Archives

March 13th Meeting will be at the Cheshire Senior Center

Join us for a Talk on Terrestrial Orchids with Gregory Griffis

The radiant, peachy orange flowers of Habenaria rhodocheila

Meeting Date: Wednesday, March 13th at the Cheshire Senior Center.  Doors open at 6:30pm for socializing and the meeting starts at 7pm.

The Cheshire Senior Center is located at: 240 Maple Ave, Cheshire, CT 06410

Presentation: The Terrific Terrestrials

For some people, an interest in plants comes from being exposed at a young age, but for people like Greg Griffis, plants became a passion a little later in life

“I grew up in a family that did a lot of gardening, but I had no specific interest in plants per se until college when a friend introduced me to orchids.”

Greg, the orchid grower at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, has developed not only a deeper understanding of the plants in his care but also just a passion for the way they grow.

One of Greg’s favorite things about being in the orchid house is hearing the reactions of visitors as they walk around. He knows he’s done his job well when he hears the exclamations from guests.

Greg continues to work on improving and expanding the collection, as well as networking with great growers and hybridizers across the country. He also has authored a number of written works, and has participated in a number of video interviews as well.

Most people find terrestrial orchids, especially those that go dormant, terrifying! But they are rather terrific! This talk will take a walk around the world to overview terrestrials from around the world, and we will talk about the most common and accessible terrestrials and how to grow them. We will demystify terrestrials and unlock their beautiful and fascinating possibilities. This talk is excellent for orchid growers of all levels, as it talks basic culture of these wonderful plants and offers new options for more advanced growers.

Don’t forget to bring along your blooming plants for this month’s show table. It’s always
exciting to see what’s coming into bloom, looking forward to an awesome show table! See you
there!

Please print and fill out the ID card for the show table here

February 14th Meeting will be at the Farmington Senior Center

Join us for a hands on workshop: Tissue Culture and Un-flasking

A flask can take many forms, the basic requirement is a sealed container that can be filled with media and sanitized, where the orchid explants can be cultured. Flask in hand, Paph. Magic Paradise ‘Merlot’ x Paph. victoria-regina

Meeting Date: Wednesday, February 14th at the Farmington Senior Center;  Doorsopen at 6:30pm for socializing and the meeting starts at 7pm.

The Farmington Senior Center 321 New Britain Ave, Unionville, CT 06085

Presentation: Orchid Tissue Culture Basics and Unflasking Workshop

Our upcoming meeting in February will feature a hands on un-flasking workshop. We are putting together a short presentation on orchid tissue culture, after which where we will de-flask and pot up Paphiopedilum seedlings for everyone to take home. After talking with Dave Sorokowskyover at Paph Paradise, I decided on a nice hybrid sequential blooming Paph, amazingly enough he is claiming it can be bloomed in as little as 18 months out of flask! For those of you interesting in looking up the lineage, the cross is Paph. Magic Paradise ‘Merlot’ x Paph. victoria-regina. The fee to participate in the workshop is $10 per person. This will include: 1 seedling, potting mix, and container for transitioning the plant out of tissue culture.

Ever wonder how new orchid crosses are produced commercially? The process is a bit more complicated than popping a few seeds into a pot and watching them develop into a seedling. Early orchid growers sowed the dust like seeds of orchids onto moss trays in the greenhouse, success was very low and few plants were produced with this method. After a selected was bloomed successfully and found to be worth keeping the only way to propagate the plant was the slow process of division from growing leads. Early orchids were expensive and of limited availability to the general public unless in the form of jungle collected plants. With the advent of tissue culture the germination rate increased, making it feasible for production of seedling crops. At the same time a choice selection of a plant could be clonally propagated from meristematic tissue and multiplied exponentially faster in vitro than through division.  While you can order blooming sized seed grown or meristem culture plants, many growers also offer the option of purchasing flasks of young plants. Successfully transitioning plants out of the flask takes a bit of care to ensure that the tender orchids are properly acclimated to the new growing environment. The workshop part of the talk should demystify the process a bit for the hobbyist, with a controlled environment grow chamber of light rack this could be your next orchid adventure.

The pod parents Paph. Magic Paradise ‘Merlot’ AM/AOS x Paph. victoria-regina are both very attractive plants and should produce some nice offspring, seedlings all bring something unique to the table, maybe even an award winning cross in the batch!

Keep in mind February weather can be inclement, if the weather looks bad we will send out a memo to let people know if the meeting is still on. With any luck the weather will stay as mild as it’s right now!

Don’t forget to bring along your blooming plants for this month’s show table. It’s always exciting to see what’s coming into bloom, looking forward to an awesome show table! See you there!

Please print and fill out the ID card for the show table below.

January Meeting will be at the Cheshire Senior Center

Join us for a Talk on Orchid Viruses with Christian Lesage

ORSV Color Break Lc. Sierra Skies ‘Leone’ x C. Portia ’Mrs. Carl Holmes’

Meeting Date: Wednesday, January 10th at the Cheshire Senior Center.  Doors open at 6:30pm for socializing and the meeting starts at 7pm.

