Welcome to the Palomar Orchid Society Website!

The Palomar Orchid Society, incorporated in December of 1965 was formed when a few people banded together to talk about orchids. We then grew and bloomed into the roughly 200-member group of orchid enthusiasts that we have today. We represent everything orchid in North San Diego County! Come and join us!!

The Palomar Orchid Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the understanding and cultivation of both hybrid and species orchids. We welcome members of all levels to join us for orchid fun and learning! Our mission is to promote interest in the appreciation of orchids and to provide an opportunity for their display and the exchange and dissemination of information relating to their culture.

October 2018 – Angelic Nguyen

Angelic NguyenAngelic NguyenWe are happy to welcome Angelic Nguyen to our society as our October speaker. Angelic’s topic will be ‘The Fascinating Orchids of Vietnam’ where she will provide us information on established and new species identified from Vietnam.

Angelic emigrated from Vietnam to the US in 1990 and has been growing orchids for over 20 years. She started her company, Orchid Design, in 1999 located in San Jose, CA and sells a variety of orchids at several orchid shows throughout California. Angelic grows several varieties of orchids including hybrids and species of cattleyas, phalanopsis, laelias, dendrobiums, oncidiums, paphs, phrags, lycastes, bulbophylums, and vandas.  She also has several rare cymbidiums, including standard, pendulous and peloric, and has done some hybridizing of cymbidiums, laelias, and cattleyas.  She will be providing the plant table this month.

Angelic is being cosponsored by our society and SDCOS. She will be speaking on ‘Fragrant Orchids’ at the SDCOS meeting on Tuesday evening in Balboa Park and POS members are welcome to attend her talk.   Read more »

Date: 
Wed, 10/03/2018 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

September 2018 General Meeting

September 2018 – Tanya Lam

Tanya LamTanya LamIt is a pleasure to welcome to our society for the first time Tanya Lam. Tanya hails from San Jose, CA, where she has been growing orchids since 1997. Tanya will be speaking on ‘ Helping your Orchids Thrive in Challenging Environments’.  Since Tanya leads a very busy life juggling a full time job, frequently traveling for business, taking care of her family as well as her large orchid collection, she has had to develop successful conditions to grow her orchids to accommodate her life style and minimized the loss of plants during her travels.

After seeing orchids growing in their habitats in Thailand, Brazil, Ecuador and China, Tanya was determined to improve her growing conditions to overcome her environmental challenges. This required her to develop orchid mixes that would stay moist for 7-14 days and she also worked to also improve her greenhouse operations.   Tanya’s current collection is now improving with her successes, and she continues to try growing many species that she avoided before.  During her talk, Tanya will share everything she does to make her collection thrive in San Jose, including how she waters, heats, cools and fertilizes her orchids. She also will provide the plant table this month. 

Tanya is being co-sponsored by POS and SDCOS so she will be speaking to SDCOS on Tuesday evening about ‘The Long Lasting and Frequently Blooming Orchid Species’.  For those interested in attending her talk, please refer to the SDCOS website.   Read more »

Date: 
Wed, 09/05/2018 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

August 2018 – Peter Lin

Peter LinPeter LinWe are delighted to welcome back Peter Lin to our society. Peter is an excellent speaker who is quite knowledgeable on many classes of orchids, their growth and culture. Peter will speak on "Favorite Fragrant Orchids". Along with the beauty of the flowers, many orchids have an alluring fragrance that is hard to beat in the plant world. This fast paced PowerPoint presentation will highlight some of Peter's favorite orchids with truly fragrant flowers, and how to grow them.

Peter started growing orchids over 30 years ago, but then stopped due to school and starting a career. It wasn't until about 14 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 hundreds of photos of his orchids that he maintains on Flickr.

Due to limited growing space, Peter likes to specialize 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 (now Vanda). He maintains a collection of a thousand or more orchids at his home in Southern California in 3 small greenhouses, as well as in an offsite greenhouse.   Read more »

Date: 
Wed, 08/01/2018 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

July 2018 – Debby Halliday

Debby HallidayDebby HallidayWe are pleased to welcome back Debby Halliday as our July speaker. In her talk titled "All About Phalaenopsis", Debby will be talking about Phalaenopsis and how to be successful in growing and reblooming them.  She will also give a repotting demonstration.  These days Phals are often a person’s first orchid and, if they can grow and rebloom them, they will always enjoy orchids.  Debby will focus on discussing how and where these beauties grow naturally so that people gain an understanding of the plant’s needs rather than just trying to memorize a list of Do’s and Don’t’s.  This lecture is geared to newer orchid growers, but hopefully everyone will find some useful tidbits they didn’t know before. 

Debby is the 1st Vice President of the San Diego County Orchid Society and has spoken at all of their recent shows and for several plant societies in the region. She has served as a ribbon judge at the SDCOS shows for the last 4 years and currently leads her judging teams.  Debby enjoys helping people learn to be successful with orchids. She is an excellent orchid grower and has won many awards at SDCOS shows. She has a diverse background in growing orchids and plants in general. The following summarizes her background in her own words:   Read more »

Date: 
Wed, 07/11/2018 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

General Meeting June 2018

June 2018 – Karen Muir

Karen MuirKaren MuirWe are pleased to welcome back Karen Muir who will speak on ‘What Makes a Good Paph’.  Karen is an expert on Paphiopedilums, also known as Slipper orchids, and her talk will describe the better tried and true parents for good general paphiopedilum breeding and what they have contributed to good paphs. Karen also will include her experiences on orchid culture for successful growing of this fascinating class of orchids. Karen’s visit is being co-sponsored with the San Diego County Orchid Society. She will be speaking Tuesday evening on ‘Dendrobiums of Asia’ and all are welcome to attend her talk in Balboa Park. The June plant table will be comprised of a variety of blooming and non-blooming orchids, including a few paphs, selected from last month’s auction.   Read more »

Date: 
Wed, 06/06/2018 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

General Meeting April 2018

Merle
Jerry
Wendy Daneau
Anita's C. Chit Chat
Anita's Lc. Blazing Treat (Trick or Treat x Rojo)
Anita's C. Green Emerald x Slc. Katherin Clarkson.
Merle's Bc. Bill Worsley x Laelia Cinnabariana
Cecily's Eplc. Jackie Bright "Hilo Stars"
Carl's Rhyncholaelia "Aristocrat" (digbyna x glauca)
Alex's Blc. Hsinying Catherine "Hakucho"
Alex's Cym. Rum Runner x Cym. Phar Lap
Alex's Cym. Splatters "Red Velvet"
Alex's Sarco. Kulnura Kaleidescope x Sarco Roberta "Good Yellow"
Carl's Coelogyne puchella
Judy's Polystachya ottoniana

Photos by Debra Funakoshi

Source: Flickr

April 2018 – Culture Class Panel

With the influx of new members and the onset of the spring and summer growing season, our April meeting will be devoted to select aspects of orchid culture as well as addressing specific questions meeting attendees may have for the expert panel.  This program is an exciting opportunity for both new and long-term POS members to learn about or become re-acquainted with the fundamentals of orchid culture presented by our own panel of advanced POS hobbyists, who have many years of experience in growing a variety of orchid genera. The expert panel consists of Merle Robboy (watering and fertilizing), Jerry Spencer (orchid pests and diseases), and Alex Nadzan (growing mixes and repotting).  Each panelist will share their experiences (10-15 min. each) on three major aspects of orchid culture, then address questions members and guests may have on any topic of orchid culture. Members are encouraged to submit questions in advance to twisniewski1@cox.net or just raise them at the meeting.   Read more »

Date: 
Wed, 04/04/2018 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

March 2018 General Meeting