The Palomar Orchid Society generally meets at 6:30 pm the
FIRST WEDNESDAY of every month in
the Gowland Meeting Room of the Carlsbad City Library. The George and Patricia Gowland Meeting Room is located in the Carlsbad City Library on Dove Lane, just off El Camino Real in southern Carlsbad. The address is 1775 Dove Lane, Carlsbad, CA 92011.
Submitted by Helge W. on Sat, 09/30/2017 - 9:10am
Ron ParsonsWe are happy to welcome back Ron Parsons to our society. Ron will be speaking on the Orchids of Sichuan, China. In June of 2012, Ron was fortunate enough to attend a tour in the province of Sichuan, China led by the late Holger Perner and his wife, Wenqing to see Cypripediums and other native orchids in habitat. They traveled through the northern reaches of the province, seeing some of the most spectacular scenery and wildflowers Ron has ever seen. They visited two World Heritage Sites of such natural beauty, and traveled through different ethnic regions (although most of the people in this area are Tibetan), and the tour of six visitors had a truly incredible adventure. Ron had such a fantastic time that he joined the tour for a second visit in 2013! He will be describing his experiences from the trip and show us many beautiful pics of orchids he observed during his visit. Read more »
Date:
Wed, 10/04/2017 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Submitted by Helge W. on Fri, 09/01/2017 - 9:53am
Peter LinWe are delighted to welcome back Peter T. Lin to our society. Peter is one of our favorite speakers who will be talking about the Genus Dendrobium. He will present a fast paced PowerPoint presentation on this fascinating genus of over 1000 species! The title of his presentation is "Genus Dendrobium: a Family Portrait of Dendrobium Species"
Dendrobiums are primarily found in Asia, New Guinea and Australia. There are many different classifications within the genus, with species ranging from tiny miniatures to huge giants. They grow in climates ranging from hot and steamy lowlands, cool and moist mountain ranges, to seasonally dry savannas. Many are quite temperature tolerant and can be grown outside in frost-free areas. Peter will review a few of the important species in each classification. He will provide some basic cultural advice for each species, and there will be time for questions at the end of the program.
Peter started growing orchids over 35 years ago, but then stopped due to school and starting a career. It wasn't until about 14 years ago that the orchid "bug" came back and he is now heavily involved once again. He is an accredited judge with the American Orchid Society and a hybridizer of mini-catts. He enjoys meeting with other orchid enthusiasts, and can often be found at various orchid shows and societies around the country. He also has hundreds of photos of his orchids that he maintains on Flickr. Read more »
Date:
Wed, 09/06/2017 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Submitted by Helge W. on Sat, 07/29/2017 - 3:34pm
Curtis Gean (left), relocating orchids in MexicoWe are delighted to welcome to our society Curtis Gean of Sierra Vista Orchids, Sanger, CA. Curtis will speak on ‘Laelia anceps – the Color Forms and Their Influence on Hybridizing’. He will address the various results when using L. anceps as a parent. Curtis will answer your questions and provide the plant opportunity table with emphasis on the topic of his talk. He also will have a few plants for sale. As a small quiz, Curtis has included a pic of L. anceps along with two anceps hybrids, Hybrid 1 and Hybrid 2. Attendees should try to figure out what the other parent is, which will be revealed during his talk. Curtis is a shared speaker with SDCOS and will be presenting a talk on ‘Hybridizing with Oncidium lecuochilum and Baptistonia echinata’ on Tuesday, August 1 in Balboa Park. All are welcome to attend.
Curtis is a semi-retired photographer/videographer that has had a long time interest in orchids. After dabbling in hybrid roses, he was introduced to orchids in 1970 because of his need to use some plants and flowers in a photo shoot. The gentleman that provided his introduction was Homer C. Dodson, who later became his mentor. Read more »
Date:
Wed, 08/02/2017 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Submitted by Helge W. on Thu, 06/29/2017 - 1:53pm
Gil HoWe are delighted to welcome back former POS President Dr. Gil Ho. Gil will be speaking about Stanhopeas, epiphytic orchids originating from Central and South America. The title of his presentation is "The Hybrids of Stanhopeas: Mixing it Up!"
Stanhopea is an unusual and interesting genus of very fragrant orchids comprised of 66 species and an increasing number of hybrids. Gil will review briefly Stanhopea orchids in general and then discuss in detail the thinking behind Stanhopea hybrids and their wonderful varieties, followed by an introduction of creative intergeneric hybrids with Stanhopeas and related genera. This should be an informative and fun talk!
Dr. Gil Ho is a practicing neurologist and has been growing orchids for enjoyment for many years and has a special interest in Stanhopeas, Lycastes, Paphiopedilum, although he grows a little of nearly every orchid genera. He has been active with orchids over the last 15 years and loves the chance to pass on his orchid interests and experiences to others.
This month’s plant table will be supplied by Alex Nadzan and will include a few of his own cattleya hybrids.
