Join us for a talk on Watering and Water Quality presented by Christian Lesage!

Some of the basic tools I use at home for making informed decisions about the water used for irrigating my plants with include a Blue Lab combo meter for measuring the pH and Electrical Conductivity of my water before and after adding fertilizer, a scale for measuring dry fertilizer powders, and a TDS (Total Dissolved Salts) pen meter for quick readings of the final solution.

Meeting Date: Wednesday, February 11^th at the Farmington Senior Center.  Doors open at 6:00pm for socializing and the general body meeting starts at 6:30pm.

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

Event: Elementals of Orchid Growing: A Practical and Scientific approach to demystifying watering

Unsure about watering? We all have been there, caught up in a mountain of bewildering and often contradictory information on how to water our plants. None of us want to torture our orchids, but inevitably we reach a point as a beginner or even an experienced grower where things are looking bleak and it’s sometimes unclear what caused the latest casualty. Within a droplet of water there lies an unseen world of interactions, a seemingly wizardly level of chemistry that varies from one source to another. While understanding water is only part of the picture for successfully growing orchids its often one of the most overlooked aspects of orchid culture.

As an organism we have a wide range of tolerance for variation between water sources, rarely do you consider the pH, electrical conductivity, buffering capacity, or concentration of each element in your daily intake. The groundwater and subsurface sources we tap into are generally within the range that we as an organism can safely consume. As biological organisms we are adapted to maintaining homeostasis in the face of adverse environmental conditions since we began drinking out of freshwater springs, streams, lakes, and subsurface flow. You wouldn’t drink from a saltwater body any more than from a muddy puddle, yet we thoughtlessly expect that the same water that is safe for us, is safe for our orchids.

Before we begin tackling a practical approach to water quality, consider the environment in which orchids are adapted to grow. They are broadly speaking, (for the purposes of the most common species found in cultivation) epiphytes subject to the precipitation and host effluent in their natural ecosystem. These are stable systems with predictable water chemistry, many of these plants are living off very pure water that is only modified by organic chemistry interactions. At some point you have probably heard that giving your plants rainwater is perhaps the easiest way to achieving the water quality that your plants need. And on a basic level collecting rainwater is the closest approximation we have to what these plants may be experiencing in situ. Even here we stumble since rainwater in our anthropogenically altered and foreign climate zone is nowhere near what an orchid would experience in a functional ecosystem with intact nutrient and water cycles.

Water chemistry may seem like a steep learning curve, but let’s break it down to a few simple steps. How many of you know what the pH of your water is? What is your dissolved salt content and ppm of individual elements? Are they present in the correct ratio? Are they available to the plant at your pH? How often do you need to water? How often and what concentration should you fertilize at? Lets start by looking at what constitutes good water for orchids and go over the practical steps to getting there and then closely examine the dynamic interplay between water, watering style, and substrate. This is the nuanced balance between science and art, the craft of becoming a master orchid grower.

I will be bringing an EC (Electrical Conductivity) and pH meter to the meeting and encourage anyone interested to bring in water samples for testing at the end of the talk. This is a quick starting point for understanding your water quality and an easy starting point for making decisions about cultural practices. Be sure to use a clean uncontaminated contain such as a used plastic water bottle, fill the bottle completely and avoid leaving a large air gap at the tap.

There will be a show table, so don’t forget to bring along your blooming plants for the show table. It’s always exciting to see what’s coming into bloom, looking forward to an awesome show table!

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

Greg Griffis will be Presenting on the Eric Young Orchid Foundation

Cattleya gaskelliana at Longwood Gardens in the Orchid House

Meeting Date: Wednesday, January 14^th 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 Eric Young Orchid Foundation – Updates and Future Outlook

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 Griffis began his orchid career in 2010 as the Grower for Parkside Orchid Nursery, one of the leading retail orchid nurseries in the US, growing many different genera. From there he moved to work for Hilo Orchid Farm, Hawaii in 2011, one of the highest quality and largest wholesale orchid producers in the US, working with Paphiopedilum, Intergeneric Oncidiinae, and Miltoniopsis. In 2015 Greg began working as the orchid grower at Longwood Gardens, one of the leading US orchid collections, specializing in historic Cattleya, Disa, the Habenaria alliance, Intergeneric Oncidiinae, terrestrial orchids, and many other common genera.

There, he initiated hybridizing programs in the Habenaria alliance, Cattleya alliance, Intergeneric Oncidiinae, Paphiopedilum, Masdevallia, Disa, and more.

In 2025 Greg began his tenure as the Curator of the Eric Young Orchid Foundation, where he looks forward to advancing hybridizing and education in the orchid world.

Come with us on an exciting journey as we learn about the Eric Young Orchid Foundation, its work in hybridizing, and the outlook for the future! We will talk about hybridizing trends at the Foundation, our new projects and research, and the culture for the primary genera that we hybridize.

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

Join us for our Annual Re-potting Clinic

Meeting Date: Wednesday, October 8^th at the Farmington Senior Center.  Doors open at 6:30pm for socializing and the meeting starts at 7pm.

The Farmington Senior Center is located at: 321 New Britain Ave, Unionville, CT 06085

Presentation: Orchid Re-potting Clinic

Our October meeting will be a Repotting Clinic with orchid supplies for sale! As a reminder, one of the many benefits of being a member of the orchid society is a 25% members discount on all books and supplies, I would encourage everyone to take advantage of the discount, the prices for pots, mixes, and stakes are very reasonable and you are supporting your society with your purchase! The supplies list is posted under the ‘Supplies’ tab on our website, NOT on the sidebar under the calendar, that is an outdated supplies list that we can’t seem to delete! Please reach out ahead of time to, ctorchidsociety@gmail.com if there is anything you would like us to bring to the meeting for you. We will be bringing a selection of supplies but will not have everything on the list unless it’s specifically requested. As we head into the cooler months of fall many orchids are putting on new root and shoot growth, so take advantage of this and get some repotting done! We have everything you need from pots to stakes and everything in between.

