November 2017 Volume 47, Issue 11

A non profit organization

established in 1945, HOS is

a recipient of the American

Orchid Society’s Distin-

guished Affiliated Societies

Service award

Inside This Issue:

Presidents Post 1

HOS Spring Show 2

Proposed 2018 Slate

of Officers

3

Picnic Photos 4

Tips & Musings 6

Judging Center

Report

Stay-At-Home

Wonders

7

8

Calendar 9

Upcoming Events

AOS Webinars

10

11

The Houston Happenings

November Program: Nina Rach: Highlights from the 2017

Medellin Orchid Show, “Orquideas, Pajaros y Flores” By Bill Caldwell, VP Speakers

The November meeting will

feature our very own Nina

Rach, who will provide an over-

view of the 2017 Medellin

Orchid Show. She was fortunate

to be among the American Or-chid Society judges participating

this year.

Every year since 1957, dur-

ing the month of August, the

city of Medellín, in Dept. An-

tioquia, Colombia, hosts La

Feria de Los Flores (The

Flower Festival), which attracts

people from all around the

country.

To start things off this year,

the Colombian Orchid Society

(Sociedad Colombiana de Or-

quideologia) hosted its 24th

annual show, "Exposición Or-

quideas, Pàjaros y Flo-

res" (orchids, parrots, and flow-

ers) from August 1-7, 2017 in the

magnif icent Orquideorama

within the 35-acre Jardín Botáni-

co de Medellín.

The botanical garden was

opened in 1972 near the Univer-

sity of Antioquia, north of down-

town.

In 2008, the city added the

20m tall wooden mesh, open-air

Orquideorama, which provides

an excellent backdrop for the

orchid displays.

Nina Rach has been a mem-

ber of the HOS for about 30

years, and is one of the judges in

the Houston Judging Center.

She has made many trips to

South America, and has judged

shows in Cali, Pereira, Armenia, and Medellín, Colombia, Quito

and Guayaquil, Ecuador, Caracas,

Venezuela, Rio de Janeiro and

Nina Rach

Presidents Post By Derek Lowenstein, President

São Paulo, Brazil.

Join us to listen to Nina

speak on Thursday, November

7, 2017 at 7:30 PM at the First

Christian Church and School,

1601 Sunset Blvd, Houston, TX

77005.

At the November meeting,

we will be voting on the 2018

slate of officers. Please attend

so that you can exercise your

right to vote as a member of

the HOS.

This past year has been full

of change. The rental contract

with the First Christian Church

was finally confirmed for the

coming year. The HMNS venue

for the Houston Orchid Show is

no longer viable, and after a

lengthy search, we will move

the show to the Memorial City

Shopping Mall. The Houston

Please Welcome

New Member

Karen Chen

Orchid Show will be held on

April 13-15. Holly Miller has

asked to step down as chair of

the HOS Show. I would like to

thank Holly for her many years

of successful HOS Orchid Show

leadership. Jay Balchan has vol-

unteered to take on this difficult

effort. Just as in past years, it

takes all of our volunteer effort

to make the HOS Orchid Show

a success. Step up and volunteer

to help. Finally, there was Har-

vey. Many of our members lost

their homes and much of their

orchid collections. Please sup-

port our members who need

your help.

I urge you all to support the

HOS by volunteering when

asked to become involved in

YOUR society. Without you,

we cannot expect the kind of

orchid society that we have

become accustomed to.

For those of you who have

extra time to learn more about

orchids, please consider joining

the judging program. Talk to

any of the judges to learn what

this program involves.

An early reminder, that we

will be celebrating the holidays

at our December meeting on

the 7th. Please bring a favorite

dish, so that we can all enjoy it.

Page 2 Volume 47, Issue 11

As a result of changes at the

Museum of Natural Science, it

became necessary to find a new

venue for our annual show. A

show location committee, head-

ed up by Lauri Skov, was formed last spring to search for a new

location. After quite a bit of

effort, it was determined that

our 2018 show will be held in

the Memorial City Mall at I-10

and the Beltway on April 14-15,

2018.

