Meetings

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.

October 2012 Meeting

Alex Nadzan speaking on Orchid Hybridizing Basics
Cattleya hybrid seed pod
Newly germinated orchid seeds
Close-up of newly germinated orchid seeds
Orchid seedlings before replating
Seedling flask of L. tenebrosa
Deflasking orchid seedlings
Rinsing the roots of the orchid seedlings
Discussing flasking and orchid hybridization
Paphiopedilum Primechild – Merle Robboy
Cattleytonia Jamaica Red 'Sentinel' HCC/AOS – Alex Nadzan
Dendrobium limpidum – Helge Weissig
Dendrobium convolutum – Merle Robboy
Cymbidium Chens Ruby 'Gold Tiger' – Gil Ho
Unknown Cattleya hybrid – Janice Krause
Vuylstekeara Pacific Passion 'TOW' – Warren Stehle
Slc. Circle of Life 'Trailblazer' x Lc. Magic Melody – Alex Nadzan
Blc. Toshie's Magic – Alex Nadzan
Blc. Horizon Flight x Slc. Circle of Life – Alex Nadzan
Slc. Golden Wax 'Lone Star' x Blc. Love Sound 'Dogashima' – Alex Nadzan
Lc. Canhamiana v. coerulea 'Azure Skies' – Alex Nadzan
Neofinetia falcata – Alex Nadzan

Alex Nadzan gave a very educational and informative introduction to orchid hybridization from an amateur's perspective. As part of his presentation, he demonstrated the de-flasking and first potting of seedlings. The selection of plants brought in for the Show and Tell portion of the meeting was a little smaller as our attendance was below normal as well, possibly due to the Presidential debate. However, there were several very beautiful flowers to be admired.

Source: Flickr

October 2012 - Alex Nadzan

An Amateur’s Attempt at Orchid Hybridizing

Alex NadzanAlex NadzanOctober’s speaker will be our own Alex Nadzan who has been collecting and growing orchids for over 20 years with emphasis on Cattleya, Oncidium and Cymbidium species and hybrids. Alex was first bitten by the orchid bug in the late 1980’s when he attended an orchid show at the Chicago Botanic Garden and purchased from Orchids by Hausermann, Inc. two orchids, a Cattleya and Oncidium, both of which he still owns and manages to bloom on a yearly basis.  His orchid collection, which now consists of a few thousand orchids, expanded after he and his family relocated to San Diego where conditions are favorable for growing outdoors compared to the Chicago area.  

Over the last 7 years, Alex has embarked on an orchid hybridizing program devoted primarily to creating novel, compact and cold-tolerant Cattleya hybrids.  He will discuss his attempts at producing new hybrids, providing an overview of orchid hybridization basics including pollination, seed production and germination, deflasking and raising orchid seedlings to blooming size. He also will show blooms of some of his first hybrids and share some of the novel hybrids in progress.

As part of his talk and in place of the culture class, Alex will demonstrate how to deflask and start out orchid seedlings for those members who may what to try their hand at it.   Read more »

Date: 
Wed, 10/03/2012 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

September 2012 Meeting

Fred Clarke and audience
Fred Clarke and his favorite topic — Fredclarkeara After Dark
Fred Clarke
Blc. Bold Step
Blc. Nobiles Ambar – Anita Spencer
Lc. Varut Startrack 'Rainbow' – Anita Spencer
Blc. Susan Fender 'Nutmeg' – Anita Spencer
Pot. Haw Yuan Gold – Anita Spencer
C. guttata – Anita Spencer
Renate Schmidt admiring the scent of Gil Ho's Stanhopea oculata x pozoi
Stanhopea oculata x pozoi – Gil Ho
Stanhopea oculata x pozoi – Gil Ho
Lc. Mariner x Lc. Mini Purple – Anita Spencer
Lc. Elegans – Anita Spencer
Blc. Malworth 'Orchid Glade' – Anita Spencer
Vanda Paki – Phyllis Prestia
C. relutina – Phyllis Prestia
L. pacavia x C. leopoldii – Anita Spencer
Prostechea cochleata – Gil Ho
C. pumila coerulea – Phyllis Prestia
Paph. pinochio – Gil Ho
C. longipes – Phyllis Prestia
Paph. Makull 'SVO' – Bill Wong
Lc. Netrasiri Classtar – Renate Schmidt
Osmentara Elisabeth Hamilton – Renate Schmidt
IMG_8609
Vanda coerulescens – Renate Schmidt
Blc. May Liu Gon (?) – Alex Nadzan
Paph. Neptune 'Mars' AM/AOS – Merle Robboy
Encyclia prismatocarpum – Merle Robboy
Encyclia alata – Merle Robboy
Paph. Magic Lantern – Nico Goossens
Neofinetia falcata – Alex Nadzan
Bl. Jiminy Cricket 'Gee Whiz' – Alex Nadzan
C. loddiglossa "Blues" x C. leopoldii var. coerulea – Alex Nadzan
Trichocentrum microchilum – Merle Robboy
Stenoglottis woodii – Merle Robboy
Stenoglottis woodii – Merle Robboy
Dendrobium aggregatum – Sandi Sandquist
Stenoglottis Bill Fogarty – Gil Ho

Fred Clarke gave a presentation on how to grow orchids well. His presentation, peppered with humorous anecdotes and illustrated with many beautiful pictures of orchids was both entertaining and informative. Find out more about the Palomar Orchid Society at www.palomarorchid.org

Source: Flickr

September 2012 - Fred Clarke

We are fortunate to have return one of our favorite speakers and long time member and supporter of the Palomar Orchid Society, Fred Clarke of Sunset Valley Orchids, who will speak to us on “Growing the Best Orchids”.

Fred’s talk will cover multiple aspects of growing orchids including general orchid culture, repotting, potting materials, lighting, fertilization, what orchids grow best together, etc. Fred’s power point presentation will review the ‘best practices’ for growing a variety of orchids and include pictures of some of his novel hybrids and species.  The presentation should be of considerable interest to both the novice and advanced orchid hobbyist.  As many of our members know, Fred is an excellent, highly sought after lecturer in the orchid world so his presentation should not be missed.

Fred has been growing orchids for 34 years and has been hybridizing for 26 of those years. With over 26 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 http://www.sunsetvalleyorchids.com/ 

Fred is a passionate orchid grower whose curiosity in orchids is wide and varied. Although developing new Cattleya hybrids has been his sustaining interest, he is also actively creating new Bulbophyllum, Paphiopedilum and Aussie Dendrobium hybrids. Moreover, his pioneering work in Catasetum intergeneric hybrids led to the development of several notable hybrids, most recently the grex, Fredclarkeara After Dark, which produced “the closest flower color to black ever witnessed”. This grex received seven FCC’s and three AM’s on the first flowers shown for judging.    Read more »

Date: 
Wed, 09/05/2012 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

July 2012 General Meeting

July 2012 - Arthur Pinkers

Arthur PinkersArthur PinkersWe are delighted to welcome Arthur Pinkers as speaker for our July 11 (please note the date change!) meeting. Arthur’s talk is entitled “Miltoniopsis, Pansy’s of the Orchid World: where they started and where we are now”.  The genus Miltoniopsis (Mltps. or Mps.) consists of six species native to Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador and Columbia. They are cool to intermediate growers and like moist conditions.  Hybridizers have produced many magnificent and very colorful hybrids for orchid hobbyists and the general consumer. Arthur’s talk should be very informative on a subject that we have not had in recent history. Arthur will provide the plant table, which will feature plants from Santa Barbara Orchid Estate and Orchids Royal, including some Miltoniopsis.   Read more »

Date: 
Wed, 07/11/2012 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm

June 2012 General Meeting

June 2012 - Nico Goossens

"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. 

Date: 
Wed, 06/06/2012 - 7:00pm - 8:30pm

May 2012 General Meeting

May 2012 - Paul Tuskes

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.

Date: 
Wed, 05/02/2012 - 7:00pm - 9:30pm