Speaker – Donna Goodwin                                            

Topic – Culture of Vandaceous Orchids

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

With a major in English while minoring in Political Science and Business, Donna Goodwin was ready for a career in…growing orchids? Well, not exactly. Her path to this career began with three years of management followed by three years of technical writing, and finally four years of program coordinating. Near the end of that period, she married her college sweetheart and was finally ready for a family. Her husband, Duane, had always had his career in landscaping or horticulture. He grew up with his father tinkering in orchid culture, and finally becoming commercial with his orchid endeavors after retiring. But, Duane’s father, John Goodwin, had made greenhouses that were a bit rudimentary requiring manual labor for heat or cold protection. Basically, that meant Duane was stapling on plastic for cold nights, and removing it when the days warmed up, and then back on for cold nights, and back off for warm days, etc. Duane never wanted to be a part of this kind of operation, ever.
But, when their first of two sons was born just months after his father dying of cancer, Duane had second thoughts. He and Donna bought out his brother and sister’s share of the estate and built a greenhouse that is state of the art to grow vanda orchids. They moved back to the old homestead, and Donna quickly learned how to grow vandas and run a retail greenhouse nursery. Their second son was born, and the greenhouse became a big playpen in which the boys could play and have fun.
A second and third greenhouse have since been added and Goodwin Orchids has grown into the premiere source in Central Florida for vandaceous orchids. Donna is so thankful and blessed that she has had a home-based business that allowed her to be home with her children during those crucial early years, and to have her children with her after school in the greenhouse or around the grounds. In her estimation, there could not be a more satisfying career that gives the grower the joy of the beauty of the flowers, and the customer the same joy. And we all know that caring for plants is the oldest occupation known to man.
In September, the Goodwins will have a Centennial celebration in honor of Duane’s great grandparents, grandparents and his parents. Yes, that is 100 years at the same location on the west side of Leesburg. Our children are 5th generation. Duane has now been to Thailand seven times to visit nurseries and continue to obtain the finest vandas in the world! We supply vandas to Universal Studios in Orlando, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC, and we have sold plants to the New York Botanical Garden and to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Donna’s presentation will be on the culture of vandaceous orchids. She will bring plants for sale. Visit her website, www.GoodwinOrchids.com for a virtual visit to their nursery in Leesburg.

Speaker – Bill Thoms                                                                                        

Topic – Bulbophyllums.

Englewood Area Orchid Society meets at 6:30 pm on the 2nd Monday of every month except December at Christ Lutheran Church, 701 N. Indiana Avenue, Englewood, Florida.

Internationally recognized speaker, orchid hunter, breeder and grower extrordinaire Bill Thoms will be presenting a talk on Bulbophyllums. This program covers everything you need to know to grow and bloom these fascinating plants, including super pictures of easy-to-grow species and the latest hybrids.
Be prepared to learn more about this fascