Ken Russ
Our June speaker is Ken Russ, who together with his lovely wife Judy, have been growing orchids for more than 20 years and have become multiple AOS award winners. After so manyyears of growing orchids Ken and Judy realized there was a need to share their orchid growing knowledge with all level orchid growers so they decided to create some innovative and practical presentations specially geared to help Florida orchid society members perfect the art of orchid growing
Ken and Judy currently live in Port St Lucie on a waterway home they affectionately refer to as “The Puddle”. Here they grow about 900 orchids, in a shade house, lanai and in a shaded “Pine Forest”. They have enjoyed entering many orchid shows, taking part in societal orchid displays, and have received many ribbons and awards along the way. Since 2004, their orchids have received 32 AOS awards and on two occasions, Ken has won the AOS Show Trophy for the best orchid display in an orchid show. Ken loves sharing how he and Judy grow their orchids, including tips they have found successful through the years. Ken has prepared a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Mounting Orchids”. When speaking to Judy she said, “We simply love mounting orchids and have tried many different methods and our program deals with what we’ve learned from trial and error through all these years”.
I hope you will find this month’s speaker presentation refreshing, informative and helpful in growing mounted orchids successfully!
In addition, Ken and Judy will also be bringing some plant divisions for sale from their own awarded collection but wait this is not all!! Ken and Judy also make some unique handmade orchid pottery, including handmade paph. pots and clay mounting slabs. You can check their website at www.puddlepottery.com for some of their unique handmade orchid pottery just in case you might want to order from them in advance.
I hope you enjoy this month’s speakers and see you at the meeting!!
Guillermo Salazar—1st Vice President
Also, this months meeting is our annual awards meeting where we recognize our best growers from the past 12 months. We’ll also be recognizing those individuals who have worked so tirelessly for the South Florida Orchid Society during the past year. And, we’ll be installing our new slate of officers for the coming year.