Our April Program will be presented by George Carr and is titled “The Genus Catasetum – weird and wonderful.” George is an accredited American Orchid Society Judge in the Florida North Central Judging Center in Tampa, Florida and has been growing orchids for 35 years. His interest in the genus Cycnoches began in 1993 when he requested to do his research paper on the genus for his Student Judge requirement. His paper, Cycnoches – One Hundred Sixty-five Years of Confusion was completed and presented in 1995 and in 1996 the paper was awarded the first American Orchid Society Education Certificate of Appreciation. In 2003, George was named as an accepted American Orchid Society taxonomic authority on the Catasetinae specializing in Cycnoches.

George has published some 35 articles in the United States in Orchids and the Orchid Digest, Brazil, France in Richardiana, England in the Orchid Reviewand Colombia. His most recent paper on Cycnoches and hybrids of the genus was published in a supplement to the October 2012 issue of the American Orchid Society magazine Orchids.

George is retired but stays busy with his research and writings about the Catasetinae and other orchids. He has a blog on the Catasetinae, http://catasetinae5.blogspot.com, where, from time to time, he publishes articles with photographs of plants and flowers which interest him and which he hopes will interest others. We hope you will join us for this very interesting presentation.

Amazonia Orchids will provide the plant table tonight.

Our January 2014 speaker will be Linda Wilhelm of Woodland Orchids in North Carolina. Linda will present a program titled, “The Magnificent Stanhopeas” – a discussion of species and hybrids of the genus and how to grow them.

Linda Wilhelm started growing orchids in 1980 after a vacation inFloridawith her mother. Already intrigued by orchids, she finally bought a small cattleya seedling, not knowing at the time that it would take seven or eight years to get a bloom. It was the beginning of an addiction. After meeting her future husband, Rolf in 1985, the addiction became severe when he too got involved with orchids.

When the hobby got out of hand and developed into a serious passion for both Linda and Rolf, they started their business Woodland Orchids. They specialize in breeding warm tolerant Oncidiinae (several of their new hybrids have received awards from the AOS), compact cattleyas and also line breed a number of different species and have made some wonderful Stanhopea hybrids.

An Accredited Judge with the AOS, Linda is very active in the judging program, having served in various positions with the CarolinasJudgingCenterincluding the job of the Training Coordinator, 5 years as the Chair of the Center and six years as a Trustee for the American Orchid Society. She enjoys being involved in shows outside her region, including offshore shows in the islands. “It offers such an opportunity to see a different variety of orchids as well as an opportunity to extend my group of friends.” She is a frequent guest speaker at orchid societies all over the USA as well as Brazil, Trinidad, Barbados and Guatemala.

We hope you will join us for this wonderful program.

Linda Curle will present our October program. The title of the program is “Orchid Trekking in Northern Thailand”. Below is Linda’s story of how she got started in orchids and her trip to Northern Thailand.

My passion for orchids started in the early 90’s quite by chance while I was working for US Airways at the Miami airport. One day while on duty in the lost luggage department a cardboard box full of bare root orchids was dropped off by an agricultural agent. They were unclaimed after their inspection and probable fumigation. I contacted the owner and informed him that we had them and he could come pick them up but he just yelled, “Throw them out! I don’t want them anymore. They’re probably dead anyway!”

When I looked in the box they did indeed look dead but my curiosity would not let me just give up on them. Growing up in N.Y. my only contact with orchids at that point was wearing them occasionally to a dance, but I seemed to recall that orchids grew on trees so I took them home and tied them up on trees in my yard. Must have been the right time of year because they took off and established nicely and before very long a tall spike was developing. That really piqued my curiosity again as I tried to imagine how that long thin spike could turn into a corsage flower. Soon I was confronted with a totally different but mesmerizing yellow spotted flower, Onc. splendidum, evocative of the jungles of Central America. That was it, I knew I was smitten and had to learn more about these fascinating plants. I proceeded to join local orchid societies and have belonged to most of the ones in town at some point.

Probably because I enjoyed my very first orchid blooming in a natural looking setting and because it transported me to exciting unknown places in my imagination, the idea of seeing orchids in their natural habitat became a dream of mine. I’m fortunate that I have been able to bring that dream to fruition several times.  My program for the October meeting is a travelogue of my trip to the north of Thailand and I will be showing you about 45 species blooming in a variety of habitats, as well as orchid markets, some of our hotels, and many other things of general interest. You can leave your notebook home for this one and just sit back and travel along with me.

Our raffle table will provided OFE Orchid Supply

 Please bring your friends. Guests are always welcome at our meetings.  We look forward to seeing you at our new meeting location, Christ The King Lutheran Church.

Javier Morejon, Program Chairman

REMEMBER! WE ARE MEETING IN A NEW LOCATION: