Garden Club: Orchid Presentation Recap

The lazy days of summer for members of the Garden Club have passed and a new club year has begun. On September 21 we had our first meeting where we listened to a great, informative talk on orchids by two members of the Orange County Orchid Society, Roberta Fox and Tony Glinskas. Tony spoke and gave tips on the growing of orchids in Coastal California. He said there are now more than 30,000 species of native and hybrid orchids available and the list is growing. For instance there are new orchids coming from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, some even that have a scent.
The growing of orchids in our area is not extremely difficult if one pays attention to the watering (do not overwater as sitting in water will rot their roots), lighting (some required direct sunlight while others required more filtered lighting) and fertilizer (which is not food for the orchid but more like a vitamin pill for them so don’t over feed.). Since orchids are air plants they like a humid environment but never to be bone dry. Repotting and plant medium (bark, cork, etc. and potting soil is NOT good for it stays wet too long) was covered. According to Tony, Cymbidium orchids are the easiest to grow in O.C.
The next meeting will be on Monday, October 19, at which the speaker will be Annie Hall Bousche, from the Orange County District of the California Garden Clubs who will speak of roses.
—Karl Kuhn