New Orleans Orchid Society's Newsletter Officers: President: Vice-President: Secretary: Treasurer: Past President: Newsletter Editor: Website Editor: Board of Trustees: July 2014 Carol Stauder Ian Hiler Duane Cormier Alice Barrios Donna Stange Larry Hennessey Debbie Dinwiddie Pat Herbert Eddie Barrios Frieda Palmgren Meeting Notice: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 City Park Garden Study Center 7:30pm Program: Summer workshop Orchid Basics Group Program: Prez Sez, Last year we had a Summer Workshop which went over really well with our newer growers, so we are going to have another one this year at our July meeting. After a very short business meeting, more experienced growers will be stationed around the room at tables. Each will have a specific topic and you will be able to visit and ask questions for a short period of time and then you will move to the next table and topic. We will not have a judging table this month, but will have the raffle. Our Orchid Basics group will meet at 7pm as usual. The business meeting will be the Baton Rouge Show results. Some of the topics covered at the different stations might be potting and mounting, how to deal with pests (the 6 legged variety), growing vandas and phals, minis, odd species, cattleyas, maybe dendrobiums, etc. Bring the plants that you want to talk about or are particularly proud of and we will have an open discussion to decide the one that is most unusual, the one that is the cutest, the one that is most desirable, the one that is most inspiring. Ian will discuss these categories and will have prizes for the winners. Come prepared for a bit of fun this month. Bring your plants, participate, learn, have fun. See you there! Best Wishes for Good Growing, Carol Note about the workshop Bring clippers and pots if you have some small ones for potting orchids 7:00pm
New Orleans Orchid Society Minutes June 17, 2014 Meeting called to order by Carol. May Minutes were approved as presented. Reports: VP Ian next month Orchid Basics will be a workshop you won t want to miss. We will divide into groups and be instructed on different orchid techniques and growing. It was a great success last year. We could also change our criteria for judging next month. Also we will be having a field trip this fall; October 18 th we will confirm the date very soon. Treasurer Alice gave an updated report of a few months of financials, due to her not being able to attend meetings of late due to illness. Show raffle brought in 545.00. Secretary Duane Carter and Holmes have sent out our gift certificate. New Member Chair Yvette- not attending, please see Yvette for nametags We also gave out a plant for new members.a great new tradition. Raffle Table Ann- New plants bought for raffle and reminder to sign in and purchase raffle tickets. Carol asked what experiences people had clerking. Everyone had a great time clerking. Especially Ann Ebert who had the best time clerking with me!! We pulled 14 plants and had four awarded. Congrats to all who won awards. Old Business: BROS Show: Exotic Delights, July 11, 12, 13, Baton Rouge Center, Ian volunteered to set up display, Molly will be taking down. Please have your plants to Carol Weds. 6-11 before 8pm or Thurs. 6-12 before noon. Email or call Carol with plant names 888-6639/seestauder@hotmail.com New Business: Shirts for sale, See Molly Carol has appointed a Nominating Committee for Trustees, Majority of people read our newsletter. Carol thanked all the people who worked hard for the show this year!!! Ann Ebert worked above and beyond helping the show be a success..thanks Ann!!! Ian will be firming up the date for our field trip to Baton Rouge at Louisiana Orchid Connection, save your money because you will want to buy something. Show Business: Wrap up of this year s show with Marion Prigmore Our show was quite a success.smaller show this year, but 20 exhibits and over 300 plants. 12 members brought 80 plants; Larry got 2 awarded plants, congrats Larry. Many members were thanked by Marion, Zuly, Ann, and Nancy, and everyone who participated in making our show a success. Thanks Alice who gets all those wonderful judges. Thanks to Larry who takes all the great pictures of our show and awarded plants Thanks to Carol who is in charge of our vendors, she kept all vendors in line. Again, Thanks Max for all your support. Thanks to Russell printing program and nametags. Thanks to Nancy and Pat for heading raffle: 545.00 in ticket sales Thanks to Ann for the best fuzz balls in the world. Thanks to Molly who keeps track of all pulled plants Break: Again Thank you Max for supplying cake and coffee Program: Larry did a presentation with pictures of this year s show and awarded plants Plant judging - Ann Roth.
