Monthly Meeting

The Palomar Orchid Society generally meets at 6:30 pm the FIRST WEDNESDAY of every month in the Gowland Meeting Room of the Carlsbad City Library. The George and Patricia Gowland Meeting Room is located in the Carlsbad City Library on Dove Lane, just off El Camino Real in southern Carlsbad. The address is 1775 Dove Lane, Carlsbad, CA 92011.

September 2021 – Tim Culbertson

Tim CulbertsonTim 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 »

Date: 
Wed, 09/01/2021 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

The George and Patricia Gowland Meeting Room

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Beginning with the September 2021 meeting, the Palomar Orchid Society will hold its general meetings at the George and Patricia Gowland Meeting Room located in the Carlsbad City Library on Dove Lane, just off El Camino Real in southern Carlsbad. The address is 1775 Dove Lane, Carlsbad, CA 92011.

The Gowland Meeting Room offers a flexible layout to accommodate different room configurations such as a classroom setting or panel discussion. The meeting room has a variety of technologies to support presentations.

Directions:

Traveling South on I-5: Take the Poinsettia Ln. exit and travel east to El Camino Real. Turn right on El Camino Real and turn right again on Dove Lane.

Traveling North on I-5: Take the La Costa Ave. exit and travel east to El Camino Real. Turn left on Dove Lane (first traffic light after Aviara Pkwy.)

Traveling West on S-78: Take the San Marcos Blvd. exit and travel west, continuing on Palomar Airport Rd.. Turn left on El Camino Real and then turn right on Dove Lane.

The Dove library will be on your left and there is a large, well-lit parking lot. The Gowland Meeting Room is located on the right hand side of the main entrance.

    Read more »

August 2021 – Carlos Lopez

Carlos LopezCarlos LopezWe welcome Carlos Lopez as our second speaker of our in-person meetings this year. Carlos will talk to us about “The Four Seasons of Cattleyas” and will discuss which Cattleya species and hybrids bloom in each season.  This will allow our members to tailor their collections to have blooming cattleyas throughout the year.

Many of our members know Carlos from his work at Sunset Valley Orchids. Carlos is a Business student at Mira Costa College who has been cultivating orchids for over 7 years. His orchid venture began at the age of thirteen when he started to follow his father to work at Sunset Valley Orchids. Before he knew it, he was volunteering at the nursery and was helping clean orchid flasks, repot orchids, and doing small tasks. Carlos eventually became more involved in the nursery's operations/maintenance and started to take part in attending orchid shows and selling orchids at the SVO booths. He is currently Sunset Valley Orchids Greenhouse specialist and has years of experience with Cattleya, Catasetum, Australian Dendrobiums, and Sarcochilus orchids. Carlos is currently training to become an American Orchid Society Judge and works with Orchid Digest as well. Carlos will be providing the plant table this month.

Date: 
Wed, 08/04/2021 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

July 2021 – Fred Clarke

Fred ClarkeFred ClarkeWe are delighted to welcome Fred Clarke as our first in-house speaker this year who will talk on ‘Becoming an 80 Percentile Grower’. If any of you are wondering what the most important requirements are for growing the best orchids, Fred will teach us about the underlying reasons of how and why orchids grow as they do. He will then explore the fundamentals and advanced growing techniques to best grow them. Orchid plant culture is explained as you have never heard it before so attend the meeting and find out how to become an 80 percentile grower and expect to be wowed by Fred’s talk! Fred is 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 »

Date: 
Wed, 07/07/2021 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

June 2021 – WELCOME BACK!

Based on the recent positive polling of our membership, we are resuming our in-person society meetings on Wednesday, June 2. The meeting will be held at our regular location, the Lake San Marcos Conference Center, starting at 6:30 pm

For our first meeting, we will not have a formal speaker but have an informal meeting consisting of a Q&A session for attendees who have pressing questions about their orchids that weren’t addressed during the last year and a half. It would be desirable for attendees to send us your questions in advance so we can select ones to address during the session. Please send them to Alex and Bill. Our own expert growers, Jerry Spencer, Ken Campbell and Alex Nadzan will try to answer your burning questions.

