August 2020 – Fred Clarke (online presentation)

Fred ClarkeOne of our most favorite speakers, Fred Clarke, will be speaking on "Cattleya mossiae, the queen of Venezuelan Cattleyas" at our joint Zoom meeting on Tuesday, August 4th at 7:30 pm (details to follow via email). Fred will present a beautiful expose of C. mossiae in the wild with amazing pictures of thousands of flowers covering the trees. Once the most popular corsage flowers for Mother’s day, C. mossiae is now rarely seen in collections and cut flower trade. Fred’s PowerPoint presentation will feature magnificent pictures of C. mossiae in the wild as he discusses the habitat and the perils that await the future for the queen of Venezuelan Cattleyas.

As many of our members know, Fred Clarke is the owner of Sunset Valley Orchids in Vista. He has been growing orchids for over 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. He is a passionate orchid grower whose curiosity in orchids is broad and varied.  Although developing Cattleya hybrids has been his sustaining interest, he is also actively creating new Paphiopedilum and Aussie Dendrobium hybrids plus some others to be named if they work out!

Fred’s pioneering work in Catasetum intergeneric hybrids led to the development of several notable hybrids, most recently the grex, Fredclarkeara After Dark, which produced “the blackest flower ever witnessed”. This grex has received over 100 awards worldwide with nine FCC’s and thirty AM’s from the AOS judges!

Fred is a long-time accredited judge in the Pacific South Judging Region. His plants have received hundreds of quality awards from the American Orchid Society.

In addition, Fred is a strong supporter of our local orchid societies and has generously provided plants for our opportunity tables and auctions.

Although we are not able to provide opportunity tables at this time, Fred has offered our society members a 20% discount offer to purchase plants online from his nursery, Sunset Valley Orchids. The special voucher code is ZOOM. When you check out, type ZOOM into the voucher code box on the shopping cart page and click 'RECALCULATE' to apply the discount.  This special discount is additive to the existing discount schedule, making for an excellent opportunity. If members want to pick up plants at the nursery, please indicate so when you order and call to make an appointment to pick up your plants (760-310-0778). The offer is good for a week before and a week or so after the Zoom meeting.