Sep 26 2016

October 5th: Displaying Beautiful Blooms

Arthur Pinkers at the 2014 SDCOS Show

We enjoy our orchids when they look their best. We love beautiful arrangements when we go to shows and see the exhibits. With a desire to increase our personal enjoyment and with show season upon us, we will be looking at techniques to have our plants present their beautiful blooms to their best. Tips on staking, plant grooming and small table top displays will also be covered. Join us on Wednesday, October 5^th for this interesting presentation by our President, Arthur Pinkers.

Arthur has been an orchid enthusiast since the age of sixteen, when he acquired a plant of Slc. Glittering Jewel (Sl. Gratixiae x Slc. Hermes), which infected him with the orchid bug. His forty plus years of experience growing orchids started in the Pacific Northwest with a greenhouse to fend off the cold, rainy days, but a decade ago a job change forced him to move to Santa Clarita, California, where the conditions are extreme for growing orchids.

Growing up in the Seattle area, Arthur attended Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, graduating with a B.S. in Chemistry and Biology. He worked for many years as a chemist, and had the fortune of having his dream job as the Lab Director for Beall Orchid Company until shortly before its close in 1990. Despite not having a current career working with orchids, Arthur has taken an active role in the orchid community. He has been an Accredited Orchid Judge for over twenty years and has served in most executive positions on the Board of the Northwest Orchid Society, including serving as President from 1988 to 1989, and as a center photographer for the Pacific Northwest Judging region. Currently, Arthur serves as the Center Judging Chair at the Pacific South – San Marino Judging Center and one of the photographers for the Pacific South Judging Center. Though he has an interest in a wide variety of orchids, botanicals are a special draw to him for their diversity and charm.

Arthur has been married to his wife, Margie, for over twenty-seven years, and has two adult children. While they have not inherited his knack for growing orchids, his family enjoys the beauty and wild aromas his backyard jungle brings to their home, a respite from the desert landscape around them.

Recent American Orchid Society Awards

The American Orchid Society recently granted awards at the Pacific South Monthly Judging in San Marino which was held at the Huntington Botanical Gardens. This photo was taken by Arthur Pinkers.

Dendrobium amabile ‘Huntington’s Cotton Candy’

Award of Merit – 80 pts.

Parents: Species

108 flowers and 75 buds on 5 inflorescences

Natural Spread: 5.0 cm

Vertical Spread: 4.0 cm

Exhibited by Huntington Botanical Gardens

Mar 26 2016

THE GREAT ORCHID SALE – Saturday April 9, 2016 – 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

The San Fernando Valley Orchid Society is pleased to announce it’s first annual Orchid Sale. This is our major fundraising event of the year and we hope to raise enough funds to pay for our expenses, educational programs and fabulous speakers for the remainder of the year.

This sale is open to the public. We have managed to procure some really beautiful orchid plants, most of which are in bud or in bloom. We were able to get many of them from Hawaii, and the rest are from great California growers. Our members will be on hand to answer any questions you may have at the show. We will have a plant hotel to hold your selections until you are ready to check out and take your prized plants home. We will also be serving light refreshments. This is a great opportunity to find our more about our society and our friendly and knowledgeable members.

SFVOS Members only: All members are urged to proudly wear their badge and help out at the sale for as many hours as possible. You can be a host, greeting prospective buyers and assisting them in selecting plants. If you find questions you cannot answer, there will be other members who can help. For those of you volunteering to work at the sale we will get our set up started at 9:00 AM. We need volunteers to help register the buyers and help carry plants to the plant hotel. We also need a few of you to stay after 2:00 PM to help us clean-up. This is a wonderful opportunity to tell guests about the benefits of membership in our Society: the educational speakers, the plant opportunity table, and the interchange of ideas and experiences with fellow orchid lovers. If you have some blooming plants you wish to contribute to the sale please bring them to Ned Daniger’s home: 17351 Nordhoff Street in Northridge on April 7^th between 12:00 noon and 5:00 PM,or you can bring them on the day of the sale, April 9^th, at 9:00 AM to the Sepulveda Garden Center. This is YOUR opportunity to support our Society. We look forward to seeing you at the sale!