If you are uncertain or intimidated about repotting your plants or just want to join in the fun this month’s meeting should be a popular event. Bring in your overgrown plants or plants in old potting media, our orchid experts will be on hand to coach you on how to repot or divide your plant. If you would like someone to re-pot your plant for you we can also do that for a small fee of $5 per plant. This is a hands-on event so be prepared to dig in and get dirty! We will have extra pruners and repotting tools, but strongly encourage you to bring your own if you have them so we have enough to go around.

Even if you don’t have any orchids to repot, come on out and join us at the September meeting, there is always something new to learn, and as always, we encourage you to bring your blooming plants for the 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

Join us for our September meeting where we will be going over show preparations!

When: Wednesday September 10th at 6:30 pm

Where: The Cheshire Senior and Community Center 240 Maple Ave, Cheshire, CT 06410

Meeting Info:

Our show is just around the corner, we have been busy behind the scenes making sure preparations are underway for our Show and Sale ‘Orchid Harvest’ on September 27th and 28th at the Bristol Senior and Community Center. If it hasn’t made its way onto your calendar yet be sure to save the date.

We are asking all our membership to contribute volunteer hours to make this another successful show. If you have any availability that weekend we need your help and ask that you sign up for a volunteer timeslot. We will be sending out a volunteer signup sheet to the membership, please be sure to check your email and signup through the link provided. Setup will begin on Friday the 26th in the afternoon as we put together the show and sales area ahead of the arrival of our vendors and sister orchid societies. The biggest push will take place on Friday, but we will also need volunteers to staff the show on Saturday and Sunday, tasks will include manning the society sales area, front door greeters, show monitors, raffle facilitators, etc.

At our meeting on September 10th we will be discussing volunteer roles and going over the plan for setup on Friday. If you are planning on volunteering at the Show and Sale we strongly recommend that you attend the September meeting

There will be a show table, so don’t forget to bring along your blooming plants for the show table. It’s always exciting to see what’s coming into bloom, looking forward to an awesome show table! Please print and fill out the ID card for the show table here

Join us for our June Meeting featuring a presentation on Masdevallia by Tim Culbertson!

Meeting Date: Wednesday, June 11th at the Farmington Senior Center. Doors open at 6:30pm for socializing and the general body meeting starts at 7pm.

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

Event: Masdevallias by Tim Culbertson

Our speaker this month will be Tim Culbertson, one of his passions has always been plants. He began growing orchids as an offshoot from working at Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia just after college. From the very beginning it was all about Paphs, particularly awarded and select clones of historic importance, of which his collection numbers nearly
3000. He currently manage the paphs at Sunset Valley Orchids, and does hybridizing in a wide range of genera. He is an accredited judge with the American Orchid Society, and has served in various capacities with various orchid societies in California and on the East Coast. He loves meeting other people who like orchids too, and doing so often finds him traveling to shows, vendors, and peoples’ greenhouses to see the latest and greatest in new hybrids and to get the best orchid gossip. He likes to be involved in plants as much as possible: in addition to Longwood, he’s 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, he really likes plants.

For the meeting, he will be sharing a presentation entitled “Masdevallias You Can Actually Grow.” It’s been such a pity that these absolute gems trace most of their heritage to cold-growing, cloud forest species. Some modern hybridizers are pushing back on those temperature requirements to make new Masdevallia hybrids which are compact, floriferous, colorful, and that grow and bloom in normal intermediate conditions in mixed collections. These plants are easy to grow and flower, are vigorous, and have low demands on light and fertilizer, and as such are wonderful plants! He will help to identify important species in the backgrounds of historically important and modern Masdevallias, as well as
discuss the different directions of breeding warmth tolerance. By the end of this presentation, you will have a new appreciation of what goes into breeding trends for these types of plants, as well as an appreciation of their beautiful flowers and ease-of-growth.

There will be a show table, so don’t forget to bring along your blooming plants for the show table. It’s always exciting to see what’s coming into bloom, looking forward to an awesome show table!

Join us for our April Meeting featuring a presentation on Phragmipedium by Jason Chang!

Phrag. Fritz Schomburg (besseae ‘OZ Selected’ x kovachii ‘Full Moon’)

Meeting Date: Wednesday, April 9th at the Farmington Senior Center.  Doors open at 6:30pm for socializing and the general body meeting starts at 7pm.

Where: The Farmington Senior Center

321 New Britain Ave, Unionville, CT 06085

Event: Phragmipedium by Jason Chang

Our speaker this month will be Jason Chang, who started growing orchids in the mid 1990s. He began this hobby as a windowsill grower, although he has occasionally supplemented with artificial lights in the past as well. More recently he has transitioned his collection into a basement greenhouse powered exclusively by LED lights, where he grows a wide variety of genera including cattleyas, paphiopedilums, phragmipediums, neofinetia, and catasetinae.

At the meeting Jason will be discussing one of his (many) favorite orchids, the popular South American “ladyslippers” of the genus Phragmipedium. He will be reviewing some of the more common species and hybrids, and will offer from a hobbyist perspective some historical and cultural notes.

There will be a show table, so don’t forget to bring along your blooming plants for the show table. It’s always exciting to see what’s coming into bloom, looking forward to an awesome show table!