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Tim 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 »

Carlos 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.

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!

Gary 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.

Glen 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 »