Dec 28 2015

January 6th, 2016 Guest Speaker James Rose of Cal Orchids

Our guest speaker for January will be James Rose, owner of Cal Orchids. Jim will open his presentation by teaching us the best way to re-pot our orchids. This is an important skill, and is a subject many have requested.

His main topic will be the “Orchids of Madagascar”. Madagascar is best known for its remarkable fauna, including the famous lemurs. It is also home to over 900 orchid species in 57 genera, many of which are as endangered as the lemurs. These orchids are so beautiful and unique.

You may be familiar with the story of “Darwin’s” orchid. Angraecum sesquipedale, which is also known as the Christmas orchid, Star of Bethlehem orchid, and King of the Angraecums, is an epiphytic orchid in the genus Angraecum endemic to Madagascar. It is noteworthy for its long spur and its association with the naturalist Charles Darwin, who surmised that the flower was pollinated by a then undiscovered moth with a proboscis whose length was unprecedented at the time. His prediction had gone unverified until 21 years after his death, when the moth was discovered and his conjecture vindicated.

These orchids are highly prized and hunted by collectors and the orchid trade. Additionally, much of Madagascar is rainforest, and much of that rainforest is disappearing. When the rainforest the threatened, the orchids that live there are also in peril. Some of the threatened species are Angrae Darwin's orchid and moth. cum longicalcar, Angraecum magdalenae, Bulbophyllum hamelinii, Grammangis spectabilis

and Eulophiella roempleriana. Be sure to mark your calendar. You won’t want to miss this highly informative talk and the culture session on “repotting”.

(Right: Darwins Orchid: Angraecum sesquipedale and its pollinator, a long-tongued moth)

Oct 27 2015

November 4th – Tim Culberton to speak on Lycastes at the SFVOS

In Tim’s own words:

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 Philadelphia just 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 1000.

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 enjoy making my culture the best it can be, and I have had numerous experiences with professional growers in California and on the East Coast, which has helped tremendously.

I am the youngest accredited judge with the American Orchid Society, and have served in various capacities with local orchid societies. 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 new hybrids 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.

For your meeting, I’ll be sharing a presentation on recent advances in Lycaste breeding, culture, and growing. These plants are easy to grow and flower, are vigorous, and have low demands on culture, and as such are wonderful plants! Tremendous advancements in breeding Lycastes have been made recently, and I will share some of these with you, as well as help identify some of the important species in the backgrounds of historically important and modern Lycastes.

By the end of this presentation, you will have a new appreciation of what goes into breeding trends for these types of plants, as well as an appreciation of their beautiful flowers and ease-of-growth. I will be providing a plant table of the newest, modern, cutting-edge Lycaste breeding, with both blooming and un-bloomed plants.

Dec 30 2014

Peter Lin “12 Months of Orchids” talk at the SFVOS

12 Months of Orchids – Building a collection with blooms every month of the year.

At our next regular meeting at the San Fernando Valley Orchid Society, on January 7th at 7:00 pm, Peter Lin will be presenting his newest talk on “12 Months of Orchids”. This fast paced PowerPoint presentation will show you how to build an orchid collection to have blooming plants for each month of the year.

Peter started growing orchids over 30 years ago, but then stopped due to school and starting a career. It wasn’t until about 11 years ago that the orchid “bug” came back and he is now heavily involved once again. He is an accredited judge with the American Orchid Society and a hybridizer of mini-catts. He enjoys meeting with other orchid enthusiasts, and can often be found at various orchid shows and societies around the country. He also has hundreds of photos of his orchids that he maintains on Flickr. You can view them by typing this address into the internet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/minicatt/collections/

Due to limited growing space, Peter likes to specialize in miniature orchids, both species and hybrids, and has received numerous AOS awards. His other interests in orchids include Dendrobiums, Angraecoids, and Neofinetias. He maintains a collection of a thousand or more orchids at his home in Southern California in 3 small greenhouses, as well as an offsite greenhouse.

Don’t forget to bring a notepad and a pen. You just might want to take notes.

