May COS monthly meeting:
Wednesday May 14, 2014 – doors open 6:30 pm
Cheshire Senior Center
240 Maple Ave, Cheshire, CT 06410

Duane Erdmann
Restrepias
Duane and his wife Judy began growing orchids in 1974. First, the collection was under lights in their basement, and then it moved to a small greenhouse. Over the years, they moved five times and built greenhouses – each a little bigger. The current one is 18X24 off their garage. But they still grow under lights in their basement – the little things and those that like moderated temperatures. Paphiopedilum, tropical slipper orchids, were their main genus, but in more recent years Duane has moved over to the small side – Restrepia. He has taken trips to Ecuador to see them in their natural settings and do more detailed studies of specific species. Over 40 species are among his 400 plant collection.
The last area added to his orchid interest is native orchids of North America. He is currently editor of The Native Orchid Conference Journal.
Through all this his favorite part about orchids, and anything in nature for that matter, is photographing them. Duane does the orchid photography for Longwood Gardens’ photo database. He has traveled through much of the world crawling around in the wild to get that perfect picture. His photos have been included in various publications. Today he is sharing a photographic sampling of this much overlooked genus and cultural tips.