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Andrew CameronOur society is happy to welcome Andy Cameron, Ph.D., from California Institute of Technology.  Andy will be speaking to us on the importance of genes and chromosomes in orchids. The title of his talk is "Steamy Stories:  How Genes and Chromosomes Do Their Dance." In the present era of genomics, concepts involving DNA, genes and chromosomes are offered to explain many of the everyday processes that we, as orchidists, find fascinating. How do genes affect the shape and colors of orchid flowers? What can the number of chromosomes tell us about our favorite cymbidium hybrids? The relevance of these questions to our understanding of the growth and hybridization of cymbidiums emerges from stories about the way the genetic material behaves during plant growth and form.  His talk will take place in the Lake San Marcos conference center which is located near the pavilion.

Andy is a semi-retired member of the research faculty at the California Institute of Technology. He studies how the  genomes of marine creatures like sea urchins and sea stars dictate the form of these animals. He is past president of the San Gabriel Valley Branch of the Cymbidium Society of America and an Associate Judge for the CSA. He writes the Duffer's Corner column for the CSA Journal. He also tries to convince cymbidiums and other cool-growing orchids that Pasadena is a good place to live. One of his major goals is to introduce orchid hobbyists to the wonderful body of biological information that underlies their pursuits.   Read more »

Arnold GumIt is a pleasure to welcome back Arnold Gum to our society.  Arnold will present a travel log on his trips to Taiwan, as a guest of the Taiwanese government, to judge the Taiwanese International Orchid Show.  Arnold also spent some time exploring Taiwan including looking at some of their wild orchids, visiting orchid nurseries, and having wonderful meals with the Mayor of Tainan (in the South of Taiwan) and the President of Taiwan, visiting amazing temples, the national museum, the pottery museum, and of course, shopping.  Arnold will review the highlights of his trips to this orchid rich part of the world. It is a presentation not to be missed.

Arnold Gum is a patent attorney by profession, working locally at Qualcomm. He has been growing orchids for over 45 years and spent his youth with some of Hawaii's greatest orchid pioneers including Ben Kodama, Tadao Kazumura, Isamu Ota, Richard Takafuji, Richard Takase, and Goodale Moir.  Arnold has been an American Orchid Society Judge for around 25 years and has been a member of various orchid societies along the way.  He has won over 85 AOS awards and grows all sorts of orchids including cattleyas, phalaenopsis, papiopedilums, including lots of rare and amazing plants. Over the years, Arnold has amassed a collection of several thousand plants. Like many of us, Arnold also grows other types of plants, including epiphyllum cacti, aloes, plumerias, and fruit trees.

Ron ParsonsWe are happy to welcome back Ron Parsons to our society. Ron will be speaking on the Orchids of Sichuan, China. In June of 2012, Ron was fortunate enough to attend a tour in the province of Sichuan, China led by the late Holger Perner and his wife, Wenqing to see Cypripediums and other native orchids in habitat. They traveled through the northern reaches of the province, seeing some of the most spectacular scenery and wildflowers Ron has ever seen. They visited two World Heritage Sites of such natural beauty, and traveled through different ethnic regions (although most of the people in this area are Tibetan), and the tour of six visitors had a truly incredible adventure. Ron had such a fantastic time that he joined the tour for a second visit in 2013! He will be describing his experiences from the trip and show us many beautiful pics of orchids he observed during his visit.   Read more »

Curtis Gean (left), relocating orchids in MexicoWe are delighted to welcome to our society Curtis Gean of Sierra Vista Orchids, Sanger, CA. Curtis will speak on ‘Laelia anceps – the Color Forms and Their Influence on Hybridizing’.  He will address the various results when using L. anceps as a parent. Curtis will answer your questions and provide the plant opportunity table with emphasis on the topic of his talk. He also will have a few plants for sale.  As a small quiz, Curtis has included a pic of L. anceps along with two anceps hybrids, Hybrid 1 and Hybrid 2. Attendees should try to figure out what the other parent is, which will be revealed during his talk.  Curtis is a shared speaker with SDCOS and will be presenting a talk on ‘Hybridizing with Oncidium lecuochilum and Baptistonia echinata’ on Tuesday, August 1 in Balboa Park. All are welcome to attend.

Curtis is a semi-retired photographer/videographer that has had a long time interest in orchids.  After dabbling in hybrid roses, he was introduced to orchids in 1970 because of his need to use some plants and flowers in a photo shoot.  The gentleman that provided his introduction was Homer C. Dodson, who later became his mentor.   Read more »

Tim CulbertsonPOS is pleased to welcome Tim Culbertson who will be sharing his presentation on “Laelia purpurata, the Queen of the Cattleyas”.  Although large, these spectacular cattleyas grow well outside in Southern California, and with their myriad colors and a relatively unique blooming time, these are great plants for every collection, extending the blooming times in the Cattleya Alliance through July.  With more and more Laelia purpurata clones and seedlings coming in from Brazil, and large grexes being bred in the United States, these stately, magnificent plants have seen a resurgence in popularity of late, and with good reason!  By the end of this presentation, you will have a new appreciation of the range of color forms of Laelia purpurata and its hybrids, as well as an appreciation of their beautiful flowers and ease-of-growth.  Tim will be providing a plant table of outdoor growing cattleyas, including many plants of Laelia purpurata in bud. He also will have additional plants for sale   Read more »