Eyes on Orchids Newsletter of the Baton Rouge Orchid Society P.O. Box 66242—Baton Rouge, LA 70896-6242 April, 2014 - Volume 56 - Issue 4 www.batonrougeorchidsociety.com - 225.308.1404 – [email protected]April Meeting - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 7 p.m. Baton Rouge Garden Center - 7950 Independence Blvd. Program: “Laelias and Related Genera” Speaker: Weyman Bussey, Orchidist Extraordinaire Plant Shopping Opportunity from 6:30 to 7 President’s Message April Program Raised in the swamps of South Florida, Belle Glade (60- 72) and educated in Ornamental Horticulture and Botany at the University of Florida (76), Weyman’s love for or- chids began at age 12 when he collected his first orchid in the Big Cypress swamps during a Boy Scout camping trip. A trip to the 7 th World Orchid Conference in Colombia with Milton Carpenter, at the age of 17, inspired him to live and work in the tropics where he could be nearest his real pas- sion, wild orchids in their habitat. He not only grew them commercially, but built many companies and laboratories throughout his career, not just for orchids, but al- so other flower crops in Colombia and Mexico. His favorite past time for 30 years was rescuing plants from fallen trees and finding them a home. (Continued Pg 4) First, let me thank Carolyn and other BROS members who came to help at the LSU garden show. Twenty-five people of the gardening community took the time to talk to us and sign up to receive our newsletter and we gave out at least 600 “bumper stickers” (Thanks Lata for your efforts by getting them done in time for the garden show.) My hat is also off to Randy who was an “uber” volunteer who not only helped Carolyn set up our exhibit but also aid- ed the cactus and bromeliad societies. You guys probably wonder why I keep harping on the need for individuals to volunteer for various duties such as setting up out-of-town shows, donating 3 or 4 hours for a club function, etc. For example, we set up at out-of-town shows and they, in turn, reciprocate and attend our show, which creates a larger attendance, which attracts larger dealers and a greater variety of plants. With a bigger show, we get more members which means more dues for more and better speakers and pro- grams. Our show can handle 6 or 7 dealers and this would be a small show but with the addition of 6 or 7 society exhibits creates a show that is spectacular! I received a nice thank you note from Karen Breaux of the Terrebonne Society who was appreciative of our exhibiting at their show. Speaking of volunteers, we need people to set up and take down the New Or- leans show. (May 30, 31, and June 1) and Acadiana show (June 13,14, and 15). 1
Transcript
Eyes on Orchids Newsletter of the Baton Rouge Orchid Society
P.O. Box 66242—Baton Rouge, LA 70896-6242 April, 2014 - Volume 56 - Issue 4
April Meeting - Wednesday, April 16, 2014 - 7 p.m.
Baton Rouge Garden Center - 7950 Independence Blvd.
Program: “Laelias and Related Genera”
Speaker: Weyman Bussey, Orchidist Extraordinaire
Plant Shopping Opportunity from 6:30 to 7
President’s Message
April Program Raised in the swamps of South Florida, Belle Glade (60-72) and educated in Ornamental Horticulture and Botany at the University of Florida (76), Weyman’s love for or-chids began at age 12 when he collected his first orchid in the Big Cypress swamps during a Boy Scout camping trip. A trip to the
7th World Orchid Conference in Colombia with Milton Carpenter, at the age of 17, inspired him to live and work in the tropics where he could be nearest his real pas-sion, wild orchids in their habitat. He not only grew them commercially, but built many companies and laboratories throughout his career, not just for orchids, but al-so other flower crops in Colombia and Mexico. His favorite past time for 30 years was rescuing plants from fallen trees and finding them a home. (Continued Pg 4)
First, let me thank Carolyn and other BROS members who came to help at the LSU garden show. Twenty-five people of the gardening community took the time to talk to us and sign up to receive our newsletter and we gave out at least 600 “bumper stickers” (Thanks Lata for your efforts by getting them done in time for the garden show.) My hat is also off to Randy who
was an “uber” volunteer who not only helped Carolyn set up our exhibit but also aid-ed the cactus and bromeliad societies. You guys probably wonder why I keep harping on the need for individuals to volunteer for various duties such as setting up out-of-town shows, donating 3 or 4 hours for a club function, etc. For example, we set up at out-of-town shows and they, in turn, reciprocate and attend our show, which creates a larger attendance, which attracts larger dealers and a greater variety of plants. With a bigger show, we get more members which means more dues for more and better speakers and pro-grams. Our show can handle 6 or 7 dealers and this would be a small show but with the addition of 6 or 7 society exhibits creates a show that is spectacular! I received a nice thank you note from Karen Breaux of the Terrebonne Society who was appreciative of our exhibiting at their show. Speaking of volunteers, we need people to set up and take down the New Or-leans show. (May 30, 31, and June 1) and Acadiana show (June 13,14, and 15).
