Helge W.'s posts

Phyllis PrestiaThis month, our guest speaker is POS member Phyllis Prestia.  She will discuss her trip to the World Orchid Conference, held last year in Johannesburg, South Africa.  

Phyllis will take us on a tour of the displays and orchids at the WOC, including those that received the highest awards at the conference. She will also discuss some of the orchids of the South African and Madagascar regions, which she saw and photographed.  Since Phyllis herself grows many of those species, her presentation will include details and tips on the culture of rainforest and savannah terrestrials.

Phyllis is a retired educator and middle school principal. She received a Doctorate of Education at Rutgers University, where she also served as instructor in the graduate education program.

Originally from New Jersey, she moved to California with her husband to retire in the sunny San Diego area and grow orchids. Her collection includes a variety of species and hybrids across several genera grown both in a small greenhouse as well as three outdoor growing areas under shade cloth.

In her orchid life Phyllis has been the president of the San Diego County Cymbidium Society and she currently serves as the vice-president of the Cymbidium Society of America.  She served as second vice-president for POS, as well as chairman of the annual auction committee for several years. She is active in several other Southern California orchid societies and is currently participating in the orchid judge training programs of both the American Orchid Society and Cymbidium Society of America.

Brandon TamThis month, our guest speaker is Brandon Tam, Orchid Collection Specialist at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, CA.  The Huntington has one of the largest orchid collections in the United States with 16,000 plants.  Brandon will present an overview of the collection and discuss the Huntington’s involvement in the orchid world.  Then, he will present his 10 favorite orchids in the collection including their origins and growing culture.

Brandon has been with the Huntington for over 8 years.  He began volunteering at the institution at the age of 14.  There were always plenty of opportunities to quench his thirst for plant knowledge, from tending plants in the Conservatory to database entry of pressed specimens in the Herbarium. 

Brandon credits his grandmother for inspiring him to further his studies within the botanical world and pursue a career within that field.  She bought him his first orchid at age 7, a white flowering cymbidium. She would take him to their local nursery and let him pick out a plant on every visit.  Over time, his orchid collection grew, and his knowledge of orchids grew also.   Read more »

David BrownThis month we welcome David Brown as our guest speaker. David will present on "A Year at the San Diego Zoo Orchid Greenhouse" in which he will highlight those plants that typically flower in each month. 

The greenhouse at the San Diego Zoo is open to the public every third Friday of the month as part of the zoo's "Orchid Odyssey". David first attended that event in 1999, and became fascinated with the orchids in the zoo’s collection. "There was so much diversity in shape, size, color and form." he remembers. David came to see the greenhouse as one of the hidden jewel of the zoo and he returned every month after that. Eventually, he met Janette Gerrity, who is in charge of the orchid collection at the zoo. Janette began to mentor him in his new orchid obsession and David also came to know the volunteers who worked there and who shared their information and knowledge with him. After a few years, he knew enough about the orchid collection to become a volunteer himself. Upon a suggestion by other volunteers, he began to attend the meetings of the San Diego County Orchid Society and soon became an active member, later serving as a member of the board and, eventually, as President.

The orchid collection at the Zoo consists of about 3000 plants in 300 genera and 800 species. David especially favors the large species collection: "As pretty and intriguing as hybrids are, there is just something about species," he said. During his talk, he will share some of the zoo’s "impressive plants."

Fred Clarke

We welcome back Fred Clarke as our guest speaker this month. Fred will discuss the fundamentals of growing orchids and explore some advanced techniques.  Orchid plant culture will be explained and techniques on how to maximize growth and flowering will be reviewed.  Fred says If you do 80% of what you’re supposed to do correctly, you will be a good grower.

Fred is a long time, generous supporter of the Palomar Orchid Society and one of our most favorite speakers. Fred Clarke has been growing orchids for 35 years and has been hybridizing for 32 of those years. With over 28 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.

He 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 Bulbophylum and Paphiopedilum hybrids.    Read more »

Peter TobiasThe Palomar Orchid Society is pleased to welcome Peter Tobias as our guest speaker this month. He will be giving a talk on "Traveling in Brazil with the Orchid Conservation Alliance". Peter is a member of the SDCOS and also President of the Orchid Conservation Alliance (OCA), which he co-founded in 2006 with some of his friends. In the past, Peter has served as the chairman of the San Diego County Orchid Society’s Conservation Committee.  Peter will first present an overview of OCA, followed by a discussion of  the trip taken in Spring 2014 with OCA to the Atlantic Rainforest and the Chapada Diamantina National Park in Brazil to see orchids growing in the wild.

Peter began growing orchids as a hobby in Chicago during the early 1970s with a white phalaenopsis orchid. After moving to Encinitas in 1980, his hobby really “bloomed.” His collection of primarily species orchids is mostly grown outdoors.

Peter is visiting investigator and associate professor of immunology and microbial science at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. He is a member of the San Diego County Orchid Society and a founding member of the the society’s Conservation Committee in 1991.   Read more »