Alex N.'s posts

Cindy HIll

We are delighted to welcome for the first time to our society Cindy Hill who will speak on ‘My Top Ten Favorite Orchids and How to Grow Them’. Cindy is very experienced, well-respected orchid hobbyist and AOS judge who has won several Best of Show and AOS awards for her beautifully grown orchids.

Cindy's lifelong love of nature and wildlife led her to major in Biology in college. She's been growing orchids for pleasure for almost 50 years, beginning on her kitchen windowsill in St. Louis. She moved to San Diego in 1982 and began growing plants outdoors on her small patio, then in a 7x7 ft lean-to greenhouse. Discovering microclimates – variations in temperature, light and moisture - even in her small yard, she gradually extended her collection. 



After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2005, her collection grew to over 700 plants in an intermediate greenhouse in Berkeley, then Daly City. Favorite genera include Dendrobium, Coelogyne, Holcoglossum, and Laelia. Her plants earned Best of Show three times at the Pacific Orchid Exposition in San Francisco, and have received the highest cultural and quality awards from the American Orchid Society. 
 


Cindy served as Acting Editor of Orchid Digest magazine and was an accredited judge with the AOS for many years.  
 
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Peter T. Lin

We are pleased to welcome back one of our favorite speakers Peter T. Lin, who will be presenting a talk on one of his favorite topics:  Mini-Catts, also known as miniature Cattleyas.  Peter will be sharing a fast-paced, Powerpoint presentation on these charming orchids.  The journey will begin with a review of the miniature species, early hybrids, and then to some of the relevant hybrids of today.  He will also review how to grow these wonderful plants.

Peter started growing orchids over 30 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 thousands of photos of his orchids that he maintains on Flickr.  You can view them by typing this address into the internet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/minicatt/collections/   Read more »

Happy 4th of July to all!  For the July 3rd meeting we will be having a Pot Luck Dinner and Orchid Plant Exchange instead of a regular speaker.

Please note that at least for the remainder of this year our meetings will be held from 4 pm to 7 pm in the Gowland meeting room (same room) due to a change in the library’s policy.   Read more »

Jose Carlos Lopez

We are delighted to welcome back Jose Carlos Lopez from Sunset Valley Orchids, one of our favorite speakers. Carlos will present to us his new talk on ‘The Hidden Life of Catasetinae’, a genus of orchids that many of us find a bit challenging to master. From species to hybrids, Catasetinae Orchids have an allure that has captivated orchid growers from all around the world and has rewarded them with floriferous blooms that come in an array of colors! The Catasetinae alliance includes the genus Mormodes, Clowesias, and Cycnoches, just to name a few. At first glance, this family of orchids may seem hard to grow, but they’re relatively easy once you get the watering schedule down. In this presentation, Carlos will go over important species, breeding lines, and cultivation requirements that should enable our members to grow them better. This is a talk not to be missed.

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           Alex and JerryAs we begin the 2024 orchid growing season, our first culture meeting of the year will focus on the basics of repotting and dividing orchids and provide demonstrations on repotting orchids that are easy to grow in our Southern California climate.  The presentation will feature two of our very experienced growers, Jerry Spencer and Alex Nadzan. Alex will begin the session with reviewing repotting basics that should help both beginners and more seasoned growers prepare for the busiest part of our orchid growing season. He will provide tips and valuable sources for supplies and will pot and divide a cattleya orchid or two.

Anita and Jerry Spencer are well-known for growing and showing award-winning, large specimen plants so Jerry will share his techniques on dividing and repotting a large specimen cymbidium orchid. During the presentation, Alex and Jerry will address any repotting questions you may have so bring them to the meeting.  

This should be a very interesting and educational session for all who want to get a head start on the upcoming orchid growing season.  The session also will provide an incentive for members to produce divisions of your collections for our upcoming POS sale over the weekend of May 24-27 at the San Diego Botanic Garden’s World of Orchids Show (May 4-27) in Encinitas.

 Finally, the plant table this month will be provided by one of our local orchid growers.