Orchid Society of Coral Gables

Transcription

1 Orchid Society of Coral Gables The Orchid Society of Coral Gables is a non-profit organization established for the purpose of showing the cultural and economic importance of the orchid, as well as the intrinsic beauty, and biological and ecological importance of this group of plants. We promote the scientific research and study of orchids including their classification, evolution, propagation, culture, care, and development. Additionally, we support the conservation of orchids in nature, and disseminate educational information and knowledge about the orchid family to the general public. Highligh ts in thi s Issu e Fairchild International Orchid Festival - Our Show!! We need plants and Help for our annual show. See how you can help. Page 4 Photos from the February Meeting Pix of a great meeting! Page 6,7 March Things To Do Dr. Martin Motes offers us a list of to dos for March Page 3, 8 March/April Checklist - AOS Page 9 March Meeting Tuesday, Mar 6, :30 pm Ramnarine John Budree, Expert Hobbyist Ramnarine John Budree was born in Trinidad and he migrated to Florida some 18 years ago. In Trinidad he grew many different types of orchids and took part in collecting, growing and showing at many shows, but there was always something more. He wanted to learn more about orchids, wanted more of a challenge. He wanted to grow and flower them, of course. So when he came to Florida, he got involved with orchids on a different level. Here he was able to grow all of those types of plants he could only read "Modern Cattleyas" about and even meet all of those people that grew and wrote the articles that he had read in AOS magazines. So he started on his journey/ adventure. He started to go to many of the shows and what you do when you go to a sh ow, YOU BUY OR - CHIDS, which you know nothing about, in the hope you can grow or flower it [yea right]. He always liked Paphiopedilum but he was told he couldn t grow them. This became a challenge to John and he found these plants very interesting as well. He met some of the biggest and the best at growing orchids, Jack Schendowich, Warren Kelly {Orchid World}, Bob Skully {Jones & Skully}, Mr. Frank Smith {Krull-Smith} and Sheldon Takasaki {Carmela Orchids}. These people really know how to grow all types of orchids, Paphiopedilum, Cattleya, Phalaenopsis, Dendrobium, and Oncidium. At the 19 WOC. in Miami, in 2008, John had an opportunity to work with Frank Smith, a excellent grower and very experienced Paph. grower. He tried to absorb as much of Frank Smith s knowledge as possible, and did an exhibit on his own. The only hobbyist exhibit at th 2008 th WOC After that, he started to grow many types of orchids Paphs of course and today he owns over 1500 as well as about 4000 other types of orchids. Of course, he says, he has also lost count of the ones he killed. In short he have been growing Orchids for about 38 years, from flask to flower and has accumulated about 45 AOS awards.

2 ORCHID SOCIETY OF CORAL GABLES P residen t s Messa ge You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming. --Pablo Neruda Dear OSCG member, This is it! This is the month we hold our own show and put in our own display! This is the 16th year we will sponsor the show for Fairchild Garden, and we should all be proud to say how much our society contributes to this effort. It is now one ofthe best shows currently in South Florida! Once again, I urge our members to help with our display by bringing your orchids in for use in the display, or by helping to build the display. I am repeating myself here, but for those of you who have participated in putting in an exhibit, I don t need to tell you what a rewarding sense of accomplishment one feels when hard work and creativity are transformed into a wondrous display. For those of you who have not taken part in an exhibit, I strongly encourage you to give it a try. The process, as Jim often describes it, is four hours of chaos followed by one hour of pure magic. It is absolutely amazing how our team can turn a blank room with a fountain into a gorgeous, breathtaking display! We will once again have an interactive display, back Thrip damage can make dry, by popular demand! People paper like edges on the petals will be able to step into the and sepals. display and take their picture amidst the beautiful PAGE 2 orchids. Conveniently our meeting night is the night before our show. This should make it easy for everyone to bring your display plants in. There is security and the plants will be safe until we put them in the display the next morning. If you do decide to bring your plants on Tuesday night, please bring a list of the names,. There will be a an assigned member to help you take care of your plants in the display area and checking them in. And speaking of at the meeting, like last year, we will have to have our meeting around the center fountain and whatever tables may be already in place. Please bear with whatever we have to do to be able to hold our meeting. The last few days have been absolutely gorgeous days- but very dry! But with the dry comes those nasty thrips. Read the March article on page 3 and 8 by Dr. Motes and spray for thrips, if you haven t yet! I have already sprayed once and will do it again soon. They are vicious this year so far. For the novice, thrip damage can be deceiving. The easiest to find is on the dried up buds of vandas. Sometimes cattleya damage is a little harder to recognize. The little critters suck the life out of the sepals and petals, and they prematurely begin to brown on the edges. Many beginner s think it is just heat or that they haven t watered enough. But it is usually thrips. Sometimes new orchid growers also think the pretty white lines around the flower, as in the picture below, is just a characteristic of the flower. Nope - it s thrips! If you think you may have thrips, one way to tell is by blowing gently into the face of the flower. You may see very, very tiny specks come running out! That s them! Now, that doesn t always happen and you still have thrips, but it was the way I recognized them the first time! Well, enough of thrips! I hope to see you all at the meeting with your plants, and at the show, as a helper or a shopper! Melana

3 Ta sks for Ma rc h fro m Dr. Mo tes Watch out for mites Spray for thrips Put out snail bait, if necessary Repot genera emerging from dormancy; catasetums, calanthes, and soft cane dendrobiums Continue general re-potting of cattleyas, oncidiums, hard cane dendroiums, etc. Make top cutting ot teretes, semiteretes and reed stem epidendrums Move landscape plants gradually to brighter light Jim Davison will hold the beginner s class at 6:45, showing how to divide orchids. Ma rc h in Yo ur O rc hid Co llec tion by Dr. Mo tes Whilst March never comes in like a lion in South Florida, occasionally it slinks in like a bob cat. Frost is not unheard of in the first few days of the month. The more cold sensitive genera, hard cane dendrobiums, Phalaenopsis and vandas may well need some protection even into the middle of the month. Overall, however, March brings us some of the most ideal orchid growing conditions of the entire year. Dry air, low humidity and wide swings of day to night temperatures optimize both blooming and rooting of most orchids. In March, Nature gives orchidists growing outside a free sample of what life would be like with a covered green house. With little or no additional water falling from the sky and drying breezes acting like fans, we are in total control of our plants' water needs. Now, we can water properly: very heavily, and allow the plants to dry thoroughly in the near desert air before the next heavy application of water. The ideal growing conditions of March present a great opportunity to get our plants off to a superlative start on the new growing season. The virtuous among us, who have already re-potted their cattleyas and other sympodials as they have finished blooming across the winter, can smile serenely, assured of their place in orchid heaven. For us few reprobate it is still not too late to catch up with virtue. In addition to floweredout plants, now is also the time to replant those genera which are breaking or ready to break their dormancy; i.e. catasetums, Mormodes, calanthes and those Himalayan Dendrobium species that have finished flowering. Now is also an excellent time to re-pot those hard cane dendrobiums that need it, with the reminder that they really don't like to be disturbed and relish their roots being crowded in the pot. For those commercially mass produced plants grown in peat based mixtures, repotting is necessary in any case as the peat mix will not last out the summer and will likely rot all the roots. Hopefully these will have rooted so thoroughly that the roots have formed a solid mass that can be shifted undisturbed to a new only slightly larger pot. Otherwise the roots will need to be washed clean of soft medium and lightly trimmed. Rock, tree fern, coconut husk, charcoal/ wood chip mixes are best replacement media for the long haul. All of these materials have a life expectancy of several years before they break down in South Florida's wet humid summers. Attention to fertilizer in March will pay high dividends later on. As many sympodial (Continued on page 8) PAGE 3

4 ORCHID SOCIETY OF CORAL GABLES To all members, Once again we are preparing for our Annual Show, which is an integral part of the Fairchild International Orchid Festival. There are awards given for at least 15 classes of plants. Each and all of the awards are available to members who exhibit plants either as part of the society exhibit or individually. Everyone s plants will also be eligible for ribbon awards. Don t hesitate to enter your plants - you may be pleasantly surprised with a ribbon or trophy. Bring your plants for entry or display on Wednesday, March 7, before noon. Or bring them to the Tuesday night meeting for ease of transport! More information will be available at the March meeting. Judging will be on Thursday morning, the 8th. The show is one of our most important fund-raising events. In addition, we enroll many new members at this show. I cannot express the importance of making this show successful. And we need all your help to do it. Thank you to everyone who comes and helps the society! Remember, this society is great because of our volunteers! Orchid Talks at the Festival - All held in the Corbin Room A Friday, March 9 12 pm - Sandi Jones, Broward Orchid Supply, Intro to Orchid Culture 1 pm - Larry Cox, Intro to Orchid Culture 2 pm - Jill Sidran, AOS Judge, Intro to Orchid Culture 3 pm - Phil Sidran, How to Photograph Orchids Saturday, March am - Melana Davison, Pres, OSCG Intro to Orchid Culture 12 pm - Jim Davison, VP, OSCG Advanced Orchid Culture, Mounting 1 pm - Melida Demorizi, Vanda Culture 2 pm - Melida Demorizi, Advanced Vanda Culture 3 pm - Alex Lamazares, OrchidMania, Cultivo de Orquideas Sunday, March am - Melana Davison, President, OSCG Intro to Orchid Culture 12 pm - Jim Davison, VP, OSCG Advanced Orchid Culture, Mounting 1 pm - Melida Demorizi, Cultivo de Vandas 2 pm - Alex Lamazares, OrchidMania, Cultivo de Orquideas 3 pm - Sandi Jones, Broward Orchid Supply, Intro to Orchid Culture PAGE 4 We need volunteers to help with these show tasks: setup on Wednesday, the 7th; help with judges luncheon and show opening on Thursday, March 8th; sell raffle tickets; help with new membership signups; And other miscellaneous duties. Volunteer sign-ups, contacts, and additional information will be discussed at the March meeting. Now is the time to step up and help your society. We need everyone to pitch in for something! Melana Davison

5 In Memoriam On February 15, we lost probably our oldest member, Dorothy Rodriguez. We all knew her as Dossie and, until recently, she came to the meetings and helped with shows, come rain or shine with her good friend Polly Carico. She always had a smile on her face and a good sense of humor. She will be greatly missed. Her obituary is below. She lead a good and very full life and she loved orchids as we do. We ll miss you, Dossie! Rest in peace! RODRIGUEZ, DOROTHY B., age 94, Mayflower descendant, WWII Navy veteran, died 2/15/2018 of natural causes at Jackson So uth, holding the hand of her beloved son. Dossey graduated from UMass with a BA in Nutrition Science. She lived a Life of Service: WWII vet; career Air Force wife & mother; community volunteer extraordinaire. Survivors include: son, Charles; daughter, Pamela; granddaughter, Liza; Brother-in-law, Dave; Sister-in-law, Glo; numerous nieces, nephews, special friends, and "adopted daughter" Lynne & her children. Dossey was predeceased by: her husband, Lt. Col. Earl B. Rodriguez; her son, Bradford; her older sister, Jane, and spouse, Woody, and their sons Peter & Rick; her younger sister, Anne; and her baby brother, Paul. A funeral service will be held Tuesday, May 1 at 10:00am at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church Old Cutler Rd. A full obituary can be found at Stanfillfh.com. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to: St Andrew's Outreach Committee, Fairchild Tropical Gardens, or your favorite charity. April Meeting Tuesday, April 3, :00 pm Our Annual Orchid Auction! Preview 6:45 pm, Auction starts at 7 pm! Due to too many societies having an auction in Juen, we have changed the month of our auction to April!!! This means it is coming up next month! Our auction is the second best fundraiser of the society and is very important to our financial wellbeing. With this in mind, we try to keep our costs down and yet still provide you with great plants! It used to be that members supplied most of the plants, through divisions, keikis, or extra plants, to be auctioned off. I don t know why, but it has become more common to purchase plants for the auction. This has, of course, truly lessened the amount of dol- I know I have said it before, but last year, our member, Sandra Elliott, donated 20 extra plants, and/or divisions of her plants to the auction. They were the best plants and went for the most money of all the plants we had! This is what we are trying to achieve this year. If every member could donate one or two plants or divisions, we would have enough plants to hold a great auction at very little cost, like it used to be in the past. Please, while you are repotting this next month, please pot up a division for the society! Or if you ve got more than one of a plant, please think about donating it to the auction. PAGE 5

6 ORCHID SOCIETY OF CORAL GABLES P h o t o s f ro m t h e Fe b r u a r y m e e t i n g! Thank you to Ron Rosenthal for photos. PAGE 6

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8 ORCHID SOCIETY OF CORAL GABLES (Continued from page 3 - March Growing) orchids are commencing their growth cycle, now is a good time to apply slow release fertilizer to last the season. The , 180 day formula marketed at Home Depot as 'Dynamite' (Nutri-cote in commercial sizes) is the best available to hobby growers. Its plastic coating is superior to others and relatively unaffected by heat, an especially important consideration in South Florida. Applied now it will be exhausted by September when we want to slow our plants down in anticipation of bloom and dormancy. The wide temperature swings of March also maximize the effectiveness of high phosphorous 'Bloom Booster' fertilizer. The extra phosphorous in these formulas probably does not really stimulate flowers (most likely the opposite) but does help rooting. Two applications a week apart will speed the rooting process. Return to regular fertilizer weekly thereafter as the excess phosphorus in the "Bloom Booster" interferes with minor element absorption to an inordinate degree in our highly alkaline South Florida water. Vandaceous orchids should be breaking vigorous new roots in March. This is the ideal moment to top them if they have grown too tall and if they have three good roots on the top cutting. Conserving one or more leaves on the old plant's stump will insure a bountiful production of offshoots. Sliding the PAGE 8 knife or shears down the stem before making the horizontal cut usually preserves an extra set of leaves. 43. Vanda cuttings made with care can conserve an extra set of leaves and the potential for more off shoots.. Now is also the ideal time to remove and reset offshoots of vandas and ascocendas. Again take care each has three or more roots and be sure you tie them firmly in their new container until they have rooted solidly. March is also the month for acclimatizing sun-loving plants to full sun. Vandas, dendrobiums and reedstemmed epidendrums that have not been blooming as they should because they are in too deep shade can be gradually moved to more light. This is best done in two or three stages, moving the plants a short distance every few days and always keeping them with the same side orientated towards the sun. Without this gradual acclimatization, the bright clear sunlight of March can scorch even the most sun-loving of orchids. The chief blot on the otherwise nearly ideal growing scenario of March is Thrips. March is the month when we are asked most frequently "Why do my Vanda flower spikes grow ½ inch and then die?" The answer, like the answer to so many problems with orchids in South Florida, is Thrips. The hot dry weather of March favors Thrips which are ubiquitous in our landscapes. The drought of March drives them from their homes in our lawns and shrubberies to seek the cool lush oasis of our orchid collections. Most orchidists recognize the symptoms of Thrips on their flowers: the silvered, sand blasted appearance and the withering of the flower parts. Many do not recognize the earlier symptoms which show up on the root tips of vandas and ascocendas as a pitted ring at the point where the green growing root tip is maturing into white. Left unchecked, this damage will cause the root tip to wither. When Thrips pressure subsides and the root re-starts growth, a brown ring remains. Orthene (acephate) is the chemical of choice for Thrips because of its low toxicity and residual action. Knoxout and Malathion are recommended also by the Florida Department of Agriculture. A non-chemical solution is liquid dish soap applied at the rate of 2oz (6tbs) per gallon of water. Be sure to water the plants the day before applying soap and take care to drench the plants thoroughly, covering not only all the surfaces but penetrating into leaf axils and other nooks and crannies where the reclusive Thrips loves to loiter. Turf the Thrips out of your collection and you will get the growing season off to a good start.

