Helge W.'s posts

Alex Nadzan & Jerry SpencerSome of our members have been asking recently about cultural issues so we would like devote this meeting to orchid culture and address maintaining your orchids in late winter and transitioning to early spring as well as tips on how to prepare for the upcoming growing season. Since we are now into cymbidium flowering season, we also will review aspects on growing, dividing and repotting of these beautiful and easy to grow orchids that are ideally suited for our Southern California climate.  The meeting will be an in-person meeting and will be available on Zoom for those who can’t attend or are uncomfortable attending at this time. All in-person attendees must be vaccinated and boosted and wear a mask during the meeting. To maintain safety of attendees, we will not have food or drink but members can bring their own water if desired.  

Our first culture meeting of this year will feature two of our very experienced growers, Alex Nadzan and Jerry Spencer.  Alex has successfully grown orchids outdoors for many years in Southern California. He will discuss end of winter maintenance of your orchids and prep for the upcoming growing and repotting season that should help both beginners and more seasoned growers prepare for the busiest part of our growing season. He will provide some tips and valuable sources of information and supplies.     Read more »

Ron KaufmannWe are happy to welcome back Ron Kaufmann, chair of the San Diego County Orchid Society Conservation Committee and a founding director of the Orchid Conservation Alliance. Ron has been growing orchids for more than 25 years and has travelled extensively to view orchids in the wild in Asia and South America, particularly Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia. His talk entitled "Cattleya eldorado: Searching for Gold in the Brazilian Amazon" will describe an unusual orchid habitat near the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Amazon River, home to beautiful species like C. eldorado. Cattleya eldorado is a delightful orchid that is uncommon in cultivation outside Brazil but well worth growing.

Ron is a marine biologist by training, and his scientific work includes studies of Antarctic and deep-sea ecosystems as well as marine communities in coastal Southern California. His orchid collection began with a reed stem Epidendrum and progressed to a diverse assemblage that contains mostly species orchids.

Ron has a long-standing interest in conservation and has been a member of the SDCOS Conservation Committee for nearly 25 years and chair since 2004. Since 1991, the Conservation Committee has awarded nearly $250,000 to support projects in 23 different countries. Ron also helped to found the Orchid Conservation Alliance and serves on the boards of the OCA, Orchid Digest, and Fundación EcoMinga (an Ecuadorian conservation organization). He currently serves as vice chair of the American Orchid Society Conservation Committee.   Read more »

Tim CulbertsonWe welcome back one of our favorite speakers, Tim Culbertson, who will give us a presentation on ‘Laelia anceps, a Treasure of Mexico’. Although large, these spectacular cattleyas grow well outside in our subtropical climate and with their myriad colors and free-blooming tendencies, they are great plants for every collection. California is a hot-bed of interest in Laelia anceps types and hybrids, and has been for years. Tim will explore the species' influence in hybrids, and how breeders have made combinations of naturally occurring forms to create entirely new strains. By the end of this presentation, attendees will have a new appreciation of the range of color forms of Laelia anceps and its hybrids, as well as an appreciation of their beautiful flowers and ease-of-growth. Tim’s talk is not to be missed and he will be providing a plant table that includes some wonderful select divisions and seedlings of Laelia anceps and its hybrids.

Although Tim teaches middle school kids for a living, one of his passions has always been plants. Tim began growing orchids as an offshoot from working at Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia just after college. From the very beginning it was all about Paphiopedilums, particularly awarded and select clones of historic importance, of which his collection numbers nearly 3000. While he loves finding old, rare stepping stones in Paph breeding, he also dabbles in a little hybridizing of his own and finds that growing up "babies" of his own is a blast.    Read more »

Carlos LopezWe welcome Carlos Lopez as our second speaker of our in-person meetings this year. Carlos will talk to us about “The Four Seasons of Cattleyas” and will discuss which Cattleya species and hybrids bloom in each season.  This will allow our members to tailor their collections to have blooming cattleyas throughout the year.

Many of our members know Carlos from his work at Sunset Valley Orchids. Carlos is a Business student at Mira Costa College who has been cultivating orchids for over 7 years. His orchid venture began at the age of thirteen when he started to follow his father to work at Sunset Valley Orchids. Before he knew it, he was volunteering at the nursery and was helping clean orchid flasks, repot orchids, and doing small tasks. Carlos eventually became more involved in the nursery's operations/maintenance and started to take part in attending orchid shows and selling orchids at the SVO booths. He is currently Sunset Valley Orchids Greenhouse specialist and has years of experience with Cattleya, Catasetum, Australian Dendrobiums, and Sarcochilus orchids. Carlos is currently training to become an American Orchid Society Judge and works with Orchid Digest as well. Carlos will be providing the plant table this month.

Based on the recent positive polling of our membership, we are resuming our in-person society meetings on Wednesday, June 2. The meeting will be held at our regular location, the Lake San Marcos Conference Center, starting at 6:30 pm

For our first meeting, we will not have a formal speaker but have an informal meeting consisting of a Q&A session for attendees who have pressing questions about their orchids that weren’t addressed during the last year and a half. It would be desirable for attendees to send us your questions in advance so we can select ones to address during the session. Please send them to Alex and Bill. Our own expert growers, Jerry Spencer, Ken Campbell and Alex Nadzan will try to answer your burning questions.

In addition to the Q&A session, we will have a Show and Tell, a plant table, and a silent auction for those who may want to sell some plants. There also will be ample time for socializing. For this month, the society will provide light snacks, water and coffee so don’t bring anything other than yourself, a friend and your plants.

Please note that we will abide by existing state and local guidelines at the time of the meeting so bring your masks and please do not attend if you are not fully vaccinated yet or you feel ill.

The July 7th meeting will resume our formal speaker program starting with one of our most favorite speakers, Fred Clarke, who also will provide a plant table.

We hope to see all of you on June 2nd!