Raffle and Door Prize New Members: Irene Klinger Sophie Hudson Mabel Himel 43 members and 4 guests were present. Welcome New Members Mabel Himel Sophie Hudson Irene Klinger Meeting Adjourned Respectfully submitted, Duane Cormier Secretary News from The AOS Corner From the desk of Laura Newton, Affiliated Society Chair The fee for a digital membership has been reduced to $40 per year; a savings of $25. Please encourage your members to take advantage of this new membership level! Have you been participating in our webinars? We are hosting webinars on various topics each month. July's webinar will be greenhouse chat. Join Ron McHatton, American Orchid Society Director of Education, for a Q&A session on how to grow and care for your orchids. Everyone is invited. Recorded webinars available: Orchids: Pests and Their Management (members only)ron McHatton Demystifying Dendrobiums (members only) Ron McHatton Introduction: Orchids and Their Culture (free for everyone) Greg Allikas Orchids Plus: AOS Digital Orchid Awards Program (free for everyone) Greg Filter
Upcoming Orchid Shows & Events Baton Rouge Orchid Society Show July 11-13 Baton Rouge Garden Center 7950 Independence Blvd. Baton Rouge, LA Glen Ladnier's wife Marilyn recuperating from surgery Keep Glen's wife Marilyn in your thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery from partial knee replacement surgery. Here's hoping for a speedy and as pain free as possible recovery. Houston Orchid Society Summer Workshop August 8-9 St. John the Divine Episcopal Church June Judging Result Award Exhibitor Plant Best Grown 1st Ann Roth C Mishima Luster 'Beverly's Passion' AM/AOS 2nd Ethel & Ed Subervielle L Pacavia 2nd Nancy Dempsey Phal Sogo Grape 2nd Carol & Arne Stauder Aerides odorata Best Hybrid 1st Ann Roth C Mishima Luster 'Beverly's Passion' AM/AOS 2nd Larry Hennessey Paph Robinianum 3rd Henri Deters Phal Little Gem Stripe Best Species 1st Carol & Arne Stauder Aerides odorata 2nd Larry Hennessey Encyclia mariae 3rd Molly Prokop Rhyncholaelia digbyana (syn. Brassavola digbyana) 3rd Ethel & Ed Subervielle Encyclia delizenisi
Lazy man's orchids Genus Eulophia or How to get a CCM without really trying At the 19th World Orchid Conference that was held in Miami 6 years ago, I bought some green bulbs that were labeled Eulophia squalida from a vendor from Malaysia. I had been on the lookout for Eulophia species ever since I saw a Eulophia spectabilis that was displayed by someone in the Baton Rouge Orchid Society exhibit at our show. The flowers were burgundy red and the shape was very unique. I had never seen anything like it. The judges liked it also as they awarded it a HCC/AOS. It was grown as a terrestrial in what looked like a peat based potting soil mix and the pseudobulb was completely buried under the soil surface. I had never seen an orchid grown this way. Eulophia spectabilis 'Red Bat' HCC/AOS Armed with the limited knowledge I had, I put my new purchase in a pot of New Zealand sphagnum moss with the top of the bulb even with the surface of the sphagnum. The bulbs were green but round so I didn't have the nerve to put the whole bulb below the surface. It grew and flowered the following spring. Alas, it was not the red flowered Eulophia spectabilis that I hoped for but the Malaysian version of the species. The unique shape of the flowers make the species very distinctive. They have a base color of olive green with bronze stripes on the sepals and petals and purple venation on the lip with a yellow throat. Eulophia spectabilis 'Layla Girl' CCM/AOS Upon doing further research, I found that most Eulophia species are completely deciduous. They lose all of their leaves in the fall and go completely dormant in the winter time. Wow the perfect plant for dealing with the issue of winter culture do nothing with it all winter. When I repotted the following spring before the new growth started, I found that I now had 2 bulbs in the pot. I immediately started to experiment by potting one bulb in my phal mix (2/3 bark mix + 1 part high quality potting soil) and one back in sphagnum. This time I was much braver and planted both of them completely below the surface. Now they really started growing and started producing 2 inflorescence per bulb. By the end of that growing season the bulbs were pressing on the sides of the pot so much that the pots were not round anymore. When I repotted the following year, I now had 4 bulbs so I did more experimentation. The one potted in the phal mix had grown just as well as the one in sphagnum. Since sphagnum is
