Monthly Meeting

"Indoor and Outdoor Orchid Growing Structures for Southern California and Beyond"

Nico Goossens is a grower and co-owner of Lico Orchids and Flowers, Encinitas, CA. Since 1982, he has also worked in the construction industry. His first exposure to orchids came in 1978 when he was given custodial care of a shipment of bare root central American orchids that had been inspected by US Agriculture, fumigated, held in quarantine, and warehoused for over two months, and finally refused by the consignee. In spite of total degradation, with time and lots of research on orchid care, Nico managed to bloom some of the plants, thus, marking the beginning of his passion for orchids. He continued to sparingly and cautiously dabble with growing orchids outdoors until about 1995 when Lisa Humphreys and he started Lico Orchids & Flowers and build their greenhouse, thus adding greenhouse building and growing to his knowledge.

Nico enjoys growing all kinds of varied orchid genera and especially species. He is also very interested in the conservation of Southern California’s local native orchids. He has traveled to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Brazil, and China to see orchids growing in the wild.  This should be a very educational talk for our members.

Lico Orchids will provide plants for the opportunity table this month.

June's culture class will be given by our own Jerry Spencer who will provide culture tips on "Growing Magnificent Specimen Orchid Plants". As POS members know, Jerry and Anita Spencer are experts in producing wonderful specimen orchids, several of which have won awards. 

Our speaker this month is Paul Tuskes, who will present the topic "Encyclias and their Relatives". Encyclias are a widespread and diverse genus of orchids that consist of about 240 species, which occur from Florida to Argentina.  With such a wide range of habitats, it is not surprising that many do well outdoors here in San Diego.  All the species grow on tree or shrub branches in the wild and prefer climates that have distinctive wet and dry seasons. Many species have foliage and growth characteristics similar to Cattleya species. Not surprisingly, Encyclia orchids readily breed with other members of the Cattleya alliance to form interesting hybrids. Paul will discuss Encyclia culture and distribution and we will have the opportunity to see some of the outstanding species from each region.  He will also discuss some of the trends in their hybrids.  Since Encyclias are easy to grow, beginners and experienced hobbyists alike will gain much valuable information on this interesting orchid genus by attending Paul’s talk. 

Paul and his wife, Ann, started the species study group nearly 25 years ago, they are AOS judges, and have traveled in Central and South America.  Paul and Ann are members of the San Diego Orchid Society and Paul currently serves as 1st Vice President the Society.

Bruce Kidd

We are delighted to welcome Mr. Bruce Kidd who will speak to us on “Pest Management in Orchids”. Although Bruce is a retired professional pest control expert, his talk will be geared toward preventative measures for the hobbyist to avoid pest problems in orchid collections, be they large or small. This is a very timely talk and should not be missed, since we are entering the spring and summer growing seasons when such pests become more active and require proactive steps to avoid problems.

It’s been said that the only orchid growers who don’t have pests like scale and mites are the ones with bad eyes. Or, that there are two kinds of growers; those who already have pest problems, and those who will. As the size of your collection grows, problems created by crowding, neglect and the promiscuous exchange of plant material assure that sooner or later you will have most of the major pests either as tourists or residents in all the areas where you grow plants.    Read more »

Aussie Native Dendrobiums and their CultivationFred Clarke and his black orchid Fredclarkeara (FCC)

We are delighted to welcome back one of our favorite speakers and long time supporter of the Palomar Orchid Society, Fred Clarke of Sunset Valley Orchids, who will speak to us on “Aussie Native Dendrobiums and their Cultivation”. 

Aussie Dens are quite attractive orchids in that they are easy to grow, tolerant of heat and cold, have fragrant flowers, and re-bloom from the old bulbs!!!  They grow well with Cattleyas and, in frost-free areas, they are perfect plants for the shade house. Orchid growers from down under have been breeding their native Dendrobiums and creating some fantastic flowers over the last several years.  Fred’s powerpoint presentation will cover the ‘best practices’ for growing these remarkable plants and highlight some of his own hybridization efforts with this versatile class of orchids.

As many of you know, Fred is an excellent, highly sought after lecturer in the orchid world so his talk should be one of the highlights of our 2012 speaker’s program. You won’t want to miss it.

Fred has been growing orchids for 33 years and has been hybridizing for 25 of those years. With over 25 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 is www.sunsetvalleyorchids.com/

Peter T. Lin

Mini-Catts: Delightful Cattleyas in Miniature

Peter T. Lin 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.

Due to limited growing space, Peter has specialized in miniature orchids, both species and hybrids, for which he has received numerous AOS awards. His other interests in orchids include Dendrobiums, Angraecoids, and Neofinetias. He maintains a collection of more than a thousand orchids at his home in Southern California spread over 3 small greenhouses, as well as in the house under fluorescent lights. Peter will also be providing the plants for this month's plant opportunity table. There will be a nice selection of orchids, so be sure to buy your tickets!

Peter started growing orchids over 25 years ago, but then stopped due to school and starting a career. It wasn't until about 9 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 on the internet: www.flickr.com/photos/minicatt/collections. Peter maintains his own website at www.diamondorchids.com.