Eyes on Orchids Newsletter of the Baton Rouge Orchid Society P.O. Box 66242—Baton Rouge, LA 70896-6242 August, 2013 - Volume 55 - Issue 7 www.batonrougeorchidsociety.org - 225.308.1404 –[email protected]August Meeting - Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - 7 p.m. Baton Rouge Garden Center - 7950 Independence Blvd. Program: “Ashley Matherne on “Growing Cattleyas, Orchids of the new world” Message from President Danka August Program This month we are delighted to have Ashley Matherne, owner of Orchid Retreat in Bourg, LA, to present a program on “Growing Cattleyas, Orchids of the New World”. Ashley is one of the best cattleya growers in our area. He and wife, Beverly, were introduced to orchids when Ashley bought an or- chid for Beverly at a plant sale at the mall. Since the addiction started immedi- ately, they bought more and more and more orchids. At that time Lowe’s, Home Depot, or internet were not an option to buy orchids. 2013 Show wrap up Our 34 th annual show went off very smoothly on July 12- 14. The Garden Center was beautiful as always, with about 350 plants registered in the show. Sixteen were considered for A.O.S. awards and three were awarded. Let me thank some of our society members who were particu- larly active in making the show a success. First, let me commend the work prior to the show by Bob Lank (obtaining trophies), Lata Johnson (design and printing of the show schedules and signage) and Danna Spayde (publicity). Sincere thanks go to James Jean- sonne for handling the BROS exhibit – and congratulations to James for winning the A.O.S. Show Trophy. A special thank you goes to Randy Johnson who lent a helping hand to James on Friday. The hospitality under the leadership of Lata Johnson and Valerie Creehan was wonderful and appreciated by all who partook. Ronnie Kennedy stepped up at the 11 th hour (both figuratively and literally) to take official photo- graphs of awarded plants. And I offer my thanks to the many other Society members, especially the newer participants, who helped in his or her own capacity. It was nice to see some new folks helping out with clerking. Let me also commend the A.O.S. judges, especially Julius Klehm, for their work on Friday evening. Of course, we would not have a show without the exhibits set up by fellow orchid enthusiasts from the region. And many of us benefitted from the ex- cellent plants sold by the participating vendors. I say “Great job” and “Thank you” to everyone for making it happen. Bob
Transcript
Eyes on Orchids Newsletter of the Baton Rouge Orchid Society
August Meeting - Wednesday, August 21, 2013 - 7 p.m.
Baton Rouge Garden Center - 7950 Independence Blvd.
Program: “Ashley Matherne on “Growing Cattleyas,
Orchids of the new world”
Message from President Danka
August Program This month we are delighted to have Ashley Matherne, owner of Orchid Retreat in Bourg, LA, to present a program on “Growing Cattleyas, Orchids of the New World”. Ashley is one of the best cattleya growers in our area. He and wife, Beverly, were introduced to orchids when Ashley bought an or-chid for Beverly at a plant sale at the mall. Since the addiction started immedi-ately, they bought more and more and more orchids. At that time Lowe’s, Home Depot, or internet were not an option to buy orchids.
2013 Show wrap up Our 34th annual show went off very smoothly on July 12-14. The Garden Center was beautiful as always, with about 350 plants registered in the show. Sixteen were considered for A.O.S. awards and three were awarded. Let me thank some of our society members who were particu-larly active in making the show a success. First, let me commend the work prior to the show by Bob Lank (obtaining trophies), Lata Johnson (design and printing of the show schedules and signage) and Danna Spayde (publicity). Sincere thanks go to James Jean-sonne for handling the BROS exhibit – and congratulations to James for winning the A.O.S. Show Trophy. A special thank you goes to Randy Johnson who lent a helping hand to James on Friday. The hospitality under the leadership of Lata Johnson and Valerie Creehan was wonderful and appreciated by all who partook. Ronnie Kennedy stepped up at the 11th hour (both figuratively and literally) to take official photo-graphs of awarded plants. And I offer my thanks to the many other Society members, especially the newer participants, who helped in his or her own capacity. It was nice to see some new folks helping out with clerking. Let me also commend the A.O.S. judges, especially Julius Klehm, for their work on Friday evening. Of course, we would not have a show without the exhibits set up by fellow orchid enthusiasts from the region. And many of us benefitted from the ex-cellent plants sold by the participating vendors. I say “Great job” and “Thank you” to everyone for making it happen.
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 June Meeting President Bob Danka called the meeting to order at 7:10 PM. Blair gave a brief financial report. The society is still in the black; however expenses have been incurred for speak-ers. The New Orleans exhibit was assembled by Valerie, Patty, and Beth. The exhibit did well, with James and Lata receiv-ing trophies. James received a ribbon for AOS consideration. There were 5 blue (first place) and 5 white (third place) rib-bons. The Acadian show is this following weekend. Carolyn and Clyde will be setting up this exhibit. Carolyn will need plants for the show by Thursday. The plants need to be properly labeled with the parentage. President Danka mentioned the obituaries of Pat Huval's mother and member Dale Treleaven. Beth noted that she, Valerie, and Barbara had visited with Dale on the OLOL oncology ward while delivering orchids in April. Beth gave a report on the success of the foster or-chids. She and Marie recently delivered another 15 plants. There are many tasks associated with preparation of our July show. We will have 7 vendors. James is in charge of set-ting up our exhibit. Bob Lank has purchased trophies. Va-lerie is in charge of the judges' dinner, and Lata is managing hospitality. Lata circulated a list and asked members to sign for a food item. She also made fliers. Danna has handled publicity, including bringing cards for circulation, sending press releases, and ordering buttons. President Danka reviewed the timeline for the show week-end. On Thursday night after the Bromeliad Society meets, the floor will need to be marked. Friday morning the center will open at 7:00 AM. We will need help from members to assist the vendors. Exhibits will be assembled. Plant regis-tration will close at 4:00 - 4:30 PM. The judges' dinner will be provided at 5:00 - 6:00. Judging will begin, and members will be needed to clerk for judging. Saturday morning the center will open at 8:00 AM, and the public will be allowed to attend from 9:00 - 5:00. James asked members to bring an old or antique pot to be used in the exhibit. Raffle tick-ets will be sold. Sunday the center will be open from 10:00 - 4:00. Frank gave a very informative presentation on the taxono-my/classification of paphiopedilums, including their six alli-ances. Gene reviewed the blooming plants brought by members. Raffle plants were given by Blair. The meeting adjourned at 9:15 PM. Respectfully submitted,
Valerie Creehan Secretary
Happy August Birthday to the following: John Huner 8/29 Tin-Wein Yu 8/30 Ashley Thompson 8/8 Anne Marie Blank 8/10
President’s Message cont. from Pg 1
My Visit to Hilo, Hawaii & Some Wishful Thinking
I very much wish I could take you all on a field trip. We would go to Hilo, on the east side of the Big Island of Hawaii. My visit there three months ago revealed to me what seemed to be paradise for growing orchids. It was pretty clear that you could just about throw an orchid on the ground and it would grow. This is because the area has a climate that features a nearly perfect combination of the basic cultural factors needed for good growth of most orchids. Here is what I saw. Temperatures in Hilo typically range from the mid to upper 60s at night to the low to mid 80s during the day. The humidity usually was high -- 80% or so. See the photo I took at my hotel for a sense of this. What really struck me was that despite the very high humidity, the combination with relatively moderate temperatures meant that it felt remarkably comfortable there, certainly much more comfortable than in our Baton Rouge summers. Sunlight was bright but noticeably muted by hazy clouds almost all of the time; there was only a weak shadow cast when I held my hand one foot above a surface. The clouds spawned rain showers that came and went lightly and produced the wet-then-dry cycle in which most orchids thrive. Note that Hilo gets 120 inches of rain a year; that is twice what we average in Baton Rouge. Yes, it would be great if you all could experience these conditions yourselves and see how happily the plants grow. Maybe we’ll plan an outing to Carmela Orchids, just north of Hilo. Until then, keep these ideals of temperature, humidity, light and water in mind as you strive for cultural perfection.
The grounds of the Hilo Beach Hotel have orchids planted on numerous tree ferns. This view of the roots of a Cattleya should give you a sense of how the high humidity enables rampant growth of mosses. The moss no doubt helps re-tain some moisture in the root zone.
Green Growers Schedule September 11 October 10
November 14 December - No meeting
Meetings are at 7 p.m. at the home of Gene & Thelma Berg,
425 Nelson Dr. Come for good fellowship and
learning.
Thanks to Carolyn Clay and Clyde Howland for setting up our tabletop exhibit at the Acadiana Show in late June. As you can see, several of the plants in our exhibit took ribbons.
Acadiana Orchid
Society Show
August Program (Cont.) They were eventually introduced to Mary Claire Wolfe, who - at the time - was president of the Terrebonne Or-chid Society. She welcomed them and gave them a box full of orchids, which started their journey of growing or-chids. Twenty-two years ago they joined that Orchid Society. After collecting orchids for 12 years, working in 2 greenhouses and oth-er areas they started their own com-mercial business selling orchids, Orchid Retreat. They grow many genera, but their main interest is growing Cattle-yas. They grow over three thousand orchids, some of which are their own hybrids. Over 50 of their plants have received awards, including two FCC/AOS.
A cute Dendrobium on display at our Show
Orchids for Seniors will resume its meetings on August 26 at 10 a.m. at Independence Park. We will meet in September and October and then we’re finished for the year as we don’t meet during the holiday season. Come and join us.
Orchids for Seniors
Setting up exhibits at our Show. That’s John Stubbings, Clown Alley Orchids, in foreground & Clyde Howland in back-ground.
I’m sure y’all are tired of me harping on light so this article will be about hot temperatures. (Don’t worry, there will be a quiz on light at the end.) I got on a Myrmecophila (Schomburgkia) Facebook page from south Florida. They recommend putting the plants in full sun. Lots of orchids live in nearly full sun in their native habitat. From experience, I can tell you that that is a sure fire way to destroy your collec-tion. What’s the difference? Heat. Orchids cannot get rid of excessive heat. If you touch a leaf and it is hot, your plant is going to be in trouble. Artificially cooling the plant is neither effective nor eco-nomical. How can they do it in Miami? Coastal breezes. Wind is very effective in keeping temperatures from spiking. Like some other members, I grow under shade cloth for the summer and I have never had a problem with heat stress on my Catts – even when the temps reached 100's several days in a row. A warning for those growing in closed greenhouses: fan recommendations are woefully inade-quate in our climate. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It just means you are going to have to use common sense and step up your circulation. Daytime temperatures can be manipu-lated. Remember though, if you control your heat problem on adding more and more shade, you are just substituting one problem for another. Moving more air is the better solution. Some plants are never going to be hap-py here. These are the highland plants that demand cool nights. Plants perform respiration at night. If the night is too warm, the plant spends its energy trying to cool down rather than making new growth. It weakens and dies. (That’s why we don’t grow pansies in our summer.) Look up the preferred night temp. If it is low 60's, you’re going to have prob-lems. For instance, straight Sophronitis-type species are not recommended for the Gulf South. For the oncidiums, if you
see tiny dots all over the leaves, this is usually a sign of heat stress. (Sharry Baby is notorious for this.) Warm nights are also a problem for Phals. As we’ve all ob-served, they are much happier once the night temp drops below 70 F. Those with closed greenhouses, if you can keep them a little drier through the summer, you can slow their growth and avoid some leaf diseases – especially the dreaded bacterium Erwinia. OK, now I’ve done this column for 3 years and it is time to change things up. I am sure y’all are ready to hear some fresh viewpoints. I know I am! I am going to ask for some members to volunteer on future articles. We need more a dialog rather than random musings. If any of you are interested, please contact me. You don’t have to be the most knowl-edgeable person in our society. A begin-ning perspective is good and you’ll be surprised how it will make you a better grower. You only need to collaborate for 1 article. I promise, it won’t be hard (and I’ll do most of the work). I am also going to start posting some pictures on our newsletter. I encourage y’all to do the same. -------------------------------------------------- The Quiz One person is growing their Catts with the recommended 50% sunlight. That is about 6000-7000 ft candles. A second person grows his at 3000 ft candles. (AOS says that Catts can be grown at 3000 and we have members that bloom them with that amount.) If everything else is the same (temperature, fertilize, watering), which grower will have more blooms? That was too easy. Now let’s say that the first grower is still growing with the recommended light, fertilizer, water, etc., and the second grower increases his fertilizer ten times. Pretend that this will not harm his plants. Who will have more blooms? (And your hint: Fertilizer contributes 3% of the plant’s growth. Light makes up 97%.) I sincerely thank Frank for doing this column & join him in inviting others of you to contribute to the newsletter.
Let’s be Frank
About Orchids
By Frank Zachariah
Photo Gallery of Recent New Members
The pre-meeting clinic for this month will focus on three types of orchids that grow well in our area -cattleyas, dendrobiums, and phalaenopsis. Gene Berg will talk to participants about these three genera. Every-one is invited to come a little early and learn at the Clinic.
August Plant Clinic
Lenny Comeaux 2025 Chevelle Dr. Baton Rouge, LA 70806 225.603.8997 Cell & Home [email protected]
Randy Johnson 4267 Bea Dr. Baton Rouge, LA 70809 [email protected] 225.205.8181 (cell)
We also welcomed returning members Marie & David Dendy. I don’t have a picture of them for this newsletter . . . Maybe next month. Here is their contact information for our next Directory. Marie & David Dendy 7637 Pennhill Dr. Baton Rouge, LA 70817 [email protected] 225.229.1353 Marie Cell 225.588.2201 David Cell 225.753.8766 Home
"An orchid is like a detox for one's home and soul"
BROS Meetings &
Programs, 2013
September 18 - Weyman Bussey - Mexican Laelias October 16 - Peter Linn - Phalaenopsis
November - Roy Tokunaga, H&R Orchids of Hawaii - date & site TBA December - Date & site TBA - Christmas Party & Plant Exchange
Scott Thompson 6715 Goodwood Ave. Baton Rouge, LA 70806 [email protected] 225-927-9646 (home) 225-925-5486 (work)
In the past few months we have welcomed the three new members pic-tured here. We are de-lighted to have them join us and look forward to their active participation in the Society.
Marketplace Former member Tim Smith has the following three orchid books for sale since he is no longer raising orchids be-cause of illness, weather, and squir-rels. Understanding Orchids by William Cullina, 2004. Only used a few times, no writing, hardback and dust cover is in great shape. Flora’s Orchids, 2005. Hardback with slip cover. Great condition and was used rarely. Ortho’s Complete Guide to Orchids, 2005 softcover edges curl a little but it is in good shape He is asking $60 for all three. If you are interested, call 225.247.3854, or email [email protected]
Editor’s Note: I received The following article from Jay Pfahl as a result of an inquiry I sent him after seeing a posting from the online Orchid Guide Digest in March. Since I know that many of you have made use of the IOSPE, I thought you would be interested in this infor-mation.
************ Those of you that use IOSPE [www.orchidspecies.com] know that it has been growing faster than ever and there have been many improvements. I now have 16,397 species in 778 gene-ra and am adding at least 4 new species each and every day. Because of past user donations I have been able to amass a great reference library of modern books, and the information on IOSPE has be-come much more correct. I have fixed so many errors that I think at times that none of it was right before. I have added over 1200 terrestrials in the last six months which is an often ignored part of the Orchidaceae. Many more of our own native terrestrial species are now repre-sented. Many of the larger genera have been broken up into sections and in a few I have grouped them to a linked list. I will be doing more of this in the future, and with keyboard help I can have them all added with searches that produce a thumbnail page of all the species in the section for fast comparison. Each species has a complete reference list of orchid books/magazines and re-views that I have personally reviewed; and if there is a picture in that refer-ence, then I have added my thought as to if what I have as that species matches the photo. There are various grades to this system. A reference photo ”not” cannot be cor-rect A reference photo with “OK” photo not good enough [ie blurry, too little detail, too small etc.] for a positive id. See IOSPE next page
Internet Orchid Species
Photo Encyclopedia
(iospe)
A Little of This and
That
Marie has dish towels, dish cloths, and two pot holders that were not picked up after the show. If you’re missing these items, contact Marie. She will bring them to the meeting for you to
claim.
