Serena Roman, Lady Vanda

Serena Roman

Lady Vanda Orchids is your premier online retailer, specializing in Vanda orchids. We aim to provide the highest quality orchid plants and cultivation education for our customer base. Whether you are a newbie, or seasoned collector, we are here to help guide you and your growing endeavors. In addition to Vandas, we cultivate several other genera such as Paphiopedilum, Phragmipedium, Dendrobium and Cattleya.Customers are welcome to shop our online selection, message us with any questions or request recommendations based on your growing environment and experience.

Find us online at www.ladyvanda.com or in person at OFE Sale Events and other Florida Orchid Shows.

Serena will be speaking this month on Vanda Cultivation.

She will also be providing plants for our Raffle table as well as having plants for Sale!

Javier Morejon

Javier Morejon:

Bulbophyllums! Among the Best Orchids to Grow in Our Area!

I am a lifelong native of Miami, born here in 1973. I started growing orchids around 1987-1988 and have been an active grower for the last 35 years.  Like many, I started with the standard cattleyas and dendrobriums, which I still grow and moved on to the weird stuff after a few years thanks to mentors like Bert Pressman and Mirta Russis Heineman.

These days I have a collection of 250 plants 2/3 of which are species or primary hybrids. These include several species and hybrids of Bulbophyllum, which is the subject of the talk. I will be showing how I grow and mount these orchids and why I believe they are among the best orchids for this area.

When I’m not with my orchids am growing my other passion, heirloom vegetables.

From all of us at the
South Florida Orchid Society!

Roger L. Hammer

Roger L. Hammer

Roger Hammer is an award-winning professional naturalist and a survivalist instructor for the Discovery Channel’s reality TV show Naked and Afraid. He was the manager of the 120-acre Castellow Hammock Nature Center for the Miami-Dade County Parks Department for 30 years, retiring in 2010. He received the first Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award presented by the Florida Native Plant Society’s Dade Chapter in 1982, Tropical Audubon Society honored him with the Charles Brookfield Medal in 1996, in 2003 he received the Green Palmetto Award in Education from the Florida Native Plant Society, and in 2019 he received the Florida Native Plant Society Mentor Award. Roger has given keynote speeches at Florida Native Plant Society state conferences as well as the 2008 World Orchid Conference held in Miami. He was also the opening speaker at the American Orchid Society’s 100-year anniversary celebration held at the Biltmore Hotel in Miami in 2021. In 2012 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Florida International University.

Roger’s first passion with the flora of Florida was finding and photographing Florida’s native orchids, and during his travels he discovered two species of native orchids in Florida not previously known to occur in the state. And, in 1979 he discovered a population of atala butterflies, listed in 1965 as presumed extinct, and the discovery made National Geographic magazine.

He is the author of Everglades Wildflowers, Florida Keys Wildflowers, Central Florida Wildflowers, Complete Guide to Florida Wildflowers, Attracting Hummingbirds and Butterflies in Tropical Florida, Exploring Everglades National Park, Paddling Everglades and Biscayne National Parks, and Florida Icons: 50 Classic Views of the Sunshine State. He lives in Homestead, Florida with his wife, Michelle.

Roger’s presentation will be on Wild Orchids of South Florida.

Roger will also bring along some of his books to sell. Cash or Check only.

John Romano: Types of Dendrobiums to grow in South Florida. Part 2!

John Romano

John has been a licensed healthcare provider since 1986 specializing in pain management and sports therapy. He also teaches healthcare modalities in schools and colleges as well as continuing education for other licensed healthcare providers and is an international lecturer, most recently presenting at the International Pain Management Symposium in the Virgin Islands in 2019. He won Fort Lauderdale’s Best of for Healthcare providers in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

He started growing orchids in 1977 at the age of 11. He worked at Waterloo Gardens, Inc. in Exton, PA and Gilberties Garden Center in Delaware County, PA as tropical plant expert and orchid manager and purchaser. In 2002, he got hired at JEM Orchids in Delray as their grower and worked there until 2005.

John specializes in Sobralias, Dendrobiums, Catasetinae, and unusual species. In 2014, a new species of Sobralia, which was discovered in Guatemala, was named after him, Sobralia romanoi.

John is a member of FOG and Newbie FOG groups on Facebook; runs the Sobralia and Brasolia group, the Dendrobium Species group on Facebook as well as runs the corresponding website www.dendrobiumspecies.com, has the Let’s Talk Orchids group and hosts the YouTube show by the same name and is co-owner of J & J Unique Orchids with his business partner John Melecio. Their group on Facebook is J&J Unique Orchids and their Instagram account is unique_orchids.

He has had several orchids awarded and entered the AOS judging program and is a third year student judge

John will kindly be providing plants for our raffle table,
and will have additional plants for sale!