This month our speaker is Marni Turkel (pronounced tur KELL).  The title of her talk will be “Show Me the Plant”.  The meeting will be a hybrid in person/ZOOM meeting. Please contact Henry Shaw (dvosshowandtell@gmail.com) if you want the link for the ZOOM meeting. But I would certainly try to be at the meeting in person.  Marni will be supplying the raffle table. 

Doors open at 6:30 for Show & Tell setup and conversations.

“Show Me the Plant” is a presentation that uses images of blooming specimen plants as well as close-ups to consider the whole plant for a sense of proportion and relationship and not the flower in isolation. Marni will be talking about many of her favorite plants and will cover some basic information as well as specific needs for individual plants and strategies for growing specimen plants. This is a chance to see some of the best of her collection and learn how she grows it.

Marni’s Orchid Biography

Marni is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and has been growing orchids since 1980. She grows in four greenhouses in Santa Rosa with approximately 1250 sq ft of growing space. Her main interest is in miniature species but plenty of larger plants have crept into the collection as well. Marni has been a contributor to Orchids magazine with her series called ‘Well Worth the Space’ and ‘Give It a Rest’. Her articles have been translated into Dutch, German, Portuguese and Swedish for international publication. Photographs of her plants have been feature in articles noted orchid publications including Orchids Magazine, Orchid Digest, Richardiana, The Orchid Review, and The Australian Orchid Review. For the last few years she has been sharing her photographs and knowledge on OrchidsForum.com. 

Starting in 2009, Marni expanded her work with orchids to include propagation of orchids from seed and has set up a flasking lab of her own to take the process from start to finish and sell flasks of many of the orchids species in her collection. After working for over 43 years as a potter, she has retired from ceramics to pursue orchids full-time.

The April meeting will a hybrid in-person/Zoom meeting.

Please contact Henry Shaw (dvosshowandtell@gmail.com) if you want the link for the ZOOM meeting. But I would certainly try to be at the meeting in person. Peter will be supplying the raffle table.

Doors open at 6:30 for Show & Tell setup and conversations.

Peter started growing orchids over 40 years ago, but then stopped due to school and starting a career. It wasn’t until about 15 years ago that the orchid “bug” came back, and he is now heavilyinvolved 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.

Due to limited growing space, Peter likes to specialize in miniature orchids, both species and hybrids, and has received numerous AOS awards. His interests in orchids include Dendrobiums, Angraecoids, and Neofinetias. He is also known as “Mr Sophronitis” as he has a passion for growing and collecting them. He maintains a collection of a several thousand orchids at his home in Southern California in 3 small greenhouses, outdoors, as well as an offsite greenhouse.

The March meeting will again be an in-person meeting.

Doors open at 6:30 for Show & Tell setup and conversations

Ron Parsons has been growing orchids for more than 40 years and has been interested in and has grown species for most of that time. Ron loves to photograph orchids and other flowers whenever he can, whether it be in trips to see them in nature or in collections. Ron has nearly 60,000 digital images, most of which are orchids, and still retains a slide library that exceeds 100,000 botanical images. He has over 3000 published photos that have appeared in magazines, periodicals, journals and books. Ron has co-authored three botanical books, all with Mary Gerritsen. The first two, published by Timber Press, are Masdevallias, Gems of the Orchid World; Calochortus, Mariposa Lilies and their Relatives. Most recently the third book, a large, luxurious 2-volume set A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species was published by RedFern Natural History Productions. The latter has nearly 1200 pages, 1800 photographs and features more than 500 species.

Members of DVOS are invited to a no-host, pre-meeting dinner with our guest speaker, Ron Parsons.  We will meet for dinner at 5 PM on Thursday March 09 at:

Aung Burma, 2151 Salvio St Suite E, Concord, CA 94520.

This restaurant is a 5-minute drive from the meeting venue.  If you wish to attend, please RSVP to dvosshowandtell@gmail.com  by 5PM Wednesday, March 08 so that I can make reservations.

February meeting will be ZOOM ONLY

Because our monthly meeting is the day before the set up for the show and sale, we decided to spend that time preparing for the
show. The meeting will be via ZOOM. Members will receive a link to the meeting by email in the next couple of days.

Before Opening

Topics:

 Overview of show calendar
o Friday set up
o Saturday

 Ribbon judging
 AOS judging
 Member sales
 Speakers
 Clean up
 Volunteer opportunities still available
 Preparing you plants for the show
o Trimming, washing, staking
o Check for pests
o How to label your plants
o What happens when you get your plant to the show

Live monthly meeting!

