DVOS Meeting

Pepe Portilla is the founder and president of Ecuagenera Orchids in Ecuador, which has grown into one of the largest orchid nurseries in South America. Ecuagenera specializes both in species for the collector and hybrids for the pot plant markets. Pepe is not only an excellent businessman but he also has a deep love and understanding of his country’s orchids. He has traveled widely to observe the native orchids and is also committed to both in situ and ex situ conservation of the country’s orchid wealth. He will speak about “The Orchids of Ecuador”.

The Plant Table will be supplied by Pepe Portilla

Note Change in VENUE AND TIME for the December Meeting

6:00 pm – 10:00 pm at Pleasant Hill Community Center, 3320 Civic Drive, Large Room

Gift Exchange and Small Auction

Setup at 6:00 pm with Dinner beginning at 7:00 pm

Turkey and ham will be provided by the Board … the rest … by you, our members! We have a liquor license, so you can BYOB!

For the potluck, bring a side dish, salad or desert … enough for 8 … according to the beginning letter of your last name…

A-H Desert, I-O Salad, P-Z Side Dish

For the Gift Exchange bring a nice plant (bug free) or an orchid related item (a pot, gardening tool etc … something that you would like to receive yourself).

There will also be a small auction for some very special items!

Note: This is a members only event… spouses/partners are welcome, too.

The 2019 dues should be paid by the January meeting, but feel free to pay at the party! ($30)

Holiday Party Bonus: The first 30 people who have paid dues for 2019 will receive a free plant. Please bring the completed form with your check. Renewal Form

“I was born August 2, 1946 in the city of Berkeley, California and have remained a resident ever since. I met my partner, John Leathers in 1975 and we began growing orchids after we purchased a home with a built on solarium. In 1979 we bought our present home and built a 15′ x 25′ standalone glass greenhouse.

Greenhouse at Pacifica

As our avocation expanded we rented additional greenhouse space in Daly City sharing it with other orchid friends. For the 15 or so years we’ve rented space in Pacifica, California. We currently grow in a 3000 sq. ft greenhouse and hybridize orchids. John and I do our own lab work, pod to blooming plant; have a well equipped lab in our home.

We both had careers at UC Berkeley. John retired as manager of Printing Services, an operation that printed for all nine campuses and I retired as manager for facilities and equipment of the Marvell Microfabrication Laboratory, a shared semiconductor research facility meeting needs for more than 400 researchers.

We specialize in cool growing Andean orchid species, John in the genus Dracula and Masdevallia and I in Odontoglossums.Our goal is to improve plants in these genera, share them with others and do our best to maintain the interest in hobby orchid growing given, as with many hobbies, a “greying” of participants. We now see our collection and work mostly as a preservation effort.

In addition to orchids I play classical piano. We are both avid art collectors – yet another of our bottomless money pits and John is the editor of The International Odontoglossum Alliance newsletter published in both Spanish and English with a readership of more than 180 subscribers.

My talk begins with the discovery of nature at the beginning of the 19th Century, an age of invention and the tremendous social changes which that century begot. The Victorian orchid craze was one result. The momentum and enthusiasm for orchid raising went on for most of the next 100 years. We have entered an age where hobbies are graying, competing with social media for time. Property values are high, building codes interfere with construction of greenhouses and big-box stores sell orchid plants below cost as “price leader” thus destroying small businesses. Inept interference by the Royal Horticultural Society and a failure of leadership by the American Orchid Society have created an embargo on how plants travel. The future of the orchid hobby is bleak.”

The Plant Table will be supplied by Bob Hamilton and John Leathers

Most of the orchids we see at shows and on show tables are sympodial where one growth finishes and a new one starts from the rhizome. This presentation will focus on those with a monopodial growth habit. Those where the plant grows upward from a single point. It adds leaves to the apex each year and the stem grows longer accordingly.

This talk will focus on the wonderful variety of monopodial genera of great interest to orchid growers. It includes miniatures as well as some rather large species, some well known and others not often seen. It will cover aspects of culture in general and individual species. You will see images of flowers up close as well as whole plants. There should be something of interest to growers from all levels of experience.

Marni Turkel (pronounced tur KELL) 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 featured in articles of 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.

Gastrochilus formosanus

Schoenorchis buddleiflora

Angraecum lecomtei

“I was first stuck by the orchid bug in my early teens, when I discovered a commercial Phalaenopsis grower near where I grew up in Phoenix Arizona.
After moving to the San Francisco Bay area in 1976, I quickly became acquainted with Rod McClellan’s orchids in South San Francisco and it wasn’t long until my kitchen window was brimming with orchids.

