Join us for a presentation by guest Speaker Edgar Stehli from Windswept in Time Orchids

Meeting Date: Wednesday, September 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: Angraecoids!

Speaker Bio:

My interest in orchids began when I was just six or seven years old.  I found a plant growing in the roadside ditch near our house in North East Ohio.  When my father got home from work, I dragged him over to see my discovery.  He said “Oh! That’s an orchid.”  My first orchid find was a Spiranthes(probably cernua).  A few years later my family drove to Alaska and back.  On that trip, I found a Calypso bulbosa in Wyoming and several other orchids in Alaska and Canada.

While in high school, I began growing some tropical orchids, and soon had a small collection.  While in my final year at Case Western Reserve University my orchid collection moved to Florida with my parents.   Sadly, I never saw them again (the orchids that is!).  Also in my last year, I met Kim Sante who was working at the Cleveland Garden Center, now known as the Cleveland Botanical Garden.  Eventually Kim and I were married in Kenya Africa.  Shortly after we were married we built a sun room on the corner of our house.  This of course allowed my orchid collection to get a little out of hand.  Finally in 1999 we began selling our plants to area florists, then through the orchid shows. We called our new business – Windswept in Time Orchids. We now attend close to fifteen shows a year, where our plants and exhibits have won many awards

Meeting Topic: Angraecoids

In the orchid world, we often combine related genera of orchids into a larger grouping, called an alliance.  In the Case of Angraecum, Aerangis, Eurychone, and several other genera that group is often referred to as Angraecoid Orchids.  Angraecoidsare predominantly found in Africa and Madagascar.  The flowers tend to be white and fragrant at night.  The presentation on Angraecoid Orchids goes over some of the distinctions between Angraecum and Aerangis.  There are photos of many of the more commonly grown species.  Since we all want to become better growers, there is some cultural information in the presentation.

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

Aerangis fastuosa, a lovely compact plant that is well suited to a grower with limited space.

(photo courtesy of Christian Lesage)