Author Archives: Jay Loeffler

Wednesday, April 7th  2021 – 7:00pm. Zoom opens at 6:30                     

Zoom Presentation : A Few Encyclias to Enjoy

Jim has been growing orchids over 25 years in climates ranging from cold Minnesota to hot SW Florida. In 2001, Jim moved to Florida with a small collection of plants and the dream of operating an orchid nursery became a reality. He grows his beauties in three gutter connected greenhouses encompassing 10,000 square feet of growing space. As always, he strives to grow and sell the best quality orchid plants and to build a lasting reputation in the industry as one of the very best.

Florida SunCoast Orchids stands for orchid quality, variety and commitment.

Zoom Presentation : A Few Encyclias to Enjoy – A good introduction to the encyclia species that are easily grown in Florida and some of their notable hybrids. Probably the best program for species identification and includes many good hybrids with those species that do well for us here.

March 3rd 7:00pm                                                                             

The Speaker will be Fred Clarke of Sunset Valley Orchids.

Presenting: Catasetums, Cycnoches and Mormodes

Fred has been growing orchids for 42 years and has been hybridizing for 38 of those years. With over 34 years as a professional grower and manager in the horticultural industry, Fred applies these skills at his orchid nursery; Sunset Valley Orchids, located in San Diego, California.

He is a passionate orchid grower whose curiosity in orchids is broad and varied. Although developing Cattleya hybrids has been his sustaining interest, he is also actively creating new Paphiopedilum and Aussie Dendrobium hybrids plus some others to be named if they work out!

His pioneering work in Catasetum intergeneric hybrids led to the development of several notable hybrids, most recently the grex, Fredclarkeara After Dark, which produced “the blackest flower ever witnessed”. This grex has received over 100 awards worldwide with nine FCC’s and thirty AM’s from the AOS judges!

Fred is an Accredited Judge in the Pacific South Judging Region. His plants have received hundreds of quality awards from the American Orchid Society.

Sunset Valley Orchids ZOOM Meeting Discount

Sunset Valley Orchids offers a 20% discount on all plant orders from your club members.  The special voucher code is ZOOM. When you check out, type ZOOM into the voucher code box on the shopping cart page and click ‘RECALCULATE’ to apply the discount.  This special discount is additive to the existing discount schedule, making for an excellent opportunity.

Thursday, February 4th  2021 – 7:00pm. Zoom opens at 6:30. 

Presentation – “Historic Cattleyas their Provenance and History”

Jeff Bradley has been an avid grower of classic Catteyas and to some degree, historic Phalaenopsis, since the age of eight, when his father built his first greenhouse. Jeff had the most unusual childhood, as his godparents, the late Mr. and Mrs. Alfred J. Proebstle of Brazoria, Texas, took him under their wing at a very early age, and introduced him to many of the great orchid legends of the past. Mr. Proebstle was a founder of the Houston Orchid Society and an early trustee of the AOS with one of the premier Cattleya collections in the country.

Jeff traveled across the United States and abroad with the Proebstles absorbing as much of the historical facts on famous orchid plants and their growers. His passion for orchid history has never waned, rather it has intensified through the years and he has remained in close contact with the descendants of the great orchid legands.

Jeff’s Cattleya collection is nothing short of historic. He maintains three greenhouses of over 3000 classic Cattleyas and some Phalaenopsis, all of which have been significant to the historical aspects of orchid growing in both the United States and Europe. He maintains one of the most extensive collection of historical photographs, catalogue and correspondence on the celebrated orchid growers of the past.