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Our great society has had an influx of new members over the past year and many of them have asked for a culture class session. Our senior members are more than willing to answer any questions and for the March meeting we will have a panel session with four of our more experienced members answering questions related to orchid culture. Members on the panel are Lisa Humphreys, Merle Robboy, Jerry Spencer, and Helge Weissig. Please write down any questions you might have and bring them to the March meeting.  The more questions we have, the more informative this session will be. As the saying goes: “There are no dumb questions in this world, never be afraid to ask”. 

Lisa Humphreys is co-owner of Lico Orchids & Flowers and has been growing orchids since 1994, with an emphasis on species.  She has been active in the orchid business since 1995, primarily selling hybrid orchids to florists. Lico Orchids specializes in orchids that are easy to grow and have long-lasting blooms.

Merle Robboy, MD, is a long-time member of our society with much experience in growing many plants of the orchid family.  Dr. Robboy regularly presents all of the blooming flowers brought in by our members in the monthly “show and tell” sessions.  His encyclopedic knowledge of most all of the plants and his detailed explanation of their geographical origin, culture needs, and genetic background make these sessions a favorite part of the meetings for many.    Read more »

Thomas MirendaWe are delighted to welcome Thomas Mirenda of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., as our first speaker of 2017.  Tom is a highly sought after orchid specialist who is very knowledgeable on many facets of orchid biology as well as on numerous classes of orchids. Tom will be speaking to us on “The Mysteries of Orchid Pollination” focusing on the various adaptations that orchids have developed as pollination strategies, including food, brood site, pollen, and mating deceptions, pseudo-copulation, co-evolution with pollinators, and other methods of species isolation. 

For the last 16 years, Tom has been the Orchid Collection Specialist at the Smithsonian Institution, caring for and curating an extremely diverse collection of orchid species and hybrids from all over the world. He has been active in developing and producing huge educational exhibits using the collection plants and visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors.   Read more »

We welcome back Tom Biggart to POS this month.  Tom will be speaking on the culture of orchids of North Thailand.  He will be discussing climatic issues and how to adapt these plants to our situation.  The second part of his talk will highlight some of the orchid species that he encountered during his trip to Thailand.

Tom Biggart is the owner and head grower of Granite Hills Orchids in El Cajon, CA (a small town 15 miles east of San Diego).  His nursery is a hobby-based business, which means he doesn’t make a living growing plants.  It is more of a labor of love!  Tom loves plants in general, and orchids are his main passion.  He is very interested in encyclias and has a large collection of encyclia species and hybrids. The Australian cool growers are a current interest as well as Brazilian rupicolous laelias.  

Tom is a retired elementary school teacher with orchids as his new students.  He would love to have anyone stop by to talk orchids should one be in the San Diego area.

The past few years he and his wife, Neal, have gotten interested in ceramics.  In typical Biggart fashion they now have a throwing building, a glazing building, and a kiln yard with 3 kilns.  His pottery is designed primarily for plants and can be seen at most of the local orchid shows and at the nursery.  He would love to talk orchids and pottery with anyone interested!

Tom will provide the opportunity plant table this month.

Marni Turkel: Photo by John VarigosWe are delighted to welcome Marni Turkel to our society. Marni will speak on "Coelygyne, Dendrochilum and Related Genera".  Her talk will cover the 9 horticulturally significant genera of the 21 or so that comprise the subtribe Coelogyninae. These include not only Coelogyne and Dendrochilum, but also Pleione, Chelonistele, Pholidota and others. She will discuss the diversity within the different genera, show both common and rarely seen species as well as discuss their habitats and how they relate to cultural needs.

Marni Turkel is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and has been growing orchids since 1980. She grows in three greenhouses in Santa Rosa with approximately 1000 sq. ft. of growing space. Her main interest is in cool-growing miniature species but plenty of larger plants have crept into the collection as well. Marni has been a contributor to Orchids magazine with her series called 'Well Worth the Space' and 'Give It a Rest'. Her articles have been translated into Dutch, German, Portuguese and Swedish for international publication. Photographs of her plants have been feature in articles noted orchid publications including Orchids Magazine, Orchid Digest, Richardiana, The Orchid Review, and The Australian Orchid Review. For the last few years she has been sharing her photographs and knowledge on orchidsforum.com.    Read more »

Ron ParsonsWe are happy to welcome back Ron Parsons to speak on “Orchids of Southeastern Australia” and share with us the excellent photos taken on his trip.  Ron describes his Australian experience as follows: ‘For five weeks of the austral spring of 2011, from early October to mid-early November, I traveled through southeastern Australia. My trip started on the island state of Tasmania (the north and northwest part) where friends took me out to see and photograph orchids I would not have found on my own. From there I traveled to Victoria where I was taken to Grampians National Park in the west, the Anglesea Peninsula west of Melbourne, and Wilson’s Promontory to the southeast of Melbourne, where again many exciting orchids were found. Next stop was Canberra for a few days, then to areas both north and south of Sydney in New South Wales where many fantastic ground, lithophytic and epiphytic orchids were seen. My incredible trip ended with several days spent on the beautiful isle of Bruny Island, southeast of the capitol of Hobart, an island off an island off an island!’ 

Ron is considered by many to be one of the finest flower photographers in the United States. His photography and encyclopedic knowledge of orchids is known both nationally and internationally. He has been photographing orchids, wildflowers, and almost every other kind of plant for over 25 years, and he has taken thousands of photos of orchids, wildflowers and other rare plants.   Read more »