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Fred Clarke We are happy to welcome back Fred Clarke who will speak on ‘Spotted and Splashed Cattleyas’. Spotted and splashed cattleyas come in many colors and shapes. Fred will teach us about the important breeding plants and what hybrids are available for the orchid enthusiast and highlight many of the interesting orchids he has developed in this class. In conclusion Fred will cover the ‘best growing practices’ for cultivation of these colorful and showy orchids.

As many of you know, Fred is a world renown hybridizer and grower of award winning cattleya species and hybrids as well as several other classes of orchids. He is also a long time, generous supporter of the Palomar Orchid Society and one of our most favorite speakers. Fred 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, just north of San Diego. His nursery’s website has considerable information, plants for sale and many beautiful pics of his award-winning orchids.

Fred 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 other generas including Sarcochilus, Zygopetalum Alliance, Lycaste, and Stanhopea and their relatives.   Read more »

Bill WongAlex NadzanDue to a last minute cancellation of our planned April speaker, we are replacing the speaker with a program addressing ‘Practical Aspects of Pest Identification and Management’. This is a timely topic as we go forward into Spring where pests and diseases become more of a problem as the weather improves.  Alex Nadzan and Bill Wong will discuss the common orchid pests and diseases we deal with and provide practical methods to address them using both organic and chemical treatments that are readily available to the orchid hobbyist. Topics will include identifying bacterial and fungal diseases, mealybugs, scale, thrips, slugs and snails, viruses and rodent damage and how they can be controlled during the growing season. There will be a demo on use of Rega virus test strips to detect common orchid viruses.  Attendee participation is encouraged and there will be ample time for discussion and questions at the meeting. 

The plant table will consist of plants from SVO and everyone who participates will be guaranteed of at least one plant for the evening.

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 »