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.

November 8th Meeting will be at the Farmington Senior Center

Join us for our annual Re-potting Clinic

Meeting Date: Wednesday, November 8th at the Farmington Senior Center

Doors open at 6:30pm for socializing and the meeting starts at 7pm.

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

Featured Event: Orchid Re-potting Clinic

The November ‘Re-potting Clinic’ is coming up early this month, we apologize for any confusion that that last minute meeting change caused last month, it was caused by circumstances out of our control. As a result, we are meeting in Farmington in both November and December!

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. We have a large amount of potting media that we mixed up for this event, with different formulations to suit a wide variety of plants. Media mixes, pots, and supplies will be available for sale to members at a reasonable price. Feel free to bring your own media and supplies, 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.

On the agenda this month is a vote for a proposed increase in membership dues. As we approach the new year this is a reminder that it’s time to renew your membership. This year we are proposing a dues increase to be voted on by the membership attendant at the upcoming November meeting. The annual membership dues were set back in the early 2000’s and as we all know the price of just about everything has gone up over the past 20 years. We are proposing an increase from $20 to $30 for the individual membership, $25 to $35 for the family membership, $200 to $300 for the lifetime individual, and $250 to $350 for the lifetime family. The increase in membership dues will allow us to continue booking amazing speakers for the upcoming year without breaking the budget. If you have anything to say on the matter please come out and vote at the November meeting.

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

 

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

September 13th Meeting will be at the Cheshire Senior Center

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)

July 9th Meeting will be at Black Rock State Park in Watertown

COS Summer Picnic

Join us for our annual Summer Picnic at Black Rock State Park this weekend!

When: Sunday July 9th 10am-3pm We are asking everyone to arrive around 10am for setup before a brief business meeting around 10:30am with a presentation from our guest speaker at 11am, 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 ctorchidsociety@gmail.com directly if you are planning on attending and have not already signed up with a dish or reached out to Karen! We need a rough headcount 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 somewhere comfortable to enjoy the presentation.

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

 

Presentation: Fred Clarke from Sunset Valley Orchids is our guest speaker this month, and his talk will be on ‘Becoming an 80 Percentile Grower’. See below info from Fred about his talk.

“Becoming an 80 Percentile Grower”
Ever wonder what the most important requirements are for growing the best orchids?

Learn about the underlying reasons of how and why orchids grow as they do. Then explore the fundamentals and advanced growing techniques to best grow them. Orchid plant culture is explained as you have never heard it before. Learn how to become an 80 percentile grower, expect to be wowed by this talk!

The presenter will be Fred Clarke of Sunset Valley Orchids in Vista. Fred has been growing orchids for 42 years and has been hybridizing for 38 of those years. With over 34 years as a professional grower and manager in the horticultural industry, Fred applies these skills at his orchid nursery; Sunset Valley Orchids, located in San Diego, California.

He is a passionate orchid grower whose curiosity in orchids is broad and varied. Although developing Cattleya hybrids has been his sustaining interest, he is also actively creating new Paphiopedilum and Aussie Dendrobium hybrids plus some others to be named if they work out!

His pioneering work in Catasetum intergeneric hybrids led to the development of several notable hybrids, most recently the grex, Fredclarkeara After Dark, which produced “the blackest flower ever witnessed”. This grex has received over 100 awards worldwide with nine FCC’s and thirty AM’s from the AOS judges!

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.

May 13th Mother’s Day Orchid Sale at the First Congregational Church in Southington

Mother’s Day Orchid Sale

 

Date: Saturday, May 13

Location: First Congregational Church, 37 Main St., Southington

Time – 10 AM to 4 PM

 

Pick out a blooming orchid for that special someone in your life. We are hosting several local vendors specializing in orchids and pottery:

J&L Orchids – wide selection of species and hybrids of small to medium sized orchids suitable for home growing

The Orchidphile – cutting-edge Phalaenopsis species and hybrids plus other types of orchids that grow happily under similar conditions as Phalaenopsis.

Inflorescence House – hand-made ceramic orchid planters

Plus, the Connecticut Orchid Society will have a variety of member donated and blooming orchids brought in from Hawaii, orchid books, and potting supplies for sale.

This is the Society’s major planned fund raiser for this year and is our first organized fund raiser since our show in 2019. Please come and support the Society.