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September, 2019

E Y E S O N O R C H I D S

B A T O N R O U G E

O R C H I D

S O C I E T Y

Eyes On Orchids

President’s Message

V O L U M E 6 1 , I S S U E # 9 - S E P T E M B E R , 2 0 1 9

Meeting: September 18 at 7 p.m. at Burden Center - 4560 Essen Lane, Baton Rouge, LA

Inside this Issue

President’s Message 1

Program 1 Minutes 2 Committees 3

Name Tags 3 Watering your Orchids 4 Speaker Bio 5 AOS Membership Offer 5 New Members 6

Fred Clarke Event 7 on Gulf Coast

Short Course 8

Green Growers 9

Short Course Speakers 9 Orchids to hospital 9 Birthdays & Birthday Orchid 10

Meeting Schedule 11 Notes from the Orchidnut & pictures 12

PROGRAM Webinar by Timothy Carr titled

“Laelia anceps, The Jewel of Southern Mexico” See page 5 for Tim’s biography

Laelia anceps is a beautiful and hardy, easy to grow Mexican species. It is a native of Mexico but also occurs in Guatemala and Honduras. It is one of the most common, yet one of the most satisfying orchids. Its ease of care

makes it an ideal plant for the beginner as well as the connoisseur.

Last month we had a very informa-

tive webinar on “Demystifying Dendrobi-

ums" by Ron McHatten. I hope everyone

enjoyed it as much as I did. I definitely

took in the knowledge and learned a lot

about their care and needs. We had a

great turnout, and we were able to have our 60th An-

niversary gathering. That cake was almost too pretty

to eat.

I hope everyone has been able to enjoy these cooler

mornings lately, I know my orchids have been. But,

with Louisiana weather, it doesn’t take long to climb to

100 degrees. It wont be long and we all will be want-

ing it to warm back up as cooler weather will soon be

here.

On January 11th, 2020, the Houston Judging Center

has agreed to come and do an Outreach Judging Ses-

sion for us. They will explain how the judging process

takes place. This event is open to the public and will

be at the Burden Center that Saturday starting at 8:00

a.m. until they are finished.

See President, page 4

President’s Message

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September, 2019

E Y E S O N O R C H I D S

The August, 2019 meeting of the Baton Rouge Orchid

Society was called to order by president Wesley Matthews.

Wesley acknowledged and welcomed visitors. He an-

nounced the names of individuals with birthdays in August

and distributed the birthday plants.

Wesley introduced our webinar speaker Ron McHatton

who is AOS Director of Education and Editor of Orchids

magazine. is topic was an online presentation on

“Demystifying Dendrobiums”. He discussed what part of the

world they come from, types of dendrobiums and how to

grow them.

Everyone enjoyed the feast of a meal that was provided

by Nancy and her hospitality group for the great spread of

food provided for the meeting in celebration of the Society’s

60th birthday.

President Wesley brought to members the possibility of

our SWROGA directors going to Houston to attend the

SWROGA show. Kathy talked to members on what SWROGA

is about and why we should represent the society. Members

approved the motion with the condition that Kathy and Lata

bring meeting information back to Society and present it at

next meeting. If it is beneficial to the society then we will

continue to send two members every year and add this as a

line item on the budget.

Chip discussed the display table. There were a lot of

beautiful orchids with blooms on the table. He asked grow-

ers to provide short explanations on how they were grown.

There were foster orchids for members to take and re-

bloom to donate to hospitals around Baton Rouge. Door

prizes and raffle plants were distributed before the meeting

was adjourned. Wesley asked for volunteers to clean and

straighten up the place before we closed. The next meeting

is on September 18, 2019.

Respectfully Submitted,

Lata Johnson, Secretary

BROS Officers, 2019

President

Wesley Matthews

662.321.1912 wdmatthews@hotmail.com Vice- President

Kathy Conerly

225.921.3084

kconerly1@bellsouh.net

Secretary

Lata Johnson

225.933.0801

plantlover58@bellsouth.net

Treasurer

Jim Morrison

225. 752.6383

jwmorrisoniii@msn.com Show Chairman, 2019 Vacant so far

Newsletter Editor

Danna Spayde

225.317.0933

orchidnut_2000@yahoo.com

Board Members

Hal Canning, thru 2019

Ed Gaskell, thru 2020 Glenn Gawarecki thru 2021

SWROGA Reps:

Lata Johnson & Kathy Conerly

AOS Rep:

Tin-Wein Yu 225.388.0850

tin@laorchid.com

Orchid Digest Rep:

Frank Zachariah 225.202.0377 lousid8@gmail.com

Standing Committee Chairs

Program ♦ Lata Johnson

Membership ♦ Kathy Conerly

Librarian ♦ Bob Danka

Refreshments ♦ Nancy Morrison

Publicity ♦ Danna Spayde

Minutes August, 2019

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September, 2019

E Y E S O N O R C H I D S

President continued from pg. 1

Hopefully we will have LOTS of AOS awardable plants for them to judge. I would like to see every member there. Our neighboring Orchid Societies will also be in attendance, which will be a great way to meet other great orchid growers. This will be very educa-tional, and you can also see what it takes to be an accredited AOS judge. The judges will be happy to answer any questions and they will periodically be giving talks throughout the morning. So please, mark your calendars and help us have a great turnout. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting and hope you bring lots of beautifully grown orchids to share with us all. Happy Growing.

Wesley Matthews

President

Committee Meetings

Publicity/Membership Committee - Meets on 1st Wednesday of each month - October 2, 2019 at 6 p.m. by conference call.

Program Committee - 3rd Saturday of each month at 8 a.m. - October 19th by conference call.

Anyone who would like to participate in either or both committees is welcome.

Access Numbers for Conference Calls for both Committees:

Dial-in Number: (605) 475-4700

Need a Name Tag?

If you would like a Society name tag to wear proudly at our meetings and other events, contact Cmdr. Ed Gaskell. You may

leave a voice message or text him at 225.400.8946; or email: epgaskell@cox.net; to place an order.

Several fastening choices are available. The cost is $10.

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September, 2019

E Y E S O N O R C H I D S

Your Watering Technique by Ray Barkalow, First Rays Orchids

This seems like an odd subject...you pour the water onto the potting me-dium to wet it, right? Well yes, that's true, but there's a lot more to it than just that. Water is certainly the most important part of orchid culture, as it is the driving force for growth, but how, and how often you apply it can have quite an impact on their growth. Without a doubt, the best way to water plants is to thoroughly flood them using a nozzle or water breaker that simulates rain.

Such a device offers us the ability to apply large volumes of water rapid-ly without disturbing the potting medium. The large volume of rain-like drops saturates the potting medium particles, flushes mineral residues and plant wastes from the pot, and because the droplets combine to have a very large surface area, they absorb oxygen and "drag" it through the pot, clear-ing out any pockets of stale air that may have formed. I prefer to water using a very dilute fertilizer solution every time, as it waters, flushes, aerates and feeds all at once, much the way it happens in nature. If you prefer to use plain water most of the time, then feed at an-other time, that's fine, but you must recognize that requires the use of a stronger fertilizer concentration when you do feed, and that is not some-thing the plants have evolved to expect. I recommend that you not water first, then feed a few minutes later, as they really does nothing useful and is a waste of fertilizer. One reader recently questioned whether a single shot with dilute fertiliz-er doesn't defeat the purpose of flushing, so I did a little math (as some of you might expect). K-Lite fertilizer, for example, has a maximum solubility in water something in the neighborhood of 240- 250 grams per liter. Any precipitates therefore, must be at least that concentration before dropping out of solution. If I mix K-Lite at the 25 ppm N that I routinely use, that's only 0.19 g/L or 0.07% of the max - plenty of room to re-dissolve precipi-tates. The "how often" part is easy: the more frequently you water, the better, because it provides a ready supply of growth building blocks, cleans up the root zone, and aerates the mix, keeping it fresher from day to day. No, the plants do not need to dry out between waterings. Don't forget, being wet does not cause root death and rot, suffocation does! If your mix is open and airy enough, you have nothing to worry about. In fact, if your potting medi-um stays constantly moist, the precipitation of residues is greatly reduced, meaning that they flush cleaner. Editor’s Note: I have permission to use Ray’s newsletters in our newsletter.

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September, 2019

E Y E S O N O R C H I D S

Biography for Tim Carr

Associate Judge, Dallas Judging Center, AOS

Tim is a native of Ohio, moving to Texas 28 years ago, with stops in Detroit and Chicago along the way. He retired from the United States De-partment of Defense as a member of the Senior Execu-tive Service after 34 years of service. He graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1973 with a B.S. in Education, with a major in History, then received an M.B.A. in Accounting and Finance from Youngstown State University in 1977. He has also pur-sued a Masters in History, and needs to write his thesis to complete that program. He is a licensed CPA in the state of Texas. In May of this year, Tim was elevated to an Associ-ate Judge by the Dallas Judging Center of the American Orchid Society. He is an amateur orchid grower but thinks he is getting better! Tim has been married to Suzanne for 42 years, and they have two children, Nick, 40 and Wendy, 38, and two grandchil-dren, Xander, 14 and Kendall, 12.

Laelia anceps

The American

Orchid Society

has launched a

very aggressive

and tempting

membership drive. Benefits include the monthly Orchids magazine and

unlimited access to the digitized past issues, and a new offering, Or-

chidPro, which includes over 95,000 photos of award-winning flowers.

Orchid porn!

There is an option to receive the printed magazine or the digital edition

at a slightly lower cost. Visit http://www.aos.org/ for details and to join

online.

Editor’s note: Above article plagiarized from Acadiana Orchid Society

newsletter

Upcoming Webinars

Thursday, October 3rd, 2019

8:30 PM - 9:30 PM EDT by Ron McHatton, Education Director

Monday, October 7th, 2019 by Tara Luna

8:30 PM - 9:30 PM EDT

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September, 2019

E Y E S O N O R C H I D S

New Members

At the

August

meeting

we

welcomed

new members Sylvia Mocsary

and Vernon Smith. We are glad

to have them and hope they will

jump right into the Society’s

various activities.

There is plan afoot to arrange a carpooling convoy to attend this event.

Anyone who is interested in going needs to let Lata know. If you want to go

and are willing to take your vehicle and drive, also let Lata know. Another

possibility, if enough people are interested in going, is renting a 15 passen-

ger vehicle to take everyone, but we’d still need a driver.

See flyer on page 7 for more information about this event.

Want to Go to Spend An Afternoon with Fred

Clarke on October 13?

Some pictures from

August meeting

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September, 2019

E Y E S O N O R C H I D S

If you are interested in attending this event, see page 7 for further

information on car pooling over as a group.

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September, 2019

E Y E S O N O R C H I D S

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September, 2019

E Y E S O N O R C H I D S

The speakers for the Short Course to

be held in Lafayette by the Aca-

diana Orchid Society on December

7, 2019 are Alan Koch owner of

Gold Country Orchids (pictured

left) and Fred Clarke, owner of

Sunset Valley Orchids (pictured

right). These are two outstanding

orchid experts and speakers, both from California. Alan specializes in catt-

leyas and Fred in catasetums.

Be sure to save the date and plan to go. Registration forms will be sent in

early August. The Short Course is always an outstanding event and a

great opportunity to learn more about our favorite flowers. You don’t want

to miss it!

December Short Course Speakers Announced

Green Growers Schedule

October 9 Meetings are at

7 p.m. at the home of Gene & Thelma Berg

425 Nelson Dr. Come for good fellowship,

refreshments, learning - and door prizes!

The October meeting will be the last one for 2019.

Meetings will resume on January 8, 2020

Jeanette Foster and Lynette Frazer

delivered orchids donated by Trader

Joe’s to the Baton Rouge General on

August 21.

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September, 2019

E Y E S O N O R C H I D S

September Birthdays

Carolyn Clay 9/29 Mal Corcoran 9/24 Mary Rice 9/20

Birthday Orchid for

September

Oncidium

Original Habitat - Central

American and South American

highlands to lowlands. They grow

on trees.

Derivation –The name came

from the Greek word Onkidion

(meaning “a small bump”).

It also has the English name

“Dancing Lady Orchid” ; the

flower looks like a woman in a

dress dancing.

Meaning - The meaning of the

flower is Pitifully Pretty Much hybridizing has been done with

Oncidiums over the years, and they

are no longer just yellow and brown.

Pictures show some of the beautiful

hybrids now available.

The ever popular Oncidium

‘Sharry Baby’ below smells

like chocolate

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September, 2019

E Y E S O N O R C H I D S

Meeting Schedule

September 18 - at 6:30 Plant Clinic 7 - p.m. - BROS meeting September 23 - 9 a.m. - Orchids for Seniors. Field Trip to Flower Pot Nursery in Loranger

October 9 at 7 p.m. - Green Growers October 16 - at 6:30 Plant Clinic 7 - p.m. - BROS meeting October 28 - 10 a.m. - Orchids for Seniors. Final meeting of 2019. Program TBA

October, 2019 September, 2019 November, 2019

November 20 - at 6:30 Plant Clinic 7 - p.m. - BROS meeting No Green Growers Meeting un-til January, 2020 No Orchids for Seniors Meeting until January, 2020

Three opportunities to learn about orchids….

Baton Rouge Orchid Society -

3rd Wednesday ♦ Burden Center, 4560 Essen

Lane Baton Rouge, LA ♦ featured speakers,

growing tips, plant clinics, awards table, plant

raffle.

Plant Clinic at 6:30 p.m. Meeting at 7 p.m.

Green Growers - educational program for novice

orchid growers ♦ 7 p.m. on 2nd Wednesday of

month except July, and December at 425

Nelson Dr. Baton Rouge.

Orchids for Seniors - 10 a.m. - 4th Monday

January through October, except July ♦

Independence Park ♦ 7500 Independence Blvd.

Extending the knowledge and appreciation of

orchids to members and the gardening

community of the Greater Baton Rouge Area.

Baton Rouge Orchid Society

P.O. Box 66242

Baton Rouge, LA 70896-6242

info@batonrougeorchidsociety.com

www.batonrougeorchidsociety.com

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September, 2019

E Y E S O N O R C H I D S

Meeting on September 23, 2019 Field Trip to Flower Pot Nursery in Loranger Meet at Independence Park at 9 to board van

Orchids for Seniors Supplement

Our August meeting on Bonsai

with Chip Thompson was a great fun

and learning experience. Chip

brought many of his beautiful bon-

sais to display and demonstrated

how to create one. Sam Bergeron

was the lucky winner of the one that

Chip created before our very eyes!

We’ll take our last field trip of the

year this month when we go to the

Flower Pot Nursery in Loranger.

In order to get there around 10

we’ll need to have at least an hour of

travel time. We will meet at Inde-

pendence Park at 8:45 a.m. to board

the van and be on our way.

After visiting the Flower Pot, we’ll

have lunch somewhere along the

way. We probably won’t get back to

Baton Rouge until mid-afternoon so

make your plans accordingly.

Next month is our last meeting

of the year, and we need to decide

what we want to do with it. We’ll dis-

cuss it on our trip and decide what

we want to do.

August Meeting

September Meeting

October Meeting

Chip Thompson with proud winner of

bonsai creation Sam Bergeron.