In addition to the Q&A session, we will have a Show and Tell, a plant table, and a silent auction for those who may want to sell some plants. There also will be ample time for socializing. For this month, the society will provide light snacks, water and coffee so don’t bring anything other than yourself, a friend and your plants.

Please note that we will abide by existing state and local guidelines at the time of the meeting so bring your masks and please do not attend if you are not fully vaccinated yet or you feel ill.

The July 7th meeting will resume our formal speaker program starting with one of our most favorite speakers, Fred Clarke, who also will provide a plant table.

We hope to see all of you on June 2nd!

Date: 
Wed, 06/02/2021 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

May 2021 – Gary Yong Gee (online presentation)

Gary Yong GeeGary Yong GeeOur May 4th Zoom General Meeting will feature Gary Yong Gee who will speak on ‘Epiphytic and Lithophytic Orchids of Southeast Queensland'. Gary's talk will feature the species that grow wild close to Gary’s home city of Brisbane. Some genera which you may be familiar with will be Cymbidium, Dendrobium, and Sarcochilus. An understanding of the habitat where these species grow will provide an insight into how to better cultivate them at home. Gary Yong Gee is an Australian born Chinese and lives in Brisbane, Australia. He began growing orchids about 40 years ago. These days he maintains a large hobby greenhouse where he cultivates Australian native and exotic species. He has over 100,000 orchid photographs taken on travels to parts of Australia, New Guinea, Asia, Europe, Central and South America, South Africa, and Madagascar both at shows and in situ. Gary is a judge with the Australian Orchid Council. He is also a member of several Australian orchid societies, the American Orchid Society, and the Orchid Conservation Alliance. Gary’s main interest are species orchids. He has contributed comprehensive monthly articles to the Orchid Species Bulletin, which is published by the Orchid Species Society for over 30 years. Gary has also written occasional articles for Orchids Australia as well as the Australian Orchid Review and he has given numerous talks to various orchid societies. His website showing some of his photographs is at www.yonggee.name.

Date: 
Tue, 05/04/2021 - 7:30pm - 9:00pm

April 2021 – Glen Decker (online presentation)

Glen DeckerGlen DeckerOur April 6th, 7:30 pm, Zoom General Meeting will feature Glen Decker who will speak on ‘My Life with Slippers’. Slipper orchids, including Paphiopedilums and Phragmipediums, are orchids that many of us envy but sometimes can find challenging to maintain. Glen Decker will take us on a journey to see slipper orchids around the world, including Peru, Ecuador, and throughout travel, culture, as well as stories about the people who share his obsession with slipper orchids. Glen has been growing orchids for over 40 years and holds the degree of Associate in Applied Science in Ornamental Horticulture. He is very active in the orchid community and was the owner of Piping Rock Orchids in New York. He also has been a Director of the Orchid Digest Corporation, and Chair of the AOS Publications committee. Glen has won numerous AOS quality and culture awards, including the Butterworth Prize for most outstanding culture of any orchid, the W. W. Wilson Award for most out-standing Cypripedium alliance plant, the Herbert Hager Award for most outstanding Phalaenopsis genus plant, the Carlyle A. Luer Award for most outstanding Pleurothallid alliance plant and the Nax Botanical Trophy for most outstanding species orchid. Glen has appeared in Martha Stewart's Better Living Magazine and on a PBS TV special "Orchid Delirium". He rewrote the Slipper section of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's "The Best Orchids for Indoors", and he was technical editor for the "Orchids for Dummies" book.   Read more »

Date: 
Tue, 04/06/2021 - 7:00pm - 9:30pm

March 2021 – David Haelterman (online presentation)

David HaeltermanDavid HaeltermanOur Zoom meeting on Tuesday, March 2 at 7:30 pm will feature David Haelterman speaking on "The Genus Maxillaria in Colombia." David has lived in Cali, Columbia for 6 years, exploring the region as an orchid enthusiast and educator. Cali is a major metropolis, sitting in the Valle del Cauca, just to the East of the Farallones de Cauda, the very bio-diverse coastal mountain range.