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A few of our “Ask Me About Orchids” buttons were not turned in after the Show. If you still have one, please
bring it to the meeting. We want to keep these to use for Shows to come.
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The Shreveport Orchid Society will host
the fall SWROGA Show on November 1st through 3rd, 2013.
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Feedback from our Show I got the following email after the
Show I thought it was amazing. The orchids were surprises. What a bundle of green thumbs at the same place and at the same time. My sister Jo Ann and I will be on the lookout for the next show you do. We enjoyed the show so much!!!!!!!!
IOSPE Cont. from previous page A reference photo with “OK” photo not good enough [ie blurry, too little detail, too small etc.] for a positive id. A reference photo with “Good” is mostly correct but one aspect of the photo denies an exact determination Or lastly it can be “Fide”. I am posi-tive that the photo in the reference matches my photo on IOSPE IOSPE now is listed in the Library of Congress, and I can now legally publish new orchids [See Cyrtochilum rubrocal-losum] or change names legally to fit my format, such as putting some of the new species genera, Acronia, etc. back in the original genus [see Pleurothallis bulbosa, Pluerothallis lynniana etc.] My site is the first electronic publication that can do so as it has passed all the new requirements put forth by the In-ternational Nomenclature Committee rules that took effect in January of 2012. If you go to IPNI [http://www.ipni.org/ipni/plantnamesearchpage.do], and put Pfahl in the Author slot you will see the 11 new listings that I have done so far. In the coming months I plan to do another 100 or so mane corrections to keep IO-SPE current with the genera and species format that I have listed. I do not accept a lot of the new DNA generated genera that have been prof-fered over the years and many new spe-cies are only given that new generic name. I do not want to have species listed within Acronia [Pleurothallis], or Alatoglossum [Oncidium] or Copenisa [Oncidium], or Guariananthe [Cattleya], Camaridium [Maxillaria], Grastidium [Dendrobium]. So I am slowly doing legal name chang-es so the old genera that we have known for years can be continued to be updated. I refer to Cattleya, Oncidium, Maxillaria, Pleurothallis, Trichocentrum [for Maxillaria, Pleurothallis, Trichocen-trum [for the miniatures not the mule ears], Sigmatostalix and many other genera that have been divided up or added into others. Many of my taxonomic friends agree with me in this and have kept me going with this thought. As long as all the cur-rent names that you do not want to use are present in the work [IOSPE has the most extensive synonym list of any work out there, every possible synonym is listed under the species name that I have chosen] then that name is perfect-
ly legal and acceptable by International Nomenclature rules and if you the user feels another name is more valid than the one that I use then you still have a complete synonym list to add to what-ever name you wish to use. All this takes more time and I am using as much time as I possibly can compiling IOSPE. It would be nice to be able to have an assistant. That brings me to my theme here. I need to amass some new donation mon-ey for the site. I have an orchid library being offered to me. It has almost all the older tomes that I have been after over the years, Reichenbach, Schlecht-er, Lindley, Rolfe [they are all copies but they are still valuable] and many other of the classic orchid taxonomists. It is complete in most of the various sci-entific orchid journals from 1900 to pre-sent such as Taxon, Phytology, Harvard Botanical papers, Orchid Digest, Orchid Bulletin, etc. The library is held by an elderly private orchidist who is retiring and needs money. He wants me to have it as he knows that I will actually use it. I would also like to hire some key-boardists so that we can change IOSPE to a data base driven portal program for species names or making just about any question searchable and then generat-ing a species link list like Google. If you put in the search bar a question such as “red fragrant flower under ½” that blooms in March in Colombia”, a com-plete species list will be generated for flowers that meet that criteria in Co-lombia. Imagine the possibilities. So that all being said I am ready to re-ceive donations from any of you [Societies too!] that use the site but as of yet have not donated. Any amount is greatly appreciated! If you have donat-ed in the past but haven’t done so in a while and still use the site……. Please send donations by PayPal to [email protected]. As you saw back in March, I was trying to organize an orchid trip to Colombia to try to raise some funds. I still will probably do it in the next year or so, but my father in law is not well at the moment so no one in the family has much time for travel so I had to post-pone it. I will touch base with all those that expressed interest back in April when it comes together! Thanks in advance.