9 March/April Checklist from the American Orchid Society...by Ned Nash and James Rose Cattleya Although March is, in many parts of the country, still a cold and blustery month, the lengthening days and warmer temperatures allowed by increased light are long-awaited harbingers of the coming change of season. Some of the best standard cattleyas of the year will be in bloom, or will be blooming soon. The last of the winter-flowering hybrids will join the earliest of the spring hybrids in a wonderful display. Be on the alert for senescing sheaths that need removal. If these yellowing sheaths are not removed, the moisture they trap can lead to bud rot. Careful removal of the sheath will allow the buds to develop, although they will need additional support. Changing light conditions can also be a problem in March and April. An exceptionally bright day, especially immediately following a rain, can lead to sunburn of the foliage if shading is not attended to properly. There can still be periods of dull days where spikes can weakened owing to the lower light. Lengthening days will mean increased metabolic rates necessitating increased water and fertilizer. The plants will indicate needs by drying more rapidly, which means more frequent watering and fertilizing. With the passing of the season for winter bloomers, and the beginning of the season for spring bloom, it is also the time to be on the lookout for plants that will need potting after they bloom. Immediately after blooming has proven to be the best time to repot winter- and spring-flowering cattleyas. In most cases, they will be ready to grow roots, so if potted at this time, they will root right into fresh mix with little or no setback. Lycaste This genus of superb orchids will be coming to the end of its flowering season. Soon you will see the beginning of new root growth, which is an excellent time to repot into fresh media. As new growth emerges, provide ample fertilizer and water. A sign of good culture is an increase in the size of psuedobulbs with each successive year. Paphiopedilum March is the beginning of the season of heaviest potting for lady's-slipper orchids. However, it is a month where the volume of plants needing attention is still small. It is an excellent month to take the time to work with your paphiopedilums before the pressure of other potting prevents your doing the thorough job you should. Look at each plant: Is it clean of dead and dying foliage? Is it weed free? Does it need potting? Is it in spike? Does it have an insect problem? Cleaning and restaging your paphs is one of the most satisfying tasks of the orchid year. Cleaned and potted paphiopedilums look happy. The summer-blooming types will be showing the first of their buds in March and April. Be on the lookout for the buds, as well as any insect pests that may have found their way into the crowns of your plants. It is especially difficult to clean mealybugs, in particular, once they have become established in the plant. Better to get to them before they get a good toehold. Increasing light levels should give emerging spikes the strength they need to grow straight and strong. Do not be too anxious to stake the spikes, because if they are staked too soon, the flowers may develop a "nodding" stance, where the dorsal will not stand upright. If the spikes seem to develop at an angle, let them, and stake after the flower has hardened for best carriage, especially on the hybrids with fairieanum background. Phalaenopsis Now is the peak of spike development, with the first plants in full flower. Staking and plant preparation is a must for those all-important spring shows. Correct staking now will give a better display and also make it much easier to transport to your society meetings and shows. Care with watering is vital to avoid mechanical damage to the flowers, as well as rot-related problems. Keep spent blooms cleaned up to avoid botrytis inoculation. Do not repot this month. Now you'll be seeing lots of phalaenopsis at orchid shows and sales. PAGE 9