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Alek ZaslawskiOur gust speaker this month is Alek Zaslawski of AWZ Orchids in Brazil. The topic of his presentation is the species Cattleya violacea and he will show plants in their natural habitat as well as flowers with different color forms. His talk will also include many cultivation tips.

Alek was born and raised in the state of Espirito Santo, in Southeastern Brazil. His father, Wladyslaw, grew orchids as a hobby, and Alek was always surrounded by orchids at his parents’ home.  His father enjoyed taking trips to see orchids in the wild and would take Alek with him.

Alek became a mechanical engineer and never expected to work with orchids, however, orchids would always catch his attention. He admired their beauty and the way they grew in nature. When his father retired, Alek quit his job to start an orchid business with him and in 1994 they opened AWZ Orchids.

Alek and his father were aware that orchids were quickly disappearing from the wild and their original idea was to reproduce plants in their nursery to help reduce the pressure on native populations. They also noticed that most of the plants that had been collected in the past had simply disappeared from collections. Typically, they had been killed or sold to foreign growers. Over the years, AWZ has tried to bring back some of the best varieties found within many species, especially those belonging to the Cattleya alliance.   Read more »

Francisco Miranda

We welcome Francisco Miranda as our guest speaker this month. Francisco’s presentation will focus on cattleya species and their habitats and his talk is titled "The genus Cattleya in Brazil".  Cattleya species can be found throughout Brazil and Francisco will show examples from most of the major regions where they occur.  

Francisco was born in Rio de Janeiro and he has been growing orchids since 1979, the same year he received his degree in Biology.  He began his taxonomic studies of the orchid family in 1981. In 1985, he completed a Master’s Degree and his thesis “Section Cattleyodes of the genus Laelia”.  

Francisco has made frequent field trips to study the habitats of Brazilian orchids, resulting in many new described species.  He has authored two books and several scientific papers.  In 1996, he served as the Program Chairman for the 15th World Orchid Conference in Rio de Janiero.   Read more »

Peter Lin’s presentation "12 Months of Orchids" is a fast-paced PowerPoint presentation will show you how to build an orchid collection to have blooming plants for each month of the year. 

Peter started growing orchids over 30 years ago, but stopped to focus on school and starting a career.  It wasn’t until 11 years ago that the orchid “bug” came back, and he is now heavily involved again.  He is an accredited judge with the American Orchid Society and a hybridizer of mini-Cattleyas.  He enjoys interacting with other orchid enthusiasts and can often be found at various orchid shows and societies around the country.  

Due to limited growing space, Peter specializes in miniature orchids, both species and hybrids, and has received numerous AOS awards.  His other interests in orchids include Dendrobiums,  and Neofenetias.  He maintains a collection of a thousand or more orchids at his home in Southern California in three small greenhouses, as well as in an offsite greenhouse.  

Peter has hundreds of photos of his orchids that he maintains on Flickr. Peter also maintains a personal web site including a small catalog of orchids available for purchase at www.diamondorchids.com

Peter will also provide plants for the opportunity table.

Ron ParsonsWe are fortunate to be able to welcome back Ron Parsons as guest speaker for our February Meeting. Ron will be speaking about his experience traveling to Columbia in August of 2014 and the many orchids he encountered there. His trip included visits to nurseries, forest reserves, and a national park as well as three days at the Medellín orchid show and botanical gardens. All in all he saw and took pictures of nearly 120 native orchid species in bloom in the wild, as well as hundreds of others at the show and nurseries.

Ron Parsons has been growing orchids for going on 40 years and has been interested in and has grown species orchids for most of that time. He loves to photograph orchids and other flowers whenever he can, whether it be in collections or trips to see them in nature. Ron’s collection of photographs includes approximately 40,000 digital images, most of which are orchids, and a slide library of flower photographs that exceeds 100,000 images. He has published about 2500 photos, which have appeared in magazines, periodicals, journals, and books.  

As an author, Ron has co-authored three books with Mary Gerritsen: 'Masdevallias, Gems of the Orchid World', 'Calochortus, Mariposa Lilies and their Relatives' , and a two-volume set titled 'A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species'. The last book has nearly 1200 pages, 1800 photographs, and features more than 500 species.

This month’s speaker is Arnold Gum who will talk on ‘Wild Orchids of Southern France’.  His presentation will survey the different orchids encountered in a variety of day hikes through Provence, most with orchids in mind, with a bit of discussion about the habitat and the travels, laced with a bit of French scenery, food and background.

Arnold Gum
While the Provence region in the South of France is known for its delicious food, a broad variety of scrumptious cheeses, and fine wine, it is also one of the most bio-diverse regions in the world.  This is indeed ironic, as humans are not well known for idle co-existence with nature.  However, the coast of Provence has some of the earliest known sites of human habitation in Europe. Primitive stone tools dated approximately 1 million years BC were found between Monaco and Menton and remains of Roman ruins and old castles are common.  Thus, it was with some delight that Arnold discovered that, amid the ruins of old civilizations, there are a host of butterflies, wildflowers, and orchids.  The sheer number and variety of species speaks to the tenacity and resilience of nature!  The orchids start blooming early, perhaps around March, each species blooming in a small slice of perhaps two weeks in any given area.  The last bloomers may bloom as late as August or September!  That means that the serious orchid lover needs to visit Provence multiple times to see all of the different orchid species in bloom!  The orchids in the presentation consist of photos taken in two brief slices of time, once in the mid-June time frame and again, on a return trip to hunt for Ophrys, in early May.  What Arnold found was nothing short of astounding.  Ophrys were so thick that you could not avoid walking on them!  Quite the sight, when you are used to the somewhat barren, dry Southern California landscape.    Read more »