A move to Santa Rosa (Sonoma County) in 1989, afforded an opportunity to house my rapidly growing orchid collection in a backyard greenhouse. In 1999, my wife and I completed construction of a new greenhouse (and home) in Petaluma.
Austin Creek Orchids was established in 2001. I semi-retired from the high tech industry in 2014, leaving more time for grandchildren… and orchids!

In the past few years, I have focused largely on Paphiopedilums, although I grow many other genera including Angraecum, Bulbophyllum, Cattleya, Dendrobium, and various vandaceous species and hybrids.

My wife and I have done a fair amount of international travel over the years, but with the exception of our 2015 trip to southwestern Australia, it was never about orchids.”

Elythranthera brunonis

Thelymitra villosa

Caladenia chapmanii

This is our big annual fundraiser. Help out DVOS by donating your amazing plants. To prepare your plants:

1. Please ensure the plants you bring are bug-free
2. Please tidy up your plants by cleaning the leaves and weeding the media
3. Please bring plants you think others would like to bid on

The DVOS board will provide refreshments. All you need to bring is your wallet, checkbook, or credit / debit card.

Carol Klonowski has been growing orchids since the 1980’s when a friend in Berkeley,California, gave her a cattleya and it bloomed out with three big, dark lavender flowers and 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 passion ever since. She can recall going to monthly meetings at OSC and DVOS where orchid legends such as the late Frank Fordyce and Dick Emory would be available to answer the many questions an eager hobbyist could ask. Carol has served as Director, Vice President, and President of the Orchid Society of California for most of the past two decades and is currently an Accredited Judge with the American Orchid Society, California Sierra Nevada Judging Center.

Angelic Nguyen has many years experience as a silk painting artist, floral designer, graphic and web designer. Growing up with orchids and tropical flowers around her hometown near Saigon, Vietnam, her passion for orchids has shown up in her paintings and designs. After she and her family escaped from the Communists and came to the U.S. in 1990, she started a new life as a graphic artist at the San Jose Mercury News.

She has been growing orchids for about 20 years, and started her company, Orchid Design, in 1999. Angelic works on orchid growing, orchid arrangement, graphic design, and web design. Recently she has also been concentrating on photography and has taken thousands of orchid pictures for promoting orchid shows.

Orchids she grows include Cattleyas, Phalanopsis, Laelias, Dendrobiums, Oncidiums, Paphs, Phrags, Lycastes, Bulbophylums, Vandas; hybrids and species. She also has several rare Cymbidiums — standard, pendulous and peloric, and has done some hybridizing of Cymbidiums, Laelias, and Cattleyas. In the meantime, she enjoys finding different orchids blooming in her garden every day.

Angelic was Art Director for the Cymbidium Society of America Journal in 2006, and served as the newsletter editor for the San Francisco Orchid Society for about ten years. She has been involved in many activities to support orchid societies with design and printing for postcards, brochures and flyers, and has also served as President, show chair, and as a board member of several Bay Area orchid societies. She is currently the show chair for the SFOS’s summer show, “Orchids in the Park”. She’s also helping shows promotions, social medias advertising for many orchid, flower and garden shows in California.

Orchid Design has been participating in the Pacific Orchid Exposition, the Santa Barbara International Orchid Show, the San Diego International Orchid Show, the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, and many other shows for the past decade.

She has also been giving orchid presentations and skill sessions for orchid and garden societies, using her experience and large selection of her photographs. She has spoken on a variety of orchid topics, including the 19th World Orchid Conference, Fragrant Orchids, Unusual Cymbidiums, Pendulous Cymbidiums, “Cattleya, the Queen of Flowers”, Laelia Species, and “The fascinating Orchids of Vietnam”.

You can visit her website www.ORCHIDesign.com,  email your orchid wish list to her: angelic@orchidesign.com or ask about something you would love to have in your orchid collection.

You can also find Angelic Nguyen and Orchid Design, and be her friend on Facebook!

Carol Klonowski has been growing orchids since the 1980’s when a friend in Berkeley,California, gave her a cattleya and it bloomed out with three big, dark lavender flowers and 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 passion ever since.

She can recall going to monthly meetings at OSC and DVOS where orchid legends such as the late Frank Fordyce and Dick Emory would be available to answer the many questions an eager hobbyist could ask.

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

The Plant Table will be supplied by Sunset Orchids

Peter started growing orchids 35 years ago, but then stopped due to school and starting a career. It wasn’t until about 14 years ago that the orchid “bug” came back and he is now heavily involved 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 he 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 thousand or more orchids at his home in Southern California in three small greenhouses, outdoors, as well as at an offsite greenhouse.

The Plant Table will be provided by Peter Lin