Board Members Blair Many, thru 2014 John Graham, thru 2015 Jim Gershey, thru 2016 SWROGA Representative: James Jeansonne AOS and Orchid Digest Representative: John Huner Standing Committee Chairs: Program Co-Chairs ♦ Lata Johnson ♦ Tin-Wein Yu Membership ♦ Beth Black-stock Finance ♦ John Nelson Librarian ♦ Bob Danka Refreshments ♦ Vacant
Minutes of March Meeting
President John Huner called the meeting to order at 7:08 PM. He welcomed our visitors and gave an explanation of our awarding of the door prize and raffle plants. Upcoming shows and events were discussed. The Terrebonne show is this coming weekend. James Jeansonne and Randy Johnson will be setting up our display, while Thomas Ruiz and Hal Canning will disassemble the exhibit. The LSU Garden Show will be held at the John Parker Coliseum on March 29 and 30. We will have a table with blooming orchids for dis-play and provide information to the public about growing orchids and the Society. Volunteers are needed. There will be a plant sale at the LSU Hilltop Arboretum on March 22 from 9 AM to 2 PM, located on Highland Road. Clyde Holland announced that the date of the potting workshop would be May 3. Sign up lists will be circulated in the near future for our Baton Rouge show for various tasks and sponsoring trophies. Valerie Creehan will be in charge of hospitality. Randy will be working with the vendors. The program for the meeting was to be given by Sathish Kumar from India on the subject of “Orchids of the Western Gnats, India”. After Lata Johnson gave a very impressive bio of Satish, unfortunately, they were unable to make a proper connection to conduct the lecture. However, Lata gave members a handout to take home and review. Beth Black-stock brought donated containers from Whole Foods for fos-ter orchids. Members took a break for refreshments. Raffle plants were awarded. The meeting adjourned at 8:30 PM. Respectfully submitted, Valerie Creehan, Secretary
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Shopping Opportunity - 6:30 to 7 p.m.
Bring Blooming Phalaenopsis
Plants for delivery to hospital
Our speaker will bring a variety of plants to sell. So instead of the usual Plant Clinic that we hold prior to the meeting, we’ll have shopping time from 6:30 to 7 so that everyone will have an opportunity to browse the plants and buy what they want. If you lost plants to the cold weather, this is a great chance to re-stock!
Beth plans to deliver plants to the hospital this week. If you took some of the Whole Foods Foster Or-chids and have re-bloomed them, it’s time to take them to the patients. Please bring the plants that you have to the meeting so Beth can pick them up.
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Let’s Talk About Orchids
by Frank Zachariah and Lata Johnson
Lata is one of the ‘newer’ members but has dived in with both feet. She has been on our Board, Program Chair, and Show Chair, and I even think I saw her cooking up Sloppy Joe’s for show in last July’s Hospitality Room! She has a unique per-spective on growing orchids since she comes from southern India where they grow outdoors on trees. It makes our or-ganization richer to have people in it with such different experiences. 1. Lata, when did you get interested in growing orchids – here or back in Ker-ala, India? Even though my roots are in India I was born and grew up part of my life in Malay-sia. In Malaysia I watched my Mom grow-ing all kinds of orchids on the trees, in coconut shells, in coconut husks, on the ground and where ever else she thinks she can grow them. The interest was there but I never tried to grow one on my own. I caught the ‘orchiditis’ when my mom and I attended an orchid meeting in March a few years ago here in Baton Rouge. All those spectacular spring blooms on those 3 different tables at the meeting is all it took to get me hooked and join the club 2. Are there any orchids back home that you think we should be growing here? The climates in India and Malaysia are not similar to the climate here. I have not gone back to Malaysia since I started growing orchids here so I can’t say yet what I would like to grow from there that I don’t see over here. Orchids grow in the wild in Malaysia and india so they are very easy to grow over there. Over here it is a challenge to grow orchids and they need special care.
This Article continued on pages 4 & 5
3. Do you have favorites? Why do you like them? That is not a fair question! How do we not like them all? But if you insist, I am fasci-nated by the amazing shapes of Stan-hopea’s. Even though they don’t last long they do make me appreciate the wonders that are God creations. I love the blooms of Cattleya’s and their crosses for their showy blooms; Cymbidiums, Dendrobi-ums and Vanda’s for their annual explo-sion of flowers. Long lasting catchy blooms of Paphiopedilum and Phrag-mipedium with bright multicolored whisk-ers stop me in my tracks. Then there are the fragrant orchids, and miniatures like Tin grows. With all of these beauties how am I supposed to pick a favorite ?? 4. Which orchids would you recom-mend for a beginner to collect? I will definitely pick Cattleya’s. I think when I started growing orchids - or should I say killing orchids trying to grow them - the only ones that stood up to my learning process were the bigger Cattle-ya’s. I feel that if I can grow them, anyone can. 5. You told us that you had a disaster with the winter freezes. About how many orchids do you think survived? How do they look now?
Now you are trying to make me sad. I learned a huge lesson there. Don’t under-estimate mother nature, or should I say the chills they can bring under, over and all around your plants no matter what you do. When the temperature gets as low as it got this year along with the strong winds and wind chills, the only place the orchids should be is either in the house or in a warm greenhouse or a covered struc-ture. When running a heater it is also good to get a wireless temperature moni-tor so that you can monitor the tempera-ture from your home. Of all the plants that
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were covered and left outside only 5% of were covered and left outside only 5% of them survived. When you have to have the stomach to pull your trash can and fill ¾ full with blackened dead plants, it is something you won’t forget. I tried to save some of the plants by cut-ting them to the rhizome, assuming it might put out new growth. But once they are black, even if they were only 50% black, they did not survive. But other than five out of about 25 cut down orchids none made it through. I had to discard them last weekend. I do have about 30-35% of my plants still doing fine that were secured before the teen temper-ature hit us. I kept a list of the plants I lost and it is alarming to see the number as it keeps getting longer and longer (see picture: top--some of the dead plants bottom- inside trash can which is 3/4 full with damaged plants). 6. Is there an orchid you like but have difficulty growing?
Yes, I am really not good at growing miniature orchids. There are some real-ly beautiful miniatures like the ones Tin grows in his greenhouse. I am also
challenged in growing Cycnoches, Gon-gora’s and I am sure many many more. Most of my plants are showy Cattleyas and their crosses. 7. What is one craziest thing you have done growing orchids. I decided I will create an orchid tree. In October 2013 I started growing Den-drobiums on my palm tree. They started putting out roots and growing. But the winter beat me down on this theory
(Lata’s orchid tree covered for winter). When I took the wrap off the tree in March, surprisingly one of the Dendrobiums still has one stem that is still green. I think if I start early growing them on the tree, I might be able to mimic how my mom grows it in Malaysia - on the tree, in ground, on other mediums etc (below
pictures of ways my mom growing her or-chids).
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8. What advice would you give someone just starting out? Don’t take advice from people who don’t grow orchids. They might tell you to put ice cubes once a week. Join an orchid so-ciety. There are plenty of master orchid growers there and they, in my experi-ence, are always willing to help you. And start slow. 9. What is a good source to get advice? A very good source to get advice from are individuals who grow orchids well. You may get some basic information from the internet, but the advice that you get from the internet is for growing in specif-ic areas of the country or different parts of the world. So, in order to get first hand, tried and true information for your area, talk to members of your local Or-chid society that grow beautiful orchids. They have grown these for a long time. They were in your shoes at one time, but they have grown them for years and years (some for 50+ years). I call them master orchid growers. Ask questions, and in my experience, they will be happy to help and teach you how to grow them. For ex-ample, when I started growing orchids, I was planting my orchids like a regular plant, deep into the pot in an orchid mix. After killing many, I sought advice, brought in my dead plants, and the mem-bers helped me see what I was doing wrong. They were glad to not only teach me how to pot them, but also with using fertilizers, providing adequate light, hu-midity, and temperature, in growing or-chids etc etc. Believe it or not, I came from killing 100% of my plants to maybe 30 to 40%, other than when the weather is in its lower teens.
Orchid Items for Sale
Former BROS member Patricia Melrose is starting to sell her orchid supplies and books on Craig's list if anyone is in-terested. Check “orchids” and “for sale by owner”, and they will come up. Here is an example of some of the stuff she has and the pricing. Copy this URl into your browser. http:// batonrouge.craigslist.org/grd/4411442814.html
Water Testing Kits
Beth has water testing kits for anyone that would like to send off to test their water quality via JR Peters. She will bring them to the meeting.
Annual Potting Work-
shop
An annual NOT-TO-BE-MISSED event is the Society’s annual potting workshop and pot luck supper. Again this year it will be held at Clyde Howland’s home in Baker. The date is Saturday, May 3; hours are 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Come and bring your overgrown plants that need to be divided and share them with other members. Also, cook up your favorite recipe and bring it for the pot luck supper. Clyde’s address is 3546 Groom Rd. Baker, La. 70714 - Phone 225.775.0140. It’s easy to find as it is the only geodes-ic dome house on Groom Rd. We’ll send out a reminder email about it with as time draws nearer. Because of the Potting Workshop, there will not be a Green Growers meeting in May. The next one will be June 11. There will not be another newsletter before the Potting Workshop.
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Weyman Bussey bio (cont.)
In his sought after presentation about Mexi-can orchids, given to over 120 societies during the past the past 25 years, he shows you how the geography of Mexico has influenced the evolution of more than a thousand species. He’ll keep you captivated and motivated throughout the presen-tation with door prizes (Vanilla Beans) for your participation. How about a cocktail for your or-chids? Do you know the W.A.N.T.S orchids have? This presentation is much more than a bunch of pretty flower pictures, it takes you into real Old Mexico in depth, teaches you how to choose the Mexican native orchid species best suited for your climate in Louisiana and how to grow them. You get a 4 page handout on culture, hailed by the best Hawaiian growers as, “the nail on the head” about growing orchids! The power point presentation will be given to your society for all members to share. There will be lots of inexpen-sive and neat plants (some species, (especially Encyclia hybrids and the greatest book on the Orchids of Mexico ever written) for sale at the meeting. Weyman invites members to check out his website and email him to: [email protected] any specific questions about any of the species in the table at http/www.abundafloracom/species_categories.htm. He is glad to include more information on any particular interests you might have. W Weyman is an adventurer at heart, an or-chidist to the core, professor of innovation, great lecturer on Mexican orchids and practical tropi-cal and subtropical orchid growing. You’ll have to come and see his presentation to judge for yourself and, at the very least, be entertained. For more information on Weyman you can type Weyman Bussey orchid into the google search bar. Weyman is working with Alexis Smith at Tropical Isles, Orchids and Bromeliads in Stuart, 772-260-6490. Editor’s Note: Some of us will remember that several years ago Weyman used to partici-pate in an annual Orchid Fair that was held for a few years at the Holiday Inn. I remember how entertaining his presentation were and how much I learned from them. I look forward to hearing him again.
Green Growers Schedule
May 3 - Potting Workshop Next Green Growers is
June 11 July - No meeting because
of our Annual Show Meetings at 7 p.m. at the home of Gene & Thelma
Berg, 425 Nelson Dr. Come for good fellowship
and learning, and door
BROS Meeting
Dates &
Programs, 2014
Meeting Dates May 21 - Program TBA June 18 - Program TBA July - Show Time - No meeting August 20 - Program TBA September 17 - Program TBA October 15 - Program TBA November 19 - Program TBA December - Christmas Party - Date TBA
Happy April
Birthday
to the
following:
Rosie Leonpacher April 11 Blair Many April 29 Lane Seab April 27
March Photo Gallery - Plants on Display
at Meeting
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Thanks to Valerie Creehan for the photos on this page and on page 5
