March 2019 – Ken Campbell & Alex Nadzan

Two of our more experienced members, Ken Campbell and Alex Nadzan, will speak on growing orchids in a greenhouse and outdoors under shade cloth, respectively. They will share their conditions and tips for successful growing a variety of orchids under a climate controlled environment and outdoors. The presentation should be educational for both experienced and novice orchid growers alike. It is a timely topic to kick off the 2019 orchid growing season as your plants emerge from their winter resting period. The plant table this month is provided by Cal Orchid of Santa Barbara.

Ken Campbell and his pet pandaWhen Ken Campbell’s in-laws passed away about 20 years ago, Ken took over their modest orchid collection, which consisted primarily of cattleyas.  Being an engineer at heart, and always willing to accept a new challenge, the first thing he decided he needed to do was to build a greenhouse... and as they say, the rest is history.

Over the years Ken’s appreciation of orchids has grown from not being able to even spell the word correctly (Ph. D. engineers are notoriously bad spellers), to being able to keep the plants alive (at least most of them), to actually getting some of them to bloom.  Ken says he owes a special thanks to the many knowledgeable individuals that have over the years helped him achieve the level of success and enjoyment he finds in orchids today. 

Alex Nadzan in front of one of his shade structuresAlex Nadzan is an avid orchid enthusiast and an active member of the Palomar Orchid Society. He currently serves as Co-President and Co-1st Vice President of Programs. He also is a trustee of the San Diego County Cymbidium Society and an active member of the San Diego County Orchid Society.  Alex has been collecting and growing orchids for over 25 years, with emphasis on cattleya, oncidium and cymbidium alliances. During the last 12 years or so, he has developed an orchid hybridizing program devoted to creating novel, compact, and cold-tolerant cattleya hybrids and related genera that do well outside in the San Diego area. 

Previously, Alex worked as a research chemist and manager in the pharmaceutical industry but retired about 5 years ago to devote full time to his orchid activities and to apply his scientific knowledge to his large orchid collection.