Date:
Wed, 06/07/2017 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Submitted by Helge W. on Sat, 06/03/2017 - 7:42am
Tim CulbertsonPOS is pleased to welcome Tim Culbertson who will be sharing his presentation on “Laelia purpurata, the Queen of the Cattleyas”. Although large, these spectacular cattleyas grow well outside in Southern California, and with their myriad colors and a relatively unique blooming time, these are great plants for every collection, extending the blooming times in the Cattleya Alliance through July. With more and more Laelia purpurata clones and seedlings coming in from Brazil, and large grexes being bred in the United States, these stately, magnificent plants have seen a resurgence in popularity of late, and with good reason! By the end of this presentation, you will have a new appreciation of the range of color forms of Laelia purpurata and its hybrids, as well as an appreciation of their beautiful flowers and ease-of-growth. Tim will be providing a plant table of outdoor growing cattleyas, including many plants of Laelia purpurata in bud. He also will have additional plants for sale Read more »
Date:
Wed, 06/07/2017 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Submitted by Helge W. on Fri, 03/31/2017 - 8:38am
George HatfieldWe are very fortunate and pleased to welcome George Hatfield as our speaker this month. George will be speaking on ‘Pendulous Cymbidiums’, a topic that he is eminently qualified to address as he has produced some of the best pendulous cymbidiums in the country. George is currently the President of the American Orchid Society and the owner of Hatfield Orchids, a Ventura County, CA based company, initiated in 2005 and focused on the development of high quality and award winning cymbidiums. Some of George’s beautiful cymbidiums can be viewed on his facebook page. George also will be providing the plant table this month.
George’s visit is being co-sponsored by POS and SDCOS. Accordingly, he will be speaking on Tuesday, April 4 to SDCOS on ‘Cymbidium Species’ in Balboa Park and all are welcome to attend. Please see the SDCOS website for details on time and location. Read more »
Date:
Wed, 04/05/2017 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Submitted by Helge W. on Sat, 02/25/2017 - 1:00pm
Our great society has had an influx of new members over the past year and many of them have asked for a culture class session. Our senior members are more than willing to answer any questions and for the March meeting we will have a panel session with four of our more experienced members answering questions related to orchid culture. Members on the panel are Lisa Humphreys, Merle Robboy, Jerry Spencer, and Helge Weissig. Please write down any questions you might have and bring them to the March meeting. The more questions we have, the more informative this session will be. As the saying goes: “There are no dumb questions in this world, never be afraid to ask”.
Lisa Humphreys is co-owner of Lico Orchids & Flowers and has been growing orchids since 1994, with an emphasis on species. She has been active in the orchid business since 1995, primarily selling hybrid orchids to florists. Lico Orchids specializes in orchids that are easy to grow and have long-lasting blooms.
Merle Robboy, MD, is a long-time member of our society with much experience in growing many plants of the orchid family. Dr. Robboy regularly presents all of the blooming flowers brought in by our members in the monthly “show and tell” sessions. His encyclopedic knowledge of most all of the plants and his detailed explanation of their geographical origin, culture needs, and genetic background make these sessions a favorite part of the meetings for many. Read more »
Date:
Wed, 03/01/2017 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Submitted by Helge W. on Sun, 01/29/2017 - 1:36pm
Fred ClarkeWe are pleased to host one of our most favorite and well-known speakers, Fred Clarke. Fred’s talk will focus on one of his primary passions, Cattleyas. The talk entitled ‘The Modern Cattleya’ will provide a detailed look at the species and latest developments in breeding and growing of this popular class of orchids. Attendees will learn about the best of the best in today’s breeding and the new directions hybrids are taking. Finally, Fred will cover the best practices for growing these remarkable plants.
Fred is a long time, generous supporter and life member of the Palomar Orchid Society. He has been growing orchids since 1977 and has been hybridizing for 35 of those years. With over 30 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 nursery’s website has considerable information on plants for sale and many beautiful pics of his award winning orchids. He is a passionate orchid grower whose curiosity in orchids is broad and varied. Read more »
Date:
Wed, 02/01/2017 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Submitted by Helge W. on Thu, 12/22/2016 - 9:17am
Thomas MirendaWe are delighted to welcome Thomas Mirenda of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., as our first speaker of 2017. Tom is a highly sought after orchid specialist who is very knowledgeable on many facets of orchid biology as well as on numerous classes of orchids. Tom will be speaking to us on “The Mysteries of Orchid Pollination” focusing on the various adaptations that orchids have developed as pollination strategies, including food, brood site, pollen, and mating deceptions, pseudo-copulation, co-evolution with pollinators, and other methods of species isolation.
For the last 16 years, Tom has been the Orchid Collection Specialist at the Smithsonian Institution, caring for and curating an extremely diverse collection of orchid species and hybrids from all over the world. He has been active in developing and producing huge educational exhibits using the collection plants and visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors. Read more »
Date:
Wed, 01/04/2017 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Submitted by Helge W. on Sun, 11/27/2016 - 12:07pm
Date:
Wed, 12/07/2016 - 6:00pm - 9:30pm
