June 2011  
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 Next Meeting: Thursday, June 9th, 7:30pm - 10:00pm
Contra Costa Water District Building Board Room
 1331 Concord Ave. Concord, CA

Dracula gongora 
grown by Ken Cook

Draculas & Masdevallias presented by  
Ken Cook

     Ken began growing orchids 9 years ago. After 6 months of killing nearly every plant he bought, his wife, Barbara, made the mistake of buying him the book, “Orchid Growing for Wimps” (which she promptly revised to read ”Orchid Growing for Winners”). Ken’s obsession truly began with a visit to the Pacific Orchid Exposition. There he experienced seeing the over- whelming beauty of massive orchid plants that had been grown by experts for over 20 years. The rest is history. After covering a western facing picture window in the dining room, Barbara declared, “You need to get a greenhouse”. To which Ken replied, “Please don’t throw me in the 
briar patch”.
     Intrigued by the beauty of Masdevallias, Ken asked the owner of the The Orchid Florist in Berkeley if they were as hard to grow as he had heard. Phillipe replied, “You live in El Cerrito, you can grow them on your porch!” Their relatives, Draculas, turned out to be just as happy with El Cerrito. As the porch filled up Ken tried growing them in his intermediate/cool greenhouse and found that many are happy there too.     His growing efforts have resulted in several awards from the AOS. 
    So if you live East of the Hills or West of the Hills, please come and learn how to grow these fascinating plants. They are well worth learning how to make them happy.

Speaker’s Dinner will be at 5:30 at the Sichuan Fortune House, 41 Woodsworth Ln. in Pleasant Hill.  Everyone is welcome to attend and meet our speakers before the meeting. Call George McRae at  (510) 233-7374 if you can join us, so that you can be included in the reservation.

Plant Table will be provided by Ken Cook 


Cymbidium Viday 'Harlequin'
Owner Judith Johnston


Phrag. Suzanne Decker 'Pretty'n Pink'
 Owner Cheryl Phillipson


Cattleya Schilleriana v. coerulea
Owner Phyllis Arthur


Last update 08/30/17 Webmaster, UlrikeAhlborn webmaster@diabloviewos.org  
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