Eyes on Orchids Newsletter of the Baton Rouge Orchid Society

P.O. Box 66242—Baton Rouge, LA 70896-6242 June, 2013 - Volume 55 - Issue 6

www.batonrougeorchidsociety.org - 225.308.1404 –info@batonrougeorchidsociety.org

June Meeting - Wednesday, June 19, 2013 - 7 p.m.

Baton Rouge Garden Center - 7950 Independence Blvd.

Program: “Classifying Weird but Wonderful Paphs” and

“Preparing for the July Show”

Message from President Danka

June Program - Classifying Paphiopedilums

Are these weird or what? If you really want to grow something 'exotic' consider adding some Paphs to your collection. These require less light than Cattle-yas, and the flowers will last for months. This is an overview of how these are related to each other. If you already have some Paphs, please bring them in so we can discuss them. Frank will lead the discussion.

Once again…It’s Show Time! The 34th Annual BROS Show and Sale will take place on July 12, 13, and 14, 2013. While the major preparations are in place, there is much yet to do to make the show a success for our visitors and our Society. We will discuss some of these needs at our monthly meeting on the 19th. Those who have helped in the past will be asked to lend their expertise. Newcomers can help too -- for example, you can both help and learn a lot by clerking during AOS judging on Friday evening. Everyone can help by volun-teering to bring some food or drink to support the hospitality for which BROS is known. Below is a schedule of events and com-ments about when help is needed. And remember: above all, let’s have fun. Thursday, 7/11 8:30-10:00 pm Mark off exhibit spaces in Garden Center (~about 6 people, some ex-perience helpful) Friday, 7/12 8:00 Doors open to Garden Center 8:00 – 4:30 Show set up (members can help in a variety of ways all day) 8:30 - 4:00 Hospitality open (some help needed) 4:30 - 6:00 Plant entries organized into folders for AOS judging (~6 people; experi ence helps) 5:00 - 6:00 Judges' dinner (some help needed)6:00 Clerks assemble (~12 people, no experience needed - newcomers are very encouraged to clerk) 6:30 - 9:30 AOS judging

BROS Officers, 2013

President Bob Danka 225.769.7762 (h) rdanka@cox.net

Vice-President Bob Lank 225.927.2514 pops1548@cox.net

Secretary Valerie Creehan 225.756.8363 Treasurer Blair Many 225.921.9938 blair@blairmany.com

Show Chairman, 2013 Bob Danka 225.769.7762 (h) rdanka@cox.net

Newsletter Editor Danna Spayde 225.317.0933 orchidnut_2000@yahoo.com

Board Members Lata Johnson, thru 2013 Beth Blackstock, thru 2014 John Graham, thru 2015

SWROGA Representative: James Jeansonne AOS and Orchid Digest Representative: John Huner

Chairs of Standing Committees: Program Co-Chairs ♦ Lata John-son ♦ Tin-Wein Yu Membership ♦ Bob Lank Finance ♦ Blair Many Librarian♦ Bob Danka Refreshments ♦ Vacant

Minutes of May Meeting The plant clinic began at 6:40 PM with a session instructing members and new comers in culture tips for commonly grown orchids such as cattleyas, dendrobiums, and phalaenopsis. AOS culture sheets were provided. The clinic was given by Patty Granier and Frank Zachariah. Frank of-fered seedlings for sale and provided tips on potting the plants. The monthly meeting began at 7:05 PM with Vice-President Bob Lank calling the meeting to order. He reported BROS is still financially sound. Vice-President Lank reviewed the success of the potting workshop held May 4th at Clyde’s home. Our show is July 12th, 13th, and 14th. We will need volunteers for the show in-cluding clerks, sponsors for trophies, people to set up and take down, and volunteers for the judges’ dinner. We have a theme for our show called “Orchid Road Show”. James will be in charge of our exhibit. James requested for members to bring antique pots for the exhibit. The next shows in which we will have an exhibit are the New Orleans Show scheduled on May 31st- June 2nd, followed by the Acadian Orchid Society Show scheduled on June 22nd-23rd. Volunteers are needed to set up and take down our dis-plays. Beth reviewed the success of the two deliveries of Whole Foods orchids to the OLOL oncology unit, including the inpa-tient ward and the outpatient clinic. The nurse manager and administrator over oncology, along with the patients, were very appreciative. The speaker for the night’s program was Frank. He gave a very informative presentation on the completion of labels of plants for shows. He discussed several examples of choosing the proper class, listed by SWROGA, along with listing the parentage. Frank also reviewed the use of “OrchidWiz”, a comprehensive software program detailing the genealogy and cultivation of orchids, including information on species and hybrids. He also emphasized the importance of listing the correct information when entering a plant in a show. James utilized some of his crossed orchids and gave a presentation on preparation of plants for a show. He includ-ed advice on staking, securing, rotating, and cleaning. Frank also gave advice if attempting to receive an award of merit. Green Growers will resume in June but will not meet in July due to our show. Gene reviewed the blooming plants. The door prize and raffle plants were given by Blair and Vice-President Lank. The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 PM. Respectfully submitted,

Valerie Creehan Secretary

Happy June Birthday to the following: Anna “Cris” Garcia 6/11 Al Krotoski 6/20 Susan Lindig 6/24 Tanner Singleton 6/27 Scott Thompson 6/21 A special shout out to Clyde Howland who celebrated his 87th on 6/8.