Unlike the typical mall, Me-

morial City has designed one

part of their building specifically

for events. The space is much

larger than what we had at the

museum. There is easy access to

a loading dock and a hospitality

New Venue for the HOS Spring Show By Susan Dally

area and, unlike at the mu-

seum, there is plenty of free

parking—yay! Photos of the

area can be seen on this

page and on the next page.

Jay Balchan has agreed

to be show chair. He will

be needing a lot of help to

pull this together, so please

be ready when the call goes

out for volunteers.

Mark your calendars for

next April, and lets plan on

making our 2018 show the

best ever.

Page 3 The Houston Happenings

PROPOSED OFFICERS

President: Don Ghiz

VP Speakers: Bill Caldwell

VP Shows and Plant Table: Rick Hepler

VP Membership: Backy Sturnfield

Treasurer: Winnie Yap

Recording Secretary: Sheila Skov

PROPOSED TWO YEAR BOARD MEM-

BERS (8):

Calvin Starr

Holly Miller

Marianne Walker

Mary Gunn

Stephen Moffitt

Steve Fox

Susan Dally

Fr. Ted Baenziger

THE BOARD MEMBERS WHO WILL

REMAIN FOR ONE YEAR ARE (2):

Tom Durrett

Marvin Gerber

PROPOSED SWROGA DIRECTOR (1) –

TWO YEARS:

Laurie Skov

THE DIRECTOR WHO WILL REMAIN

FOR ONE MORE YEAR IS:

Sandy Stubbings

Proposed 2018 Officers and Board

Members Nominating Committee: Fr. Ted Baenziger,

Stephen Moffitt, Mary Gunn

Page 4 Volume 47, Issue 11

Annual Picnic Photos By Judith Neufeld

Page 5 The Houston Happenings

Picnic Photos, continued.

Page 6 Volume 47, Issue 11

November Tips and Musings By Laurie Skov

Re viruses, the ‘Aids’ of orchids.

Be careful, but remember orchid

growing needs to be fun. I was think-

ing during last meeting’s PowerPoint

presentation on virus control, that a

sure way to get divorced would be taking your clay pots and heating them

in the kitchen oven for hours at a

time. Not many wives (or even some

husbands), would tolerate this. I ad-

vise avoiding this technique. Best soak

in bleach or pool shock.

I’ve found a useful tool for steriliz-

ing my cutters is a Ronson handheld

torch. It has a push button igniter and

can be easily refilled. I had one for

over 10 years and it “keeps on going”.

It also avoids the need for dangerous

razor blades. I admit wrongdoing as I

hang plants too close together.

There’s always room for one more

you know.

Sandra gave me a division of her

prized cymbidium that I’ve coveted

for years. It will certainly get special

place and care. I have a few such

plants that are very special to me and

wish to pass on.

Another acquired from Forest

Nursery in Pearland when they closed

20 years ago. A plant they collected

from the wild and one that I’ve never

seen elsewhere. Both really special

heritage plants deserving special care.

Practice Preventive Maintenance

(PM) to avoid orchid Amen.

One more PM tip for those who pur-

chased Tolumnia at the Picnic. These

are very susceptible to scale and will

certainly die before you see the tell-

tale white lumps indicating infection.

When fertilizing these babies, I add a

teaspoon of dissolved Orthene which kills the crawler stage of these beasts.

They say money does not grow on

trees, but orchids sure do.

Dendrobium nobile

Ascocenda Fat Tuesday

Page 7 The Houston Happenings

Houston Judging Center By Don Maples

The Judging Center met on October

21 in the Malloy Building at Saint Thomas

University. We had no awards for the day.

Please join us at the next meeting of

the Judging Center on November 18th.

We will be in Room 017 of the Malloy

Building. That room is a change from

where we met previously.

REFRESHMENT CORNER

A list of those who provided snacks at the October

meeting was unavailable, so thanks go out to

everyone who brought snacks.

We welcome anyone that would like to bring

snacks to the next meeting.

October Plant Table By Jay Balchan, Photo by Malcolm McCorquodale

It was nice to have the

plant table back again after a

month of Harvey disrup-

tion! Despite the continued

hot temps into early October,

we had a nice selection of

plants on display. Our hybrid

winner, brought in by our

current President, Derek

Lowenstein, was Cattleya

Tropical Pointer, which is a

hybrid of C Tropical Glow x

C intermedia. This is a beau-

tiful flower with clear, vibrant,

lavender-spotted petals across

a light lavender back-

ground. The lip was a deep

lavender-purple. C Tropical

Glow brings the spots and the

C intermedia brings the solid, deep-color lip. No doubt that

C Tropical Pointer also has C

intermedia in its background

given the overall open shape

of the flower and the rugged

texture. Cattleya intermedia

is a really "bullet proof" plant

for Houston and everyone

should grow several of these

given the wide variety of petal

and lip colors that they offer

in a very easy to grow and

flower plant. In nature, these

plants grow right on the

shore line in Brazil in blazing

sun and harsh conditions. Un-

fortunately, there was no

photo available of the hybrid

winner.

Our species winner was

Renan thera monach ica

brought in by Marianne

Walker. This specific plant

had a spray of deep golden

f lowers w i th redd i sh

spots. Monachica offers a

variety of color forms from

lighter gold to red. Grow

these plants in brighter light

and treat them as you would

a vanda. A basket works

great with watering every day

if you can. Hopefully, this was the last

month of hot weather and we

can start seeing our fall

blooming season come into

full gear including the dark

lavender catt leyas and

bulbophyllums, including the

group that includes Elizabeth

Ann 'Buckleberry’.

Happy growing and re-

member to bring in your

plants next month!

Page 8 The Houston Happenings

Stay-At-Home Orchid Wonders By Marianne Walker, Editor

Judith sent in

most of the photos

on this page and

going counterclock-

wise from the top

left, they are: Ascda

Suksamran Sunlight

‘Gold’, Aerides

Punchinello ‘Loren

Neufeld’, Aerides

lawrenceae, Lc

Tristar Bouquet,

Neos t y l i s Lou

S n e a r y , a n d

Ianclarkara Chey-

e n n e M a r i e

‘Lemoncello’ .

The photo of Blc

Windward Flare

’Large’ at the top right was sent in by

Yvonne Li.

Page 9 Volume 47, Issue 11

Newcomers Group Meeting By Steve Fox

The October Newcomers Meeting will be held at the home of Stephen Moffitt. The meeting will be held on Sunday, October 29th, 2017 at 2:00 PM and Stephen has extended the invitation to all HOS members to attend.

Watch your email for an announcement with details and directions. We hope everyone can make the trip to Stephen’s.

Newcomers, watch for the November announcement emails from newcomers@houstonorchidsociety.org with the location of November's meeting along with Fr. Ted’s latest topic.

See you then!

November Raffle Table By Loren & Judith Neufeld

The raffle plants at this month's meeting will be provided by a

local vendor.

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 7:30 PM

HOS Meeting

3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 HJC

Judging

19 2:00 PM

Newcomers

20 21 22 23Newsletter

Content is Due

24 25

26 27 28 29 30

November 2017

Where’s the AOS?

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden was established on an

83-acre site south of Miami purchased by Col. Robert H.

Montgomery and later deeded in large part to Miami-Dade

County. In 1938, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden opened

its 83 acres to the public for the first time. Col. Montgomery,

who founded the Garden, named it to honor his friend, plant

collector David Fairchild. Renowned landscape architect

William Lyman Phillips, a member of the Frederik Law

Olmsted partnership and a leading landscape designer during

the 1930s, designed the Garden.

As one of the premier conservation and education-based

tropical gardens in the world, Fairchild is dedicated to explor-

ing, explaining and conserving the world of tropical plants.

We are a recognized international leader in both Florida and

international conservation.

Fairchild plays many roles, including museum, laboratory,

learning center and conservation research facility, but its

greatest role is preserving biodiversity, which the garden's scientists, staff and volunteers all contribute to on a daily

basis. Fairchild also became the home of the American Or-

chid Society in 2012.

For more information, visit Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

Page 10 The Houston Happenings

HOS Officers and Committee Chairs

Upcoming Events Officers President Derek Lowenstein

VP - Speakers Bill Caldwell

VP - Shows Rick Hepler

VP - Membership Jean Schwenke

Treasurer Winnie Yap

Recording Secretary Clarion Hess

Past President Fr. Ted Baenziger

Chairs Conservation David Hunt

Display Table Jay Balchan

Exhibits Rick Hepler

Guest Hospitality Elizabeth Fisher

Happenings Editors Susan Dally, Marianne Walker

Intermediate Group Kar Chong

Newcomers Group Fr. Ted Baenziger, Steve Fox

Parliamentarian Marvin Gerber

Photography Malcolm McCorquodale

Plant Raffle Judith Neufeld, Loren Neufeld, Sara Bentley, Betsy Robinson

Refreshments Rosalvina Guimerans, Rebecca Sturnfield, Melissa Dwan

Silent Auction Frank & Cherie Lee

Spring Show Holly Miller, John Stubbings, Tom Durrett

Summer Workshop John Stubbings, Dennis Tomjack

Webmaster Tom Durrett

Directors - Two Year Term Jay Balchan Tom Durrett

Marvin Gerber Mary Gunn

Stephen Moffitt

Directors - One Year Term Sarah Bentley Don Ghiz

Kar Chong Holly Miller

Susan Dally Carolyn White

Representatives AOS Representative Don Ghiz

IPA Representative Fr. Ted Baenziger

ODC Representative John Stubbings

SWROGA Directors Laurie Skov (2017) & Sandy Stubbings (2017-2018)

November 4-5

Fall 2017 SWROGA Show hosted by the

Fort Worth Orchid Society

Fort Worth Botanic Garden Conservatory

3220 Botanic Garden Blvd

Fort Worth, TX

November 8-12

22nd World Orchid Conference

Guayaquil Convention Center, Ecuador

December 2

Acadian Orchid Society 57th Annual Short

Course

Wyndham Garden Hotel

Lafayette, LA

April 21-22, 2018

Tulsa Orchid Society Show and Sale

Tulsa Garden Center

Tulsa, OK

May 12-13, 2018

Galveston Bay Orchid Society Show

South Shore Harbor Resort & Conference Ctr

2500 South Shore Blvd

League City, TX

May 18-20, 2018

Redland International Orchid Festival

Redland Fruit and Spice Park

Homestead, FL

Volume 47, Issue 11 Page 11

Free Pots and Orchid Magazines

Dave Hunt is moving and has 100’s of mostly plastic pots, in all sizes, and many flats and trays.

He also has years of Orchids Magazine and an almost complete set of the Awards Quarterly Magazine.

If you are interested in any of these items, please come to Dave’s home at 322 Gershwin near Beltway 8 and

Memorial Drive, on Saturday, November 11th, between the hours of 10am and 2pm. Dress comfortably and bring gloves.

Any questions, or if you need directions, please contact Marianne Walker via email, at mjworchids@gmail.com.

Wednesday, November 8th, 2017

8:30 PM - 9:30 PM EST

Townhall Meeting from Ecuador

Q&A with President

Thursday, December 14th, 2017

8:30 PM - 9:30 PM EST

Register

AOS WEBINARS

Register