Meetings held in 2024

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.

April 2024 - Ron Midgett "Kaleidoscope: Breeding with Cattleya Horace ‘Maxima’ AM/AOS"

Submitted by Alex N. on Tue, 03/26/2024 - 5:27pm

Ron MidgettOur society is delighted to welcome back Ron Midgett from New Earth Orchids. Ron is a shared speaker with our sister society, SDCOS, and will speak Tuesday, April 2nd in Balboa Park on “Green with Envy: Green Cattleyas—Origins”

On April 3rd, Ron will speak to us on his breeding experiences with Cattleya Horace ‘Maxima’ AM/AOS. He will explore the fascinating range of colors that crosses with this fabulous parent can create. Ron has personally done crosses with C. Horace with strong yellows among others to create an array of colors. This attribute of breeding with C. Horace seems to be unique to this particular parent. The bonus is that C. Horace hybrids are easy to grow and that Horace imparts good form and size to the hybrid’s flowers.

Ron Midgett began growing orchids in 1969 in the orchid-rich environment of Southern California. Since then, he has grown orchids in many different regions of the US and in the Caribbean for three years. Currently, he resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a breeder with an emphasis on Cattleyas, Paphiopedilums, and Oncidinae. Several cultivars from his crosses have received AOS awards.

In 1990, Ron founded the New England Orchid Company in Franklin, MA. In 2003, he moved his orchid business to New Jersey and changed the name to New Earth Orchid Co., aka New Earth Orchids. In 2010, New Earth Orchids was moved to Santa Fe, NM. Read more »

Date:

Wed, 04/03/2024 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Monthly Meeting

March 2024 - Jerry Spencer and Alex Nadzan - Repotting and Dividing Your Orchids

Submitted by Alex N. on Tue, 02/27/2024 - 4:29pm

Alex and JerryAs we begin the 2024 orchid growing season, our first culture meeting of the year will focus on the basics of repotting and dividing orchids and provide demonstrations on repotting orchids that are easy to grow in our Southern California climate. The presentation will feature two of our very experienced growers, Jerry Spencer and Alex Nadzan. Alex will begin the session with reviewing repotting basics that should help both beginners and more seasoned growers prepare for the busiest part of our orchid growing season. He will provide tips and valuable sources for supplies and will pot and divide a cattleya orchid or two.

Anita and Jerry Spencer are well-known for growing and showing award-winning, large specimen plants so Jerry will share his techniques on dividing and repotting a large specimen cymbidium orchid. During the presentation, Alex and Jerry will address any repotting questions you may have so bring them to the meeting.

This should be a very interesting and educational session for all who want to get a head start on the upcoming orchid growing season. The session also will provide an incentive for members to produce divisions of your collections for our upcoming POS sale over the weekend of May 24-27 at the San Diego Botanic Garden’s World of Orchids Show (May 4-27) in Encinitas.

Finally, the plant table this month will be provided by one of our local orchid growers.

Date:

Wed, 03/06/2024 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

Monthly Meeting

February 2024 - Donna Ballard

Submitted by Alex N. on Mon, 01/22/2024 - 12:55am

Donna BallardOur society welcomes for the first time Donna Ballard of the San Fernando Valley Orchid Society who will talk to us on ‘Growing Orchids in the Middle of a Drought’. Although we are not under drought conditions at this time, most of our summers and falls in Southern California experience serious drought conditions and we can clearly benefit from Donna’s experience and suggestions for managing our orchids under such conditions. Donna is a shared speaker with our sister society SDCOS and she will be speaking on ‘The Difference Between Orchid Seedlings and Meristem Clones’ on Tuesday, February 6th in Balboa Park, Casa de Prado, Room 101 and Zoom Simulcast at 7:30 pm

Donna is a native Californian, and is an Accredited American Orchid Society Judge. After over 30 years of loving, caring for and studying plants, she went on to work as a professional interior house plant maintenance technician until 4 years ago. She has since retired and works as a part time volunteer at the Huntington Botanical Garden’s Thornton Estate Orchid Conservatory in San Marino. She currently has approximately 460 sq. feet of greenhouse, shade house and interior growing areas where she has over 1300 Cattleyas, Paphiopedilums, Cymbidiums, Dendrobiums, Sarcochilus, miniature Vandas and novelty Phalaenopsis orchids as well as several other genera.

This month’s opportunity table will be from one of our local growers.

Date:

Wed, 02/07/2024 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm