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

Aug 22 2016

September 7: Panel of Orchid Experts

When: September 7, 2016

Time: 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Topic: Growing your best orchids at home!

This is a meeting you won’t want to miss. Our next SFVOS meeting will feature a panel of experts who will give you all info on how to get the best results from your own orchids at home. Our panel of experts will be AOS Judge and our new president, Arthur Pinkers, Orchid Expert and cymbidium grower extraordinaire, Art Mendoza and our new Vice President and long time orchid grower, Mark Bentow.

The panel will discuss the best way to keep your orchids healthy, how to water and fertilize each type of orchid, how and when to report and how to coax your orchids to re-bloom.

Bring your questions, and if you have a plant that needs special attention, bring it to the meeting and ask our experts what to do to bring your plant back to optimal health.

Don’t forget to bring your blooming orchids to show in our Plant Forum, and if you can, bring a snack to share with the group. Bring a guest, and we will see you there!

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)

Nov 14 2015

SFVOS Annual Holiday Party 12/2/15

Attention SFVOS Members:

The San Fernando Valley Orchid Society

Cordially invites you to our

ANNUAL HOLIDAY PARTY

December 2, 2015

7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The Sepulveda Garden Center

16633 Magnolia Blvd.
Encino, CA 91436

Admission: One Salad, side dish or dessert (8+ Servings) and the Chicken and Beef Entrées will be provided by SFVOS. Please bring serving utensils

Our special program will include: Refreshments, Bingo Games, Orchid Plant Exchange *(Optional), Special POT Raffle!

Please R.S.V.P. by November 30 to
Millie Peskay at: peskay@att.net
or call (805) 532-0080 or if you haven’t signed up yet

call Marcia Melcombe at (818) 349-8677

*Bring an orchid plant in a 4”-6” pot to exchange with the other members, and take home a beauty for yourself.

This is a great way to expand your own orchid collection and your knowledge.

SFVOS.2015.Holiday party flyer.3

SFVOS.2015.Holiday party flyer.2

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.

Jul 5 2015

President’s Message July 1, 2015

A Message from our President: Millie Peskay

We closed our fiscal year with a Pot Luck dinner at the June meeting. Members contributed generously and innovatively for the Pot Luck tables. Dinner was followed by memberspeakers Art Mendoza and Millie Peskay who told of their experiences with cymbidium and

Vanda orchids. Thanks Art and Millie.

Millie donated a lovely plant purchased at the Conejo Orchid Society’s annual sale. It was sold at auction with proceeds to our Society.

Treasurer Bob Peskay gave a short summary of our finances for the Fiscal Year 2014-2015. Expenses exceeded income by $557 for the year and would have been more except for contributions of $625 from our members. Bob pointed out the great help of the contributions to support the ongoing programs and was greeted with generous contributions from Frank and Florence Shimizu and new member Jessie Broussard. Members may contribute at meetings or by mail directly to the treasurer. A more detailed financial report is elsewhere in this newsletter. We all had fun with three Bingo games with P.O.T. drawings between each game. Prizes were orchids purchased from Cal Orchids in Santa Barbara.

Finally, thanks to all the members for making a great year. As Usual, there will be no meeting in August so I look forward to seeing everybody on September 5th .

Millie Peskay

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!

Oct 29 2014

James Rose on “The Laelias of Mexico” – November 5, 2014

We are very fortunate to have James Rose of Cal-Orchid, Santa Barbara. Mr. Rose will give us a talk on the ‘Laelias of Mexico’. . James lecture will deal mostly with the variability of the many flowers and the habitats and conditions from which they grow. Hopefully, we can all share some knowledge in the wonderful world of Orchids. Cal-Orchid also will provide plants for our Plant Opportunity Table (POT)

James attended University of California, Santa Barbara as an anthropology major. In 1971 he began working at Santa Barbara Orchid Estate. After 16 years there, and becoming manager, he left to establish his own nursery with his wife, Lauris. In 1987 they purchased Orchids By Rowe, a 2 acre cymbidium nursery 2 blocks from the Pacific Ocean in 1987, and totally redesigned the former cymbidium cut flower range to what is now a world re-known orchid nursery providing one of the largest varieties of orchid species and hybrids in the U.S.

Cal-Orchid maintains an active breeding program and stud collection built upon decades of international travel. James is very well known for having a distinctively selective ‘eye’ for the new unusual plant, and Cal-Orchid’s new and long-time customers enjoy reaping the benefits. The nursery’s inventory features the Cattleya, Cymbidium, Odontoglossum, Masdevallia, Lycaste, Paphiopedilum alliances as well as a good assortment of African species. James and Lauris have become recognized for their superior ‘Pacific’ line of reedstem Epidendrums, which have evolved over 12 years of selective breeding and have garnered awards around the world.

James has published in the AOS, Orchid Digest, and CSA magazines, and is well respected for his vast knowledge as well as his distinctive sense of humor. He lectures all over the world at orchid shows and World Orchid Conferences. He is a Cymbidium Society of America Judge, former member of the AOS Conservation Committee, and active member of the Japan Grand Prix Organizing committee where he has judged every year at the world famous Tokyo Dome. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about Laelias and hear this excellent speaker.

May 28 2014

June 4th SFVOS Meeting Topic “Preventing Orchid Pests and Disease”

Our next meeting for the San Fernando Valley Orchid Society will be on Wednesday, June 4th, 2014 at 7:00 pm. Our very own Pamela Aitchison will be our speaker for our June meeting. Pam is a Certified Master Gardener from the University of California and has been for many years. She is regular guest lecturer at California State University at Northridge (CSUN), and is also a mentor and trainer for the new class of Master Gardener interns each year. She regularly teaches gardening classes at Garden Clubs, Community Centers and Schools and answers gardening questions in the Gardening Information booth at the LA County Fair every year.

Pam has served on our SFVOS Board of Directors for the last two years, is our (http://www.sfvos.com) webmaster and Co-Editor for our newsletter. Pam lives in Northridge and has loved orchids most of her life. She has been growing orchid plants for many years and grows many types of orchids in her small greenhouse and outdoors. Her favorites include Arpophyllum, Cattleyas, Dendrobiums, Epidendrums, Oncidiums, Miltonias, Vandas, Vanilla Orchids and Zygopedalums.

At our June meeting Pam will be sharing information about growing conditions that can lead to problems, pests such as insects, snails and spider-mites and she will discuss both fungal and bacterial diseases that can infect your beautiful plants and decimate your collection. Pam will bring a PowerPoint presentation with many colorful photographs that demonstrate what to look for and how to deal with problems when they occur. Please join us at our June meeting to learn about how to keep your orchids healthy and free of pests and disease

San Fernando Valley Orchid Society

Learning About Orchids in the Company of Friends

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