June 2026 - Ed Danielewicz & Alex Nadzan "Orchid Culture - Repotting and Dividing Your Orchids"

Our June culture meeting will focus on some alternatives to standard media for growing orchids in view of the current scarcity and high cost of orchid bark and the use of these media to repot and divide a variety of orchids.  We will briefly review the basics of repotting and dividing orchids and feature demonstrations on repotting using alternative types of media for orchids. June is one of the best times to repot your orchids when most orchids are actively growing by sending out new roots and producing new pseudobulbs. Two of our very experienced growers, Alex Nadzan and Ed Danielewicz, will conduct the session. 

Alex Nadzan, POS Co-President, will briefly highlight repotting basics.  Since we have reviewed this topic many times, Alex asks attendees review the Repotting Basics document on the POS website prior to this meeting. 

Ed Danielewicz is a newer member of our society who has been growing orchids for many years (more detail on Ed’s background below).  Ed will highlight some newer media he is using and apply them to repotting some of his orchids.  During the demonstration, both speakers will address any repotting questions you may have so bring them to the meeting. This should be a very educational session for our new members as well as for our more experienced growers who want to review techniques for the 2026 growing season. The plant table this month will be provided by one of our local orchid growers.

Ed Danielewicz has been a member of the San Diego Orchid Society since the early 1980’s and has been growing orchids outside in Carlsbad for over 40 years. He has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois in Champaign Urbana, Illinois. Ed retired from his career as a laser physicist in 2015 but has been a consultant on deep ultraviolet lasers and optics in his own company since then. For the past 25 years he has been involved with developing the DUV lasers used for manufacturing computer chips in the semiconductor industry. 

Ed’s interest in orchids was stimulated by the late John Walters of Rex Foster Orchids who sold him his first orchid and stimulated him with his infectious enthusiasm. In addition to orchids, Ed grows bromeliads, heliconia, palms, cycads, euphorbias, cacti, ginger and many other plants in his garden in La Costa. He joined the Palomar Orchid Society a few years ago after meeting Alex Nadzan a fellow U.of I. graduate at the World of Orchids Show at the San Diego Botanic Garden.

Like Ed, Alex Nadzan has been growing orchids in Southern California for many years and has focused on growing and hybridizing members of the cattleya alliance as well as growing Australian dendrobiums, cymbidiums, oncidiums and Neofinetia falcata, the Japanese wind orchid.  He has been President or Co-president of POS for over 12 years and a longtime member of SDCOS.

REMINDER: June, July, & August Meeting Location and Time Change: Due to a conflict in scheduling, we will have to relocate to the Senior Center (799 Pine Ave, Carlsbad, CA 92008) adjacent to our current Pine Avenue Community Center location with the meeting running from 5-8 pm. There is ample parking and the meeting room is slightly smaller but will work for the 3 months listed, then back to the Community Center for the September through November meetings from 4-7 pm.