Green Growers Schedule July - No meeting because of our

Show August 8

September 12 October 10

November 14 December - No meeting

The Acadiana Orchid Society will hold its annual orchid show on June 22 - 23 at the Nelson Horticulture Center in Lafayette. The Baton Rouge Orchid So-ciety will be constructing an exhibit in this show. Those members wishing to enter plants for judging need to bring them to the meeting on June 19 or get them to Carolyn Clay or Clyde How-land, who will be setting up the exhib-it, by June 20. Plant(s) should be clean; insect and disease free; properly labeled with both parents if a hybrid; and staked and tied for display. A plant may be rejected if it is considered to be too poor for display. The BROS will take all care to pre-vent damage to the plants, but the So-ciety will not be responsible for any damage that may occur. If you have questions about the exhibit, contact Carolyn 225.767.7306 or Clyde at 225.775.0140

Acadiana Orchid

Society Show

On June 3 Blair sent a notice to the membership about the death of our member, Dale Treleaven. The message below is one I received from his widow on June 8. I hope some of us will be able to attend the memorial service on June 30. I told her that we had already sent the obituary to members and sent her a copy of the message we sent. I am not including it here.

*************** It is with a sad heart that I inform you that a member of the Baton Rouge Orchid Society, Dale Treleav-en, passed away on May 25, 2013 at M. D. Anderson in Houston, Tex-as. Dale was passionate about grow-ing orchids. I know he enjoyed at-tending the meetings where he al-ways had engaging conversations and learned new things from members of the society. Attached is a copy of his obituary that ran in The Advocate on Sunday, June 2. I would appreciate your passing this news on to your membership. Members of the Baton Rouge Orchid Society are invited to join Dale’s family and other friends at a Celebra-tion of his Life on Sunday, June 30th, at 2:00 pm at the Abell Conference Room in the Lod Cook Alumni Center on the LSU campus, 3838 West Lakeshore Drive, Baton Rouge.

Passing of A Member

We received word from the Aca-dian Orchid Society that Pat Huval’s mother died on the morn-ing of June 8. Visitation was held on Saturday, June 9, and the fu-neral was on Monday, June 10. Please keep Pat and her family in your prayers.

Condolences to Pat

Huval & Family

This is James’ award winning encyclia at New Orleans Show on 6.1.13. A real beauty!

I’ve mentioned this before but they say repetition is an important part of learn-ing. (Besides, who reads all these, any-way?) I only know of two ways to grow healthy orchids. One, decide what kind of orchid you want to grow. Then research its require-ments: How much light it needs, how much water, ... and so on. Set up your greenhouse appropriately. There! That was easy! The second way is to decide ‘where’ you want to grow your orchids. Then do the reverse: find out how much light you receive there; what is the air circulation, temperature range; how often are you going to water, ... ok? The limiting factor for both plans is usually light. The rest is easier to fi-nesse. If you want to grow beautiful cattleyas, and you can’t provide at least 3000 ft. candles, you and your plants are going to be sorry. That is minimum of 3000. (Some of us give them over 6000.) Some orchids demand cool winters. Some will show damage if the temp drops into the 50's F. Don’t waste your good time trying to grow something that is going to be unhappy – and unhealthy. And, for Pete’s sake, think before you buy a plant that wants cool summers. It’s a waste of money and a slow death for the orchid. What about the second way? Let’s say you have a shady window and this is the only place you can grow your orchids. This is harder. How much light does it get? Be honest. How often are you willing to water? If you don’t know the answer to these two questions, you will probably be killing a bunch of plants before you find the right match. The Baton Rouge Orchid Society has light meters we can lend you. For free! Just ask. We want everyone to grow beautiful blooming monstrosities. Your orchid is a living being. The more you learn and give it what it wants, the hap-pier the two of you will be.

Let’s be Frank

About Orchids

By Frank Zachariah

Feedback on Foster

Orchid Project

Below is a message I received from a friend who is a cancer survivor. With her permis-sion I am including this message in the newsletter.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Hi Danna, Last evening I admired an orchid plant on a friend’s kitchen windowsill. She is battling lymphoma & in the midst of chemo. She told me that Whole Foods gives the un-saleable plants to the Orchid Society and that the members bring the plants back into bloom & give them to cancer patients. I was literally moved to tears at this beautiful gesture of kindness, love and thoughtfulness, both on the part of Whole Foods & the OS members. She loves that plant and it has given her many weeks of joy & beauty. She plans to give it back to the OS to pass on to another cancer pt. Please give my deepest thanks to whoever organized this loving program of care for God’s creatures – flora and human. Warmest regards, Emily Stich

Show Schedule continued from pg 1

Saturday, 7/13 8:00 Doors open to prep 8:30 - 3:00 Hospitality open (some help needed) 9:00 - 5:00 Show open to public Sunday, 7/14 9:00 am Doors open to prep 9:30 - 2:30 Hospitality open (some help needed) 10:00 - 4:00 Show open to public 4:00 - 5:00 Tear down and clean up All comers are needed to carry materi-als out and to clean the Garden Center. The clean up usually takes only about a hour to hour and a half.

New Orleans Show

Results

Congratulations to Lata Johnson whose Onc. Space race was named Best Oncidi-um in Show and to James Jeansonne whose Encyclia hybrid was named Best Encyclia in the New Orleans Thanks to Patty Granier, Valerie Creehan, and Beth Blockstock for setting up a lovely exhibit for us. Bob Danka and Gene Berg took it down. Below is a picture of our exhibit. Unfor-tunately, information about ribbon win-ners and the name of James’ encyclia are not available.

Frank is going to bring about 10 of the following unbloomed plants in 2-inch pots from James Jeansonne: C. intermedia alba x Ctt. Cluster Fire. This is a medium size white crossed with a brilliant multi-flowered orange-red. Since this has an excellent chance of being an award-winning flower, you may get the best of the cross! Let’s see how we’re all doing with our Clinic Plants that we’ve been buying over the last few months. Bring in two plants selected from the following list so we can compare results and share our cultural se-crets. Lc. Gaskell-pumila ‘Azure Star’ Blc. Yen Corona ‘Green Genie’ Blc. Owen Holmes ‘Encore’ Lc. S J Bracey ‘Waiolani’ Blc. Chinese Beauty ‘Orchid Queen’ Lc. Final Blue ‘Royal Purple’ You will not be judged on which is the best plant. We just want to see everyone’s plant. If it died, bring in the pot with the dead plant and you will still qualify. Got it?

June Plant Clinic

Orchids for Seniors

On June 24th at 10 a.m. the Orchids for Seniors group will con-gregate at Tin’s greenhouses on Air-port Dr. next door to Family Road. Tin’s greenhouses are the most organized I’ve ever seen. Come join us for a fun visit to see his two new greenhouses and the very interest-ing and unusual plants that he grows. Orchids for Seniors will not meet in the month of July because we participate in the Show.

John Huner’s miniscule dendrobium Lichenas-trum ‘Little Ben’ at May meeting. You can almost see the flowers!

Lata’s lovely Oncidium space race that was named best oncidium in the New Orleans Show.

Tin’s exhibit at the New Orleans Show. Look at all those ribbons!

A Nice Benefit of

Membership in

American

Orchid Society (AOS)

A popular benefit of AOS membership is participation in the Reciprocal Gar-den program of the American Horti-cultural Society. Many AOS members report that they save more than the cost of AOS membership annually by using this program. Check out the list-ing of participating gardens and arbo-reta at www.ahs.org/gardening-programs/rap - some offer free admis-sion or other benefits to AOS mem-bers. You will need to show your AOS membership card to participate.

Having a good time at the plant clinic in May are Randy Johnson, Eliska Fauntleroy, Sarala Palli-yoth, and Ashley Thompson

BROS Meetings &

Programs, 2013

July 13 &14 Showtime! No Meeting of Society or Green Growers

August 21 - Ashley Matherne - Topic TBA - unconfirmed; subject to change

September 18 - Weyman Bussey - Mexican Laelias October 16 - Peter Linn - Phalaenopsis

November - Roy Tokunaga, H&R Orchids Orchids, Hawaii - date & site TBA

December - Date & site TBA - Christmas Party & Plant Exchange

Editor’s Postscript

Since we won’t have a meeting in July because of the Show, I’m also getting a break. There will NOT be a newsletter in July. It will resume in August. It’ll be nice not to have to figure out how to fill up 4 to 6 pages with information that is both helpful and informative - at least that’s what I strive for - not sure that I al-ways succeed though. I could always use some help in filling the pages, so if any of you would like to submit an article about some facet of orchid culture and care, PLEASE feel free to do so. Since part of our program will be on Paphiopedilums this month, would anyone be interested in buying a copy of Tropical Slipper Orchids by Harold Koopowitz? For some reason, I managed to get two copies. Apparently I had bought one but

didn’t remember doing so and bought another one! Talk about your senior moments!! Anyway, my newest copy has hardly been opened, and I’d like to sell it for $35. This definitive book on this species normally sells for $60 or more. Any takers? I’ll bring it to the meeting for viewing. And, finally, I’m heading up publicity efforts for the Show again. I could definitely use some help in making sure that the word gets out so that we can attract LOTS of visitors. I particularly need help in contacting TV and radio stations to, hopefully, get us some spots on talk shows.

A lovely dendrobium (left) and Schomburgkia hybrids (right) on display at May meeting. Unfortunately, I don’t have their names