The Cheshire Senior Center is located at 240 Maple Ave, Cheshire, CT 06410

Presentation: Let’s Talk About Orchid Viruses: Prevention and Detection, a Collector’s Approach to Virus Management

Our upcoming January meeting will be held at the Cheshire Senior Center on January 10th and will feature a talk that I am putting together on Orchid Viruses. This is a topic I wish I had known about when I first started working with orchids. It only came onto my radar once there were severe symptoms of plant decline manifesting throughout the collection I was working with, truly a situation that would strike fear in the heart of any orchid professional. When we think of disease causing organisms in plants and animals we often overlook the commonalities between the maladies we experience and those that affect plants. While we can’t necessarily come down with a fungal case of botrytis or a viral case of CymMV there are similarities in howdiseases are spread in plants and as in animals. It’s important to be aware of common orchid pathogens so that disease prevention in your plants becomes as second nature as washing your hands before eating.

There are over 30 virus that have been found to affect orchids, with the two most common viruses found in orchid collections being Cymbidium Mosaic Virus CymMV and Odontoglossum Ringspot Virus ORS. Both viruses have a high level of persistence outside of living host tissue and are usually spread mechanically between plants while we are working with them or on contaminated surfaces, tools, debris, or potting materials. The talk will focus on identifying the signs and symptoms with an emphasis on how to take preventative measures to keep your collection clean. If you have ever had chlorotic or necrotic leaf streaking, flower color break, blossom necrotic streak, sudden plant decline, or just a plant that seems to underperform you may have been dealing with an orchid virus. I will go over the testing protocol in place for confirming a viral infection as well as best practices for handling plants to prevent the spread of a virus in your collection. Rather than being intimidated by an unseen threat to your plants you should feel empowered to make the right choices for keeping your plants healthy.

Keep in mind January weather can be inclement, if the weather looks bad we will send out a memo to let people know if the meeting is still on. With any luck the weather will stay as mild as it’s right now!

Don’t forget to bring along your blooming plants for this month’s show table. It’s always exciting to see what’s coming into bloom, looking forward to an awesome show table! See you there!

Please print and fill out the ID card for the show table here

COS Annual Holiday Party will be in Farmington

Our annual Holiday Party is coming up this month on Wed. December 13th 6:30pm at the Farmington Senior Center. If you haven’t signed up already or reached out to Mary please take a moment to look at the Holiday Flyer that went out. Once again, the club will be buying in entrees from a local restaurant and we ask that everyone bring either a side, salad, or desert. There will be a small fee of $15 per person to cover the cost of the food, and we ask that you please RSVP if you will be attending so we order enough food for everyone. Last year a very merry time was had by all so we hope to see you there!

The December meeting is also the time for annual elections. We will be voting on the following proposed officer slate; President: Christian Lesage & Mary Rampone, Vice President: Jason Chang, Treasurer: Suzanne Spinelli, Recording Secretary: Valerie DApice & Carla Koch, and Directors at Large: Rebecca Schwartz, Mike Wicki, and Karen Kuziel. There are also a number of appointed positions we would like to see filled if anyone is interested, most importantly we are still looking for someone to work with Suzy to learn the ropes as an Editor for the newsletter. If anyone is interested in designing and setting up our newsletter we are looking for someone creative and motivated to take the newsletter and run with it.

October 11th Meeting will be at the Cheshire Senior Center

Join us for a presentation by COS member Rebecca Schwartz

The speakers Ikea cabinet filled with a mouthwatering collection of Aroids luxuriating in the warm humid conditions.

Meeting Date: Wednesday, October 11th at the Cheshire Senior Center.  Doors open at 6:30pm for socializing and the meeting starts at 7pm.

The Cheshire Senior Center is located at 240 Maple Ave, Cheshire, CT 06410

Presentation: Ikea Cabinet Hack: Converting an Ikea cabinet into a grow chamber

Come join us for the final presentation of the year with a talk by one of our very own members Rebecca Schwartz this month. For those of us with limited space or a less than ideal home growing environment this should be a real treat. She will be talking about her experience with tricking out an Ikea cabinet as a grow chamber for orchids. If you are part of any online orchid forums for indoor growing you have probably run across pictures of an Ikea cabinet outfitted with lights and filled with lush moisture loving foliage. The modern looking glass and metal curio or china cabinets from Ikea are perfect for conversion into a grow chamber. They tend to be fairly economical in terms of price and size  allowing the hobbyist to dabble in some of the more delicate specimens that require a bit more humidity than a home environment allows, while also providing a stylish display for your collection. I am looking forward to hearing all about it from Rebecca at our meeting on Wednesday October 11th 7pm at the Cheshire Senior Center. Please note that due to a scheduling conflict in Farmington, the meeting has been moved to the Cheshire location!

Don’t forget to bring along your blooming plants for this month’s show table. It’s always exciting to see what’s coming into bloom, looking forward to an awesome show table! See you there!

