Meetings – Page 9 – Venice Area Orchid Society

Meeting January 7, 2015

Posted on 12/21/2014 by tmkellogg2010

Next Meeting: Wednesday January 7th at 7:00 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Venice Community Center

Speaker: Roy Krueger

Topic: Show Preparation

Roy moved down here about twelve years ago, bought a house, and inherited three orchids from the previous owner. He soon discovered that orchids multiply faster than rab- bits and he now has over 500, with his favorites being Cat- tleyas and unusual Dendrobiums. Roy grows his orchids in a pool cage, on trees, under arbors, on wind chime holder racks and along his fence out of the reach of squirrels.

He’s neither a born orchidist nor a commercial grower, just an extremely talented hobbyist and his experience and knowledge are displayed at the many classes he teaches at various societies. He served five years as the President of the Manatee Orchid Society and four years in various po- sitions with the Sarasota Orchid Society, writing a monthly article called “Orchids We Should Grow”.

Roy has spoken at many clubs and societies over the years on many orchid topics and is well known for his how-to classes and hands-on approach. Bring your questions and be prepared to learn and have a great time at the January meeting.

Meeting Wednesday, November 5, 2014. Venice Community Center 7:00pm

Posted on 10/22/2014 by tmkellogg2010

Topic: Florida Native Orchids

Speaker: Prem Subrahmanyam

Prem is a true Florida native, having been born and raised in the Tallahassee, Florida area, before moving to Orlando with his family in 2005. He’s been studying Florida’s native orchids for more than 30 years and is renowned for his presentations at native plant and orchid societies across the state.

Enc.tampensis He makes his living as a software engineer and is also a graphic designer and 3d computer animator. His free time is spent photographing native orchids, growing his own collection of (legally purchased) orchids, developing his orchid-related websites, and collecting fossils or geocaching.

Prem is an award-winning photographer and his works have appeared in various magazine publications, textbooks, educational displays, orchid society newsletters, and brochures. In October 2009, his article on Epidendrum magnoliae was published in Orchids – the Bulletin of the American Orchid Society. His photos were also used in the Illustrated Dictionary of Orchid Genera, Jay Pfahl’s Orchidspecies.com website as well as in PBS website content for their Nova series.

Prem will dazzle and inspire us with his beautiful photographs and hopefully share a few of his discoveries, although the exact locations usually remain a deep secret. Some of his earliest finds were located less than 15 minutes from his home. If we’re fortunate, Prem will bring some of his photographs and other orchid-related items for sale.

Meeting Wednesday October 1, 2014, 7pm. Venice Community Center

Posted on 09/14/2014 by tmkellogg2010

Thanh Nguyen is an owner-operator of Springwater Orchids (Melbourne, FL). He is an engineer by trade, but also has been collecting and growing orchids for over 30 years. His orchid business began in 2001, mainly selling on the internet but gradually moved to orchid shows in recent years.

Thanh loves orchid species. And although he grows and sells all orchids genera, his forte has always been the genus of Paphiopedilum. He collects fine plants; grows, sells, breeds, and enjoys sharing his experiences with his customers and colleagues. His passion in paphs is reflected in award winning plants and an on-going paphs breeding program using local lab work, and local growing environment. His goals are to bring the excellence of a paphs breeding program back to America and augment the enthusiasm of paphs growing by way of sharing his growing experience and educational programs via shows and society speeches. You will see this through his breeding program with a well thought out process to target various audiences; from easy growing/flowering plants to state of the art breeding catered to most difficult collectors’ interest, in parallel with the conservation of breeding species, improving color and shape, broadening their growing conditions to make growing paphs a joy, not an aggravation. Thanh will have orchids for sale. Give it a try, and buy a paph/orchid seedling!