Author Archives: Jay Loeffler

Speaker – Phillip Hamilton                                                

Topic – Broughtonias and their Hybrids

Meeting starts 7:00 – Doors open at 6:30.
Venice Community Center

Phillip was born and raised in Jamaica where he inherited his dad’s passion for orchids and grew up working in his parents’ orchid nursery, Hamlyn Orchids. Although his dad’s true orchid passion is with the Jamaican native Broughtonia’s and their hybrids, Phillip’s passion leaned heavily toward Phalaenopsis, which he has been growing and hybridizing since the age of eight.

He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Environmental Horticulture at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and is an American Orchid Society (AOS) Accredited Judge.

Professionally, Phillip has worked for two major orchid production nurseries in Central Florida as a grower and grower/manager. In 2013 he formed his own business, Bredren Orchids, to facilitate the sale of some of the more unique Phalaenopsis and Broughtonia species and hybrids he grows and breeds. He now manages Bredren Orchids full-time since 2017, with the generous help of his wife, Liz.

Phillip will be bringing a variety of plants for sale, including: novelty Phalaenopsis species/hybrids and Broughtonia/Cattleya related species and hybrids.

October 5th 7:00pm

Location: Venice Community Center

The Speaker will be Fred Clarke of Sunset Valley Orchids.

Presenting: Aussie Dendrobiums

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.

Wednesday, Sept.7th, 2022 7:00pm. Doors opens at 6:30.           

The Speaker will be Alan Koch

Location: Venice Community Center

Presentation – The Genus Paphiopedilum

Alan Koch owns and operates Gold Country Orchids where he specializes in  miniature and compact Cattleya’s. Alan started growing orchids in 1969 with 3 Cymbidiums given to him by an aunt. While in college, he became interested in other orchids and discovered many would grow outdoors in Southern California.

He has moved five times as his orchid obsession has led to the need for more growing space. With the last move, he purchased 10 acres of land in Lincoln, California for his 300,000 orchids.

He is recognized as an expert in the Brazilian Cattleya alliance and a trend setter in miniature Cattleya breeding. Alan has been published in the Orchid Digest, and the American Orchid Society magazines. He has also been published in the proceedings of the World Orchid Conference. He is an internationally known speaker.

He is a past member of the AOS Judging Committee, and the Research Committee, as well as an Accredited Judge and is Vice-chair and Training Coordinator for the California Sierra Nevada Judging Center.

Alan also served two terms on the Orchid Digest Executive Committee and Board of Directors, and is one of the current directors, as well as a Trustee for the AOS.