend and long-time supporter of our society.  For those of you who do not know him, Fred has been growing orchids for 42 years and has been hybridizing for 38 of those years. With over 34 years as a professional grower and manager in the horticultural industry, Fred applies these skills at his orchid nursery, Sunset Valley Orchids, located in Vista, California, just north of San Diego. His website has a wealth of information on growing orchids, many pictures of his award-winning orchids, as well as a variety of orchid genera for sale.   Read more »

Our March meeting represents the first culture meeting of the year that features two our very experienced orchid growers, Ken Campbell and Jerry Spencer, who will share their orchid knowledge with us. Ken will speak to us about pest and virus management.  Ken has considerable experience in growing orchids in his small greenhouse that contains both mounted and potted cattleyas, phalaenopsis and hanging vandas. Ken says that if managing the temperature, the amount of light, and an irrigation and fertilization schedule isn’t enough of a challenge growing orchids, let’s not forget dealing with our friends the orchid pests.  Creepy little things like aphids, mealy bugs, scale, snails and the like.  In his presentation, Ken will talk about how to detect the presence of these unwanted visitors, identify who they are, and then successfully deal with them.   Lastly, no discussion regarding orchid threats would fail to include at least a few words about orchid viruses… so he will have a brief discussion covering that topic as well.      

Jerry Spencer will discuss his ‘5 Favorite Orchids’ why they are his favorites, where he grows them, what they like/dislike and when they bloom. As most of you are aware, Anita and Jerry Spencer are well-known for their award-winning orchids and their specialization in specimen size orchids that have won many local and AOS awards. Some of those award winners will be featured in Jerry’s presentation.

Both talks should be very educational for members new to growing orchids as well as our more experienced orchid enthusiasts and are well worth attending to broaden your orchid knowledge.

Jerry and Anita will be providing this month’s plant table.

Carol KlonowskiFor our first meeting of the year, we are pleased to welcome Carol Klonowski from the Bay area, who will speak on the ‘Orchids of South Africa’. Carol will take everyone on a tour of the orchid growing areas of this fascinating part of Africa and the world.  Long known as one of the garden hot-spots of the planet, South Africa has a diverse and fascinating number of habitats and climates that provide a robust setting for flora and fauna of all types.  Hear about the ‘other’ orchids Down Under and how to grow them in your collection. South Africa is the home of over 500 orchid species including the genera of Ansellia, Aerangis, Angraecum, Bulbophyllum, Disa, Eulophia, Mystacidum, just to name a few. Carol’s talk is one not to be missed.

Carol is a shared speaker with our sister society, SDCOS, and she will speak to them on January 3 on ‘Tolumnias’ for those of you who would like to attend her talk in Balboa Park or via zoom.

Carol Klonowski has been growing orchids since the 1980’s when a friend in Berkeley, California, gave her a cattleya orchid and it bloomed out with three big, dark lavender flowers and an intoxicating fragrance. She built an entire greenhouse in her backyard to accommodate the precious plant, which only led her to buy more orchids. Then another friend gave her a gift membership to the Orchid Society of California, and it’s been a serious hobby ever since.   Read more »

Arnold GumWe are delighted to welcome back Arnold Gum as speaker for our November meeting.  Arnie will present the talk ‘Orchid Sherlock’ which addresses genetic influences of different species.  Arnie will teach us how to spot what's in the background of your orchids.  He will talk about tag sleuthing (broken tags, faded tags, lost tags, etc.) including Cattleya species influences and Phalaenopsis species influences. Arnie is an excellent and engaging speaker who readily shares his wealth of knowledge with the orchid community.  It is a talk not to be missed.

Arnie recently retired in July of this year from his career as a patent attorney at Qualcomm so he can spend more time with his plants, exercise, getting healthy, ukulele, gym, etc.  At Qualcomm, he was responsible for putting GPS in our smartphones and has a few hundred patents worldwide to his name.   Read more »

For September, we welcome two of our veteran, highly successful orchid hobbyists, Ken Campbell and Jerry Spencer, to present our second culture session of the year. Both members have received multiple awards for their impressive orchids at local shows and each has several years of experience in growing and maintaining a variety of orchid classes. For this novel culture meeting, Ken and Jerry will discuss the challenges of growing in greenhouse and shade structure environments and the steps they take to grow their most beautiful orchids. Not only are they growing in different environments, but their collections are at the opposite extremes in size. Ken grows in a small greenhouse structure, while Jerry grows on more than 2 acres of shade and greenhouse structures.  . This should be a very interesting and informative presentation not to be missed so please bring your friends and orchid growing questions to the meeting.  Jerry and Anita Spencer have agreed to provide the orchids for our opportunity table this month. We also will have some Cal-Orchid plants for sale on the Silent Auction table.