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

Feb 26 2014

AOS Monthly Checklists Now Available

Please check out our new menu item featuring the AOS Monthly Checklists. The current issue covers March and April. These checklists are designed to help hobby growers learn how to care for their orchids in every season. Each checklist features several types of orchids, and explains what is going on with them at this particular time of year, what we should be watching out for and what practices to adopt and/or avoid at this time. There are six of these checklists a year. I hope you find them as helpful as I do. Enjoy.

Jan 9 2014

Santa Barbara International Orchid Show 2014

Mark your calendar. The Santa Barbara International Orchid Show is almost here. It is always a great show with beautiful displays of every type of blooming orchid put together by Orchid Societies and Orchid Vendors. There are classes taught by experts and there is a huge room filled with vendors selling orchid plants and supplies. If you haven’t already visited this show, it is definitely worth the short drive to Santa Barbara.

Additionally, many of the Orchid growers that are in or near Santa Barbara hold Open Houses that same weekend so you can drop by the various greenhouses and see where the orchids are propagated and grown. Mark your calendars. You won’t want to miss these great events.

Oct 28 2013

Orchid Collection Donated to SFVOS by the Tom Family of Eagle Rock.

The SFVOS was the recipient of a very generous donation of over 100 Cymbidium Orchid Plants by the Estate of Mr. Yee Quon (“Jack”) Tom. Jack Tom passed away on May 23rd, 2013. Jack loved his orchids, and at one point had over 300 Orchid plants in his collection. He took meticulous care of his prized collection and there were always blooming orchids in their beautiful hillside home in Eagle Rock.

Jack Tom was born eldest of seven in Guangdong Province, China on August 24, 1925. At 19, during China’s conflict with Japan, he left home to pursue his goals and ambitions. He was employed with various government agencies including Yuebei Iron Factory Accounting Department, Quijiang Wushi Training Department, and the Yangjiang County Taxation Department among others. After WW II, he worked in the Cashier’s Division at Guangzhou’s Sun Yet-Sen University. Mr. Tom arrived in Los Angeles in 1951 to work at his father’s restaurant. In 1956, along with friends, he opened the Taoyaun Restaurant in Chinatown.

In 1958, he returned to Hong Kong to marry Dora Chan. The newlyweds returned to Los Angeles to start a family. After the closure of Taoyaun Restaurant, Jack was employed as the chief chef at the famous Kowloon and Wan-Q Restaurants on the Westside. After 40 years in the restaurant business, Jack retired to focus on fruit trees and cultivating orchids. He especially enjoyed reading, listening to classical music, watching NBA basketball, and recreational cooking. In life, he always treated others amicably, with friendship. He took care of his wife, sons, and siblings with love. Jack believed he lived a good life, with a virtuous wife, with filial children, and experienced happiness and longevity. He is survived by and missed by Dora, wife of 55 years, his sons Stanley and Homer, daughter in law Joni, grandson Nathan, and his remaining brother and sisters in the U.S. and China.

We would like to thank the Tom Family for their generous donation. I am sure Jack would be pleased to know that his beloved Orchids will be adopted and cared for by the members of The SFVOS. If you would like to see a slideshow of Mr. Tom’s beautiful orchids, please visit http://www.tributes.com/show/95870991# and click on the photo of Jack then select “Jack’s Orchids” from the photo albums available under the main photo.

Oct 23 2013

The Endangered White Egret Orchid

Habenaria radiata is a small terrestrial orchid that grows in grassy wetlands throughout Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Russia and some parts of eastern China. It is commonly known as the White Egret Flower. It is also sometimes referred to as the Fringed Orchid or Sagiso.

This orchid’s flower indeed looks much like a Snowy Egret with its wings wide open. Japan is home to many snowy egrets and they often share the same habitats with this little flower. This rare orchid has recently gained recognition around the world for its beauty, but ironically this species is now considered imperiled in the wild.

The leaves are similar to grass blades, between 5-20 cm long, and about 1 cm wide each. New leaves form every spring. Flowering commences in late July and peaks in August. The flower stalk holds anywhere from 1 to 8 flowers, each being around 4 cm wide. The lip, as well as the petals, are pristine white, whereas the sepals are small and greenish.