more expensive I decided to stop using it for this species. I repotted 3 of the them in the phal mix and one in pure potting soil. To my surprise the one in potting soil grew really well. The least expensive medium works fine for this species, no more using expensive orchid media. This plant just keeps getting easier to care for. I only have to water half of the year and I can use potting soil to grow it. If I leave the pots outside where they can be rained on, I eliminate the chore of watering when it rains which happens a lot here in the summer time. And instead of putting them in the greenhouse in the winter time, I put them in my attached garage until spring making more space in the greenhouse. The garage isn't heated but since it is attached to the house it never freezes in there. Also, since it's growing in potting soil repotting is a breeze. Just dump everything out of the pot, find the bulbs and pot them in new mix. Since I am growing in potting soil, I put a layer of Styrofoam peanuts plus an inch or two of my phal mix at the bottom of the pot to improve drainage. Due to the prolific nature of this orchid to produce numerous bulbs each year, I have been giving away and selling blooming plants for years now. But this year I decided to just pot up a couple of them to see how many flowers I could get in a single pot. And to my surprise I was awarded a cultural CCM award of 85 points on one of them that had 80 flowers and seven buds on eight inflorescence when it was shown in the New Orleans Orchid Society show. And in honor of my first grandchild born in March, I gave it a clonal name of 'Layla Girl'. On the final day of the show, I was taking pictures of the trophy winners and while I was admiring the Baton Rouge exhibit I struck up a conversation with Clyde Howland of Baton Rouge. It turned out he was the originator of the red clone of Eulophia spectabilis. He had given a piece of his red clone to Donna Huston who got it awarded at the New Orleans Orchid Society show in 1999. As luck would have it I was able to give him a piece of my awarded plant as a trade for a piece of his red clone. I'm supposed to pick up a piece of his plant from his at the Baton Rouge show in July. So it looks like I may finally be able to get one of the plants that has been on my wish list for all of these years. Eulophia spectabilis 'Layla Girl' CCM/AOS Another example of the ease of culture of this genus was brought to my attention by Richard Bergeron who took over the project of rebuilding the orchid collection at the City Park Botanical Garden post Katrina. He found a bunch of bulbs with dried up leaves in pots on one bench of the greenhouse. Not knowing what they were or whether they were dead, he decided to pot them up in a bark mix since the bulbs under the dead leaves were still green. They recovered and grew new growths for him and eventually flowered. Pat Huval of Orchid Plus was able to help him identify it as a Eulophia species and gave him some hints about their winter rest culture requirement.
This helped him understand why they were able to survive being on the bench with no water for so long yet coming back to flower once he potted them up and started watering. Later, I was able to help him positively identify them as Eulophia andamanensis. Another very easy species from southeast Asia. These have tall pseudobulbs so they cannot be buried completely below the surface. The flowers of this species are green with a white lip covered with striking green venation. Wow you don't see may real green flowers but this species really is green. Due their ease of culture and ability to double in size each year, several species have been awarded culture awards. In fact one Eulophia andamanensis was awarded a CCE of 96 points with over 3,000 flowers. find some growing wild here in south Louisiana if not for our abundant rainfall in the winter which would prevent them from going into dormancy. Larry Hennessey Eulophia adamanensis 'Lisa Reifer' CCE/AOS 96 pts Eulophia species have demonstrated to be excellent growers in our climate in southeast Louisiana once you master the simple cultural requirements. They love our long hot summers and abundant rainfall so much I have to force them into dormancy. I move them to a sunny porch at the end of October so they don't get rained on and I stop watering. Once it starts going down to the 40s, I move them to the garage. Some have even naturalized in southern Florida which is a long way from their native Africa and southeast Asia. Who knows we might