The January Meeting starts at 7:15 pm PST at the Contra Costa Water District Building Board Room.  Doors open at 6:30 pm for Show & Tell setup and conversation.

Tanya Lam

This month’s topic should be interesting to everyone. We are all trying to create collections with at least a few blossoms to enjoy, no matter the time of year. Many of us are also becoming more interested in growing more of the many fascinating orchid species. This lecture brings together both of these desires in a talk about long lasting and frequently blooming orchid species.

Our January speaker will be Tanya Lam. Tanya is an accomplished orchid grower and has spoken to many societies on various orchid topics. She lives in San Jose California where she grows many orchid genera both outdoors and in greenhouses. Tanya juggles her time to work full time, travel frequently for business, take care of family, and tend to her orchid collections. As Tanya has expanded her collections over the past 20 years, she has tried to have different orchids in bloom every day of the year. She does not want to miss seeing the blooms just because she is on business trips. After seeing plants grow in their habitats in Thailand, Brazil, Ecuador, Australia, and China, she realized that acquiring an orchid collection that encompasses the geographical diversity of orchids would help her achieve her goals. Tanya has now grown species from every continent and continues to search for long lasting and frequently blooming species to add to her collections.

For her presentation this month, she will share a list of recommended plants, including photos and a brief overview of the growing conditions for each. This is a great opportunity to learn about some orchid species that will add diversity and flowers to your collection. Don’t miss it!

Members of DVOS are invited to a no-host, pre-meeting dinner with our DVOS guest speaker. We will meet for dinner at 5 pm on Thursday, January 12 at Aung Burma, 2151 Salvio St. Suite E, Concord, CA 94520   <https://www.aungburmaca.com/>.

This restaurant is a 5-minute drive from the meeting venue.  If you wish to attend, please RSVP to bonddiane9@gmail.com by 5 pm Wednesday, January 11 so that Diane can make reservations.

Live monthly meeting!

The November Meeting starts at 7:15 pm PST at the Contra Costa Water District Building Board Room.  Doors open at 6:30 pm for Show & Tell setup and conversation.

Carol Klonowski has been growing orchids since the 1980’s when a friend in Berkeley, California, gave her a cattleya orchid and it bloomed out with three large,  dark lavender flowers that gave off an intoxicating fragrance.  She built an entire greenhouse in her backyard to accommodate the precious plant, which only led her to buy more orchids.  Then another friend gave her a gift membership to the Orchid Society of California, and it’s been a serious hobby ever since.

Carol has served as the Director, Vice President, and President of the Orchid Society of California for most of the past two decades and is currently a Fully   Accredited Judge with the American Orchid Society in the California Sierra Nevada Judging Center.

Vandas in Chiang Mai

Carol’s talk on Vandas will focus on one of the most colorful and hybridized genera in the orchid world.  Although considered heat loving, many of the new species used in recent breeding has made Vandas and their vandaceous cousins much easier to grow in temperate climates.  Carol will review the history of the genus, recent taxonomic changes, new breeding directions, and why vandas could, and should, be part of everyone’s orchid collection.

Vanda Paki

Members of DVOS are invited to a no-host, pre-meeting dinner with our DVOS guest speaker, Carol Klonowski. We will meet for dinner at 5pm on 11/8 at Aung Burma, 2151 Salvio St. Suite E, Concord, CA 94520   <https://www.aungburmaca.com/>. The restaurant is a 5-minute drive from the meeting venue. If you wish to attend, please RSVP to dvosshowandtell@gmail.com by 9pm on Wednesday 11/7 so I can make a reservation for the appropriate number of attendees.

We meet again in-person!

The October Meeting starts at 7:15 pm PDST at the Contra Costa Water District Building Board Room.  Doors open at 6:30 pm for Show and Tell setup and conversation.

Jim Heilig

Jim has been growing orchids for over 20 years. Over that time his interests have revolved around Phalaenopsis and other Vandaceous species along with many other genera. He has been breeding orchids for over 10 years with a particular interest in exploring the genetics of various Phalaenopsis species in simple hybrids (primary and near primary) with a goal of bringing fragrance back into standard hybrids that have the grace and floriferousness of the species in their background. More recently he has focused on propagating Angraecoid species while dabbling with a few hybrids. Although he has grown orchids under lights for many years, he is currently exploring species and hybrids that can be grown outdoors in his Coastal Monterey Bay area garden. Those requiring cozier environs are grown in a small greenhouse.

Jim began his orchid-judging career at the Great Lakes Judging Center in Ann Arbor, MI and is currently a judge at the Pacific Central Judging Center. He has held several leadership positions in his local orchid society, the AOS, and at both Judging Centers.