The plant grows from a small underground tuber, no more than a couple centimeters long, Because this plant is deciduous the tuber serves as an energy source early in its growth cycle, allowing new leaves and a flower spike to form.

This species is in rapid decline over its entire range. Over collection may be a contributing factor, but for the most part the loss has been due to habitat destruction. In the distant past these plants grew in lowland bogs and marshes in the same areas where rice patties were later situated. Rice cultivation rapidly increased, taking more and more of the unique habitat, which was then followed by urbanization, and in lowland areas this species became more and more rare in the wild.

Nowadays, Habenaria radiata exists mostly in upland bogs and seepage slopes in moderate to high mountains (over 500 meters elevation). Because these areas are not considered suitable for agriculture this plant (along with other rare plants) has found its last remaining habitat in modern Japan. While it still can be found on all of Japan’s main islands it is endangered throughout its entire range and is completely gone in some areas.

Most experienced orchid growers find it quite difficult to keep for more than a season or two. This orchid requires conditions not easily duplicated outside it’s natural environment. Because this orchid is endangered one would hope that orchid growers would recognize the need to stop collecting them from the wild so we can keep as many of them alive in their native environments. We should be grateful we can enjoy these orchids vicariously through photographs, and hope we can preserve these unique and beautiful orchids for generations to come.

Oct 9 2013

Psychopsis: The Butterfly Orchids

Psychopsis, abbreviated Psychp in horticultural trade, is a genus of only four species of orchids distributed from the West Indies and Costa Rica to Peru, where it grows on the trunks and branches of trees.

These orchids are particularly mysterious and are called butterfly orchids. The flower moves in the wind, and mimics a female butterfly which attracts male butterflies to try and mate with it, thus pollinating the flower. It also might have a second trick. The butterfly-like flower might attract a parasitic insect on the lookout for butterflies, or it fools a male butterfly into thinking it’s a female.

There’s even a fun word for it: pseudocopulation. Either way, the orchid succeeds in getting its seeds distributed to continue the life cycle. We got to see a hybrid butterfly orchid.

Psychopsis papilio (Lindley, 1825) H. G. Jones. 1975 Psychopsis mariposa, right.

Originally described by John Lindley as Oncidium papilio, it was removed to the genus Psychopsis by H. G. Jones (1975) in the Journal of the Barbados Museum Historical Society (p. 32). Caution: it’s still marketed occasionally under the old name by some vendors, and under both names by less scrupulous ones!

Psychopsis papilio(Ldl..) Jones. Photo: DSC_7781 04 May, 2006.

This species is a native of low-mountain forests in Trinidad, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It resembles certain species of South American butterflies so well that males attempt to mate with it, and in doing so, pollinate it. P. papilio (Fig. 11) puts out a long rachis. This particular plant’s flower was held on one about 7.5 decimeters (about 30 inches) long, putting it well above the plant’s leaves where it may flutter lightly in a breeze and aide its butterfly mimicry. Another aid to butterfly mimicry is that flowers bloom successively; not a few at the same time.

Psychopsis papilio is often confused with P. kramerianum (see below) which is from Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, and Peru, but P. papilio has a bilaterally compressed peduncle lacking swollen nodes (P. kramerianum: peduncle terete), and the wings on the columns of each species are shaped differently.

Kramer’s Psychopsis [German Orchid Gardner 1800’s] (Image at top of article)

Flower Size to 5″ [to 12.5 cm]

Found from Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in tropical lowland and lower montane rainforests on large branches at altitudes of 50 to 1300 meters as a medium sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with small dollar shaped, laterally compressed psuedobulbs subtended by imbricate bracts with spotted undersides of the single, apical, rigid, leathery, persistent, elliptic-oblong, acute, contracted into a short, folded petiole leaf that blooms on a 3′ [90 cm] long, erect, 1 to 2 flowered at a time, successive opening inflorescence with ovate-triangular bracts and large showy flowers. These inflorescence, if left alone can bloom for years so do not cut them as they also can produce plantlets.

San Fernando Valley Orchid Society

Learning About Orchids in the Company of Friends

Tag Archives: orchid types