Please print and fill out the ID card for the show table below

June 14th Meeting will be at the Farmington Senior Center

Join us for a presentation on Encyclias by guest Speaker Tim Culbertson

Tim is holding Paph. Yerba Buena ‘White Caps’ HCC/AOS, an exceptionally important cultivar in the development of modern green and white complex paphs. This cultivar was awarded in Oakland in 1967.

Meeting Date: Wednesday, June 14th at the Farmington Senior Center.  Doors open at 6:30pm for socializing and the meeting starts at 7pm.

Presentation: Encyclias of Mexico and Beyond; including natural history of Mexico, and Central and South America, forest types and associated species

Bio: “Although I teach middle school kids for a living, one of my passions has always been plants.  I began growing orchids as an offshoot from working at Longwood Gardens in Philadelphiajust after college.  From the very beginning it was all about Paphs, particularly awarded and select clones of historic importance, of which my collection numbers nearly 3000.  While I love finding old, rare stepping stones in paph breeding, I also do a little hybridizing of my own, and growing up my own babies is a blast.  I was once the youngest accredited judge with the American Orchid Society, and have served in various capacities with various orchid societies in California and on the East Coast.  I love meeting other people who like orchids too, and doing so often finds me traveling to shows, vendors, and peoples’ greenhouses to see the latest and greatest in newhybrids and to get the best orchid gossip.  I like to be involved in plants as much as possible: in addition to Longwood, I’ve worked at the Smithsonian Institution tending to their orchids, and for years for the United States National Arboretum, collecting rare plants and documenting cultivated species and hybrids for their herbarium.  In short, I really like plants.”

Meeting Topic: “For your meeting, I’ll be sharing a presentation on Encyclias of Mexico and Beyond.  These spectacular cattleya relatives grow well outside in subtropical climates like Southern California and much of Florida, and with their compact habit, great fragrance, and ease of growth, these are delightful plants for every collection. By extending the traditional definition of Encycliasto include recently separated groups like Anacheilum, Panarica, Prosthechea, Euchile, and others that I and many of you grew up calling Encyclia, we end up with a diverse, beautiful, fragrant, exciting group of plants and flowers; if we add those to the wonderful flora of Mexico and Central America, we have a group that every collector should grow.  By the end of this presentation, you will have a new appreciation of the range of plant habits, floral forms, and fragrances of Encyclia broadly, as well as an appreciation of their lovely flowers and ease-of-growth.

January 11th Meeting will be at the Cheshire Senior Center

Our January 11th meeting will be at the Cheshire Senior Center @240 Maple Ave, Cheshire, CT 06410

Doors open at 6:30pm and the meeting starts at 7:00pm

Come early to socialize and help us set up.

This month’s meeting will feature an orchid mounting workshop lead by Christian Lesage and Sue Kennedy. An orchid and supplies will be provided for a materials fee of $10. If you’ve never tried growing a mounted orchid before, this will be a great beginners introduction to this growing method.

 

Photos courtesy of Christian Lesage

 

December 14th Meeting in Farmington COS Holiday Party!

We will be holding our monthly meeting on Wednesday starting at 7pm

@ the Farmington Senior Center: 321 New Britain Ave, Farmington, CT 06085

 

Join us for our annual COS Holiday Party!

We will be providing the main entree for a $25 per person cover fee.

MENU: CHICKEN MARSALA, STUFFED SHELLS, SALAD, APPETIZERS AND DESSERTS!!! (SALAD, APPETIZERS AND DESSERTS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS) 

You must RSVP with KAREN KUZIEL VIA PHONE, TEXT OR EMAIL 203-710-6114; KARENKUZIEL@PCHIGGINS.COM BY FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2022

IF LEAVING MESSAGE OR TEXT, PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU WILL BE BRINGING AN APPETIZER OR DESSERT.

November 9th Meeting will be at the Cheshire Senior Center

This month’s meeting will be held at the

Cheshire Senior Center,

240 Maple Ave, Cheshire, CT 06410

 

Our Speaker will be Cordelia Head , and the topic will be different genreas of miniature and micro-miniature orchids, and how to adapt to growing them in a house.

Meeting format:

The beginner’s corner, manned by TBA

6:30- 6:45 set up

6:45 – 7:15 Socialize & Beginner Corner

7:15- 7:30 Business discussion

7:30-8:30 Repotting Workshop (A small fee of $5.00 for materials will be charged.)

8:30 -9:00 show table & raffle

9:00-9:15 clean up & chit chat

Thank you for helping!!!

 

 

October 12 Meeting Repotting Clinic at the Farmington Senior Center

October 12th Meeting will be at Farmington Senior Center
Farmington Senior Center

321 New Britain Ave

Unionville, CT 06085

 

We have a brand new meeting format!

This month will be our repotting workshop!

 

The beginner’s corner will be manned by Dave this month.

6:30- 6:45 set up

6:45 – 7:15 Socialize & Beginner Corner

7:15- 7:30 Business discussion

7:30-8:30 Repotting Workshop (A small fee of $5.00 for materials will be charged.)

8:30 -9:00 show table & raffle

9:00-9:15 clean up & chit chat

Thank you for helping!!!