In his day job Jim works as a raspberry breeder for Driscoll’s in Watsonville. His focus is on “prebreeding” which involves developing molecular tools to increase efficiency in their breeding program as well as discovering novel traits in wild or un-adapted plants and transferring the genes responsible for those traits into already-adapted plant genomes to improve the disease resistance and flavor (among other traits) of the resulting plants.  Jim has a B.S in Horticulture, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Plant breeding from Michigan State University.

​In his talk to us this month, Jim will discuss basic genetic and breeding concepts as they pertain to orchids. He will share his experiences and observations on some of his work to explain these concepts with examples from his breeding program. Having a better understanding of these concepts can help
those interested in preserving species or growing hybrids to make informed decisions on acquiring plants for their collection or propagate them.

The July DVOS monthly meeting will be held in a “virtual” (Zoom) format once again.

Our July meeting will feature Scott A. McGregor, who in addition to having a notable career in the computer software and hardware industries, has been growing orchids since he was 12, when a neighbor gave him a plant. That plant had a short life, but the hook was set. Scott studied books on orchids and sought out sources for orchid species while growing up in St. Louis, MO. Having lived in different locations around the world, his collection evolved over time, but has always centered around more “unusual” species.  Scott grows all his plants outdoors, without a greenhouse, just “subtracting some sunlight and adding some water” to what nature provides at his current home in Orange County, CA.

He especially enjoys finding new species that grow well in our Mediterranean climate (many are far more adaptable than most people would believe), and now grows over 500 different orchid species, along with cloud forest companion plants such as Heliamphora and epiphytic Utricularia. He rarely uses chemical insecticides or fungicides, preferring fresh air, beneficial insects, and our native tree frogs.

Scott retired from the corporate world a few years ago but stays active on various corporate boards and working with non-profit organizations that promote science education for kids.

Ophrys tenthredinifera

Ophrys tenthredinifera

Diuris magnifica

DVOS meetings are open to everyone.  DVOS members are automatically sent the Zoom login link via e-mail.  Non-members of DVOS who wish to attend should RSVP to: dvosshowandtell@gmail.com before 7/13/22 and you will be sent the login information for the meeting.

DVOS members who “attend” the meeting and who have paid their 2022 dues are automatically entered into the monthly drawing for one of two $50 gift certificates, good towards a purchase of an orchid or supplies from a recognized orchid vendor.

Our auctioneer is Carol Klonoswski!

This auction is going to be outside in August. Make sure you have sun protection, water, chairs.

IF YOU CAN’T BE PRESENT IN PERSON, BUT WOULD LIKE TO BID on items in the catalog, we have appointed Pat Bacchetti to act as Proxy and bid for you. Please contact her at bacpab@comcast.net no later than August 6 for details. This service is available to DVOS members only.

Click here to open the catalog for our upcoming auction.

The September 2022 DVOS monthly meeting will once again be held in a “virtual” (Zoom) format.  Zoom meeting starts at 7:00pm PDST (Doors “open” at 6:45pm for general chit-chat)

Ophrys tenthredinifera

Most flowers lure their pollinators with a reward of nectar or pollen. But did you know that at least a third of all orchid species trick their pollinators into pollinating them with no reward whatsoever? This month, our speaker, Larry Kuekes, will present a Zoom talk showing some of the amazing adaptations that orchids use to trick their pollinators, from providing fake pollen, to imitating a female bee (to attract male bees), to mechanical traps worthy of a James Bond film.  The presentation will be done in Larry’s distinctive multimedia style, including music and video clips. Join us for a fun survey of some of the world’s most amazing orchids!

Larry started growing orchids on his windowsills in Connecticut in 1984, where he grew mostly cool- and intermediate-growing orchids. In 2010 he retired and moved to Hilo in Hawaii, where he started a small but diverse collection of mostly warm-growing orchids in a shade house near sea level. Although he grows some hybrids, he’s a self-described “species nut”.Larry was President of the Hilo Orchid Society in 2014-2015, was their Treasurer 2020-2021, and is currently their Newsletter Editor and Webmaster.

DVOS meetings are open to everyone.  DVOS members are automatically sent the Zoom login link via e-mail.  Non-members of DVOS who wish to attend should RSVP to: dvosshowandtell@gmail.com before 9/7/22 and you will be sent the login information for the meeting.

DVOS members who “attend” the meeting and who have paid their 2022 dues are automatically entered into the monthly drawing for one of two $50 gift certificates, good towards a purchase of an orchid or supplies from a recognized orchid vendor.