He worked as an agronomist in his native Belgium, developing urban agriculture projects with schools and encouraging biodiversity through ecologically productive small-scale parcels. In Colombia, he explores the mountains, leads tours, gives lectures, and photographs especially the orchids of the region. Looking at his photo records, he seems to spend most of his time in the mountains.

In parallel to these professional activities, he has been passionate about orchids for more than 25 years, growing many genera such as Cattleya, Masdevallia, Restrepia, Odontoglossum, Kefersteinia, Pescatoria, Eriopsis, Stanhopea and allied, as well as Maxillaria, on which he is particularly specialized. His center of interest is especially focused on orchid taxonomy, their biogeography and their conservation in the wild.   Read more »

Date: 
Tue, 03/02/2021 - 7:30pm - 9:30pm

February 2021 – Courtney Hackney (online presentation)

Dr. Courtney HackneyDr. Courtney HackneyOur joint Zoom meeting on Tuesday, February 2nd will feature Courtney Hackney, Ph.D. from Jacksonville, Florida. Because Dr. Hackney is located on the East coast, his presentation will start at 7:30 pm. Please log in on time to catch his talk, which will be followed by our virtual plant forum around 8:30 pm. 

Dr. Hackney will discuss the major lineages found in today’s Cattleya hybrids. In his talk, he will trace breeding trends and specific clones which have contributed to some of the best-known hybrids of today. His talk is based on the decade of research and interviews which went into his 2004 excellent book ‘American Cattleyas’, detailing in old photographs and new text how the modern cattleyas came to be. The book also contains useful insights about Cattleyas and Cattleya hybrids, how to grow them, and what to expect from modern hybrids.

Dr. Hackney is Emeritus Professor of Biology at North Florida University, and is a prolific author. Recently, he has been researching coerulea Cattleyas, culminating in an excellent article  in the November 2018 issue of ORCHIDS. Other useful columns on breeding and culture can be found on his website.

Courtney grows a variety of hybrids and species in Jacksonville, Florida, but his favorites are the great Cattleya hybrids. He has about 500 mature Cattleyas in his shade house, including some classic clones which appeared in collections over 100 years ago.

He makes 10 to 15 hybrids as well as sibling species crosses per year and periodically offers them for sale.

Date: 
Tue, 02/02/2021 - 7:30pm - 9:30pm

January 2021 – Ron Parsons (online presentation)

Ron ParsonsRon ParsonsOur first Joint POS/SDCOS Zoom meeting of the year will be on Tuesday, January 5th at 7:30 pm and feature Ron Parsons. Ron is well-known to many of our members since he has spoken to our society several times. On Tuesday, he will present to us a new talk on ‘Orchid Rarities and Oddities’. This talk features some of the strangest and rarest plants in the orchid family, and includes both terrestrial and epiphytic species. The majority of terrestrial orchids are not in cultivation, and many of those shown were photographed in nature. Most of the epiphytic species presented are in cultivation, and though some may be relatively common, others are not, but hopefully all will inspire awe.

Ron Parsons has been growing orchids for more than 45 years, and has been interested in species orchids for most of that time. Ron loves to photograph orchids and most other flowers whenever he can, whether it be on trips to see them in nature or in collections. He loves to travel to see orchids in the wild, and does so as often as possible. Ron has more than 80,000 digital images, most of which are of orchids, and still retains a slide library that exceeds 100,000 botanical images. He has 4000 published photos that have appeared in magazines, periodicals, journals and books.    Read more »

Date: 
Tue, 01/05/2021 - 7:30pm - 9:30pm