May 14 Meeting will be at the Cheshire Senior Center featuring a presentation on Dendrobiums by Alan Koch

Apr21

Join us for our May Meeting featuring a presentation on Dendrobiums by Alan Koch!

 Meeting Date: Wednesday, May 14th at the Cheshire Senior Center.  Doors open at 6:30pm for socializing and the general body meeting starts at 7pm.

Where: The Cheshire Senior Center

240 Maple Ave, Cheshire, CT 06410

Event: Understanding Dendrobiums  by Alan Koch

Our meeting this month on May 14th will be at the Cheshire Senior Center, we will be hosting guest speaker Alan Koch, who will be presenting on Dendrobiums. His talk Understanding Dendrobiums— will cover the Dendrobium alliance, which is one of the most diverse Genera in the Orchid Family. Learn the tricks to be successful with all of the different sections.

Alan will be accepting pre orders as outlined in the email to the membership if you haven’t looked at the email and are interested the Deadline for orders is 5-5-25. All orders receive free freight. Orders of 3 or more plants get a 10% discount & orders over $150 a 20% discount. Send your order to Alan at his email address:  gcorchids@aol.com When ordering make sure you identify yourself by name and Connecticut orchid society all orders will be presorted by society. Note this offer is for society members only.

Alan owns and operates Gold Country Orchids where he specializes in miniature and compact Cattleya’s along with miniature species. Alan started growing orchids in 1969 with 3 Cymbidiums given to him by an aunt. While in college he became interested in other orchids and discovered many would grow outdoors in Southern California. He has moved five times as his orchid obsession has led to the need for more growing space. With the last move, he purchased 10 acres of land in Lincoln, California for his 250,000 orchids. He is recognized as an expert in the Brazilian Cattleya alliance and a trend setter in miniature compact and Cattleya breeding. Alan has been published in the Orchid Digest, the American Orchid Society magazine, as well as many International Publications. He has also been published in several proceedings of the World Orchid Conference. He is an internationally known speaker. He is a past member of the AOS Judging Committee, and the Research Committee, as well as an Emeritus Judge and is Training Coordinator for the California Sierra Nevada Judging Center. Alan also served two terms on the Orchid Digest Executive Committee and 3 terms on the Board of Directors, as well as two terms as a Trustee for the AOS. He is currently the First Vice President for the International Phalaenopsis Alliance. Alan is also well known for the many AOS auctions he has done.

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

April 9th Meeting will be at the Farmington Senior Center featuring a talk by Jason Chang on Phragmipedium

Mar26

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!

March 12th meeting will be at the Cheshire Senior Center featuring a talk by J & L Orchids!

Feb16

Join us for our March Meeting featuring a presentation by Cordelia Head from J&L Orchids on Miniature Orchids for the Home

 Meeting Date: Wednesday, March 12th at the Cheshire Senior Center.  Doors open at 6:30pm for socializing and the general body meeting starts at 7pm.

Where: The Cheshire Senior Center

240 Maple Ave, Cheshire, CT 06410

Event: Presentation on Miniature Orchids for the Home

Our March meeting will feature a guest speaker from J&L Orchids. Cordelia Head is one of three previous owners of J&L Orchids and is proud to be associated with the new owners, the Carreno family. She has been growing orchids for more than forty years. Cordelia is on many international orchid committees involving orchid conservation and orchid judging. She is an American Orchid Society accredited judge and served on the Awards Committee for several years.

Cordelia has been fortunate to travel extensively throughout Central and South America in search of orchids. She has discovered many new species and has three named for her. Cordelia has lectured both nationally and internationally, including the World Orchid Conferences in Miami, France, Malaysia, Vancouver, Glasgow and many others.

Preorders: will receive a 10% discount and can be placed by contacting us directly or through our website at https://jlorchids.com using the coupon code:

CTOS25

Email preorders should be sent to preorders@jlorchids.com or call 203-261-3772

Call by noon Wednesday with any preorder

The talk will focus on Miniature orchids for the home. An evergreen presentation that discusses the wide breadth and variety of orchid species that are suitable for home growing. This covers the origins of the different species and their environments, as well as some tips about how they can be grown

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

 

January 8th Meeting will be at the Cheshire Senior Center: Ron McHatton on Pests, Diseases, and Troubleshooting Problems- Module 5 of the Masters Gardener Series

Jan1

Join us for our January Meeting featuring a viewing of an AOS webinar by Ron McHatton!

Meeting Date: Wednesday, January 8th at the Cheshire Senior Center.  Doors open at 6:30pm for socializing and the general body meeting starts at 7pm.

Where: The Cheshire Senior Center
240 Maple Ave, Cheshire, CT 06410
Event: AOS Webinar by Ron McHatton on Pests and Diseases
Our upcoming meeting is on the Calendar for January 8th at the Cheshire Senior Center, since the weather can be inclement this time of year, we have opted to use one of the many educational AOS Webinars in place of a live speaker. The one we have chosen is a talk presented by the AOS Chief Education and Science Officer Ron McHatton, on Pests, Diseases, and Troubleshooting Problems- Module 5 of the Masters Gardener Series. It has been a while since we have had a talk on something as practical as identifying and treating problems in our collections. This is a broad overview on how to properly manage pests and diseases, which goes into a fair amount of detail on how to deal with some of the most common ones you might encounter in your collection. I enjoyed it and even took note of some useful information that I am going to apply to my spray rotation program. We are planning to meet in person at the Cheshire Senior Center to view the presentation, should the weather threaten snow or icy conditions the night of the meeting, the board will decide on the Monday ahead of our meeting date if we will be switching to a virtual meeting format.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

November 13th Meeting will be at the Cheshire Senior Center: Dave Sorokowsky ‘Don’t Fear the Slippers’

Oct30

Join us for a talk by Dave Sorokowsky from Paph Paradise

‘Don’t Fear the Slippers’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

Event: Dave Sorokowsky a culture talk on Paphiopedilums ‘Don’t Fear the Slippers’

Our upcoming November meeting will be a lecture by Dave Sorokowsky from Paph Paradise in California with a talk on Paphiopedilums. He will be accepting pre-orders for pickup at the meeting.

Here is the preorder information: For pre-orders you can just select from the website online inventory https://paphparadise.com/. The deadline is November 3rd. Do not purchase through the online store. Email orders directly to Dave: dave@paphparadise.com Orders over $100 will receive a 10% discount. There will be no shipping charge since he will be bringing the plants with him.

Daves Bio:

“After receiving his degree in biochemistry from the University of Toronto, Dave opted to step
outside his chosen field and operated a tropical fish import business for eight years.  Upon
returning to school, Dave received a degree in enology and viticulture from Brock University in
St. Catharines, Ontario.  While attending Brock, Dave began acquiring orchids one 2” pot at a
time and before he graduated, Dave had over 100 orchids.  Winemaking and a passion for
orchids prompted Dave to seek a warmer climate in California about one year later.  Dave has
been growing paphiopedilums for about 20 years and seriously hybridizing for over 10 years.
He is an accredited AOS judge and his paphiopedilums have received over 100 awards to date
from the AOS and CSA. Many of those awarded plants playing important roles in his breeding
program. In 2018 Dave left winemaking in order to focus all of his time running Paph Paradise
Orchids.”

If you are a beginner or a seasoned grower, Dave is sure to have some useful advise for successfully growing and blooming slipper orchids. With a generally compact habit and lower light requirements than other orchids Paphs tend to be a good choice for the home windowsill grower or perhaps for a grow rack setup. In a greenhouse I tend to tuck them on the North shady side of benches behind and under other high light orchids where they grow luxuriously and flower constantly. When the greenhouse cat is doing his job and the mice aren’t eating the flower buds, they are long lasting attractive flowers and there are generally slippers in bloom at all times of the year. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the meeting this month!

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

October 9th Meeting will be at the Farmington Senior Center: Kim Fedderson ‘A Look at Cymbidium’

Oct7

Join us for a talk by Kim Fedderson from Fair Orchids

‘A Look at Cymbidium’



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

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

Event: Kim Fedderson: A Look at Cymbidium

Our upcoming October meeting will be a lecture by Kim Fedderson from Fair Orchids in Hillsborough, NJ with a talk on Cymbidiums.

From Kim “I was genetically imprinted on all things botanical in my father’s retail orchid & tropicals nursery.  I elected not to go into the family business full time, but have always maintained my interest and a large collection of ‘this and that’. I have grown orchids since 1968, specializing in ‘slippers’ (primarily Paphiopedilum), with Paph fairrieanum my favorite species, smaller Vandaceous plants (see Neofinetia falcata ‘Maplewood’ at left) and a sprinkling of Cattleyas, Aussie Dendrobiums & Cymbidiums. I do a little breeding in several genera, so I often have a variety of extra plants, seedlings and occasionally flasks for sale”

His talk will be A Look at Cymbidium: An overview of the more important species, hybrid types, and cultural requirements. There will be plants for sale at the meeting and as we mentioned at the last meeting his speaker fee to the society will be reduced based on the amount of plant sales at the meeting, so if you have some extra space and are looking for something new consider not only supporting Kim, but the COS! I am certainly looking forward to this talk since cymbidiums are some of the easiest orchids to grow as a houseplant and are in my opinion under appreciated by the hobby as a whole. Some of the standard plants can take up a significant amount of real estate, but newer hybrids are on the smaller side. Looking forward to seeing everyone there at the meeting!

There will be a show table, so 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!

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

September 11th Meeting will be our Annual Re-potting Clinic at the Cheshire Senior Center

Sep10

Join us for our Annual Re-potting Clinic

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

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

Event: Orchid Re-potting Clinic

Our September meeting will be a Repotting Clinic with orchid supplies for sale. At the last meeting we announced the new 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 in 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 here

 

August 11th Meeting will be at Black Rock State Park

Aug10

COS Picnic Reminder

Join us for our annual Summer Picnic and Plant Swap at Black Rock State Park!

When: Sunday August 11th 10am-3pm – We are asking everyone to arrive around 10am for setup before a brief business meeting around 10:30am, followed by a barbecue lunch and socializing.The picnic is under a covered pavilion and will take place Rain or Shine

Where: Black Rock State Park Picnic Pavilion: 2065 Thomaston Rd, Watertown, CT 06795

Directions: From Route 8 north: take Exit 38. Turn left at the end of the exit ramp to first traffic light. Turn left at traffic light onto US Route 6 west. Park entrance is a 1/2 mile on the right on US Route 6.

From Route 8 south: take Exit 38. Go straight ahead at the end of the exit ramp to US Route 6 west. Park entrance is on the right.

You can use 2065 Thomaston Rd for your gps.

The pavilion is visible across the field from the Main Entrance and is adjacent to the parking & bathrooms. Very easy to locate, there should be staff at the entrance who can direct you if you have any difficulty finding the pavilion.

 

Picnic Info:

The COS will be providing Hot Dogs and Hamburgers and we are asking that everyone bring a side dish, appetizer, dessert, or drinks to share. Please respond to Karen KuzielKarenKuziel@pchiggins.com directly if you are planning on attending and have not already signed up with a dish or reached out to her! We need a rough headcount or burgers and dogs to plan food. If you are a member and want to bring a guest, please let us know so we can accommodate, there is a $5 guest fee.

 

There are picnic tables at the facility, but we encourage you to bring your own folding chairs if you would like something a bit more comfortable. Feel free to bring yard games for a bit of competitive sport!

 

Since we are not holding a regular meeting with a speaker this month we are planning on holding a plant swap! Bring along your extra divisions or plants to swap. Orchids are prolific growers and we always have a few extra divisions sitting around taking up space. This is a chance to open up some space for something new in your collection. So join the summer fun and swap a plant!

 

There will be a show table, so 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!

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

Orchid ID Cards for Show Table

 

June 12th Meeting will be at the Farmington Senior Center

Jun10

Join us for a Talk on the ABC’s of Orchid Nutrition with Alan Koch of Gold Country Orchids

Meeting Date: Wednesday, June 12th 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: The ABC’s of Orchid Nutrition

Alan Koch owns and operates Gold Country Orchids where he specializes in miniature and compact Cattleya’s along with miniature species. Alan started growing orchids in 1969 with three Cymbidiums given to him by an aunt. While in college he became interested in other orchids and discovered many would grow outdoors in Southern California. He has moved five times as his orchid obsession has led to the need for more growing space. With the last move, he purchased 10 acres of land in Lincoln, California for his 250,000 orchids. He is recognized as an expert in the Brazilian Cattleya alliance and a trend setter in miniature compact and Cattleya breeding.

Alan has been published in the Orchid Digest, the American Orchid Society magazine, Orchids, as well as many International Publications. He has also been published in several proceedings of the World Orchid Conference. He is an internationally known speaker. He is a past member of the AOS Judging Committee, and the Research Committee, as well as an Emeritus Judge and is Training Coordinator for the California-Sierra Nevada Judging Center. Alan also served two terms on the Orchid Digest Executive Committee and 3 terms on the Board of Directors, as well as two terms as a Trustee for the AOS. He is currently the First Vice President for the International Phalaenopsis Alliance. Alan is also well known for the many AOS auctions he has done.

His talk will feature how to get the most out of your hobby and your plants. Learn some very simple tricks to get the most out of growing orchids. Interested in improving your orchid culture, come on out and join us at the June meeting, 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 cards for the show table 

May 8th Meeting will be at the Cheshire Senior Center

May7

Join us for a Talk on Jumping Worms in Connecticut with Gale Ridge, PhD

For a visual comparison of worms here is a useful guide found on the Brunswick-Topsham Landtrust website here

Meeting Date: Wednesday, May 8th 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: Jumping Worms in Connecticut

For the May meeting we are venturing slightly off the orchid theme with a talk by Gale Ridge, PhD from the CT Agricultural Experiment Station on the topic of Jumping Worms in Connecticut. This is relevant for those of us that move plants outdoors in the summer or are interested in cultivating native terrestrial orchids.

The gardener in me certainly fears seeing these critters appear in my garden or local woodland. When you observe firsthand the work of a population of Jumping Worms it’s devastating to the soil ecology and plants growing there. Thankfully the name is a bit of misnomer, since they can’t actually jump, but they are fast moving and voracious consumers of organic matter which can quickly turn the soil into a crumbly mass of castings.

Potted plants can be equally at risk and a pot filled with moisture retentive potting mix high in organic matter can quickly become infested with worms that disturb plant roots and reduce plant vigor. Thankfully most of our orchids should be growing in fresh mixes that drain quickly and don’t provide a home for these critters, but pots with older mix that is breaking down or more ‘soil like’ mixes could become a buffet if left in ground contact where these guys are present.

Interested in learning something new, come on out and join us at the May meeting, we will be recapping from the Show last month and discussing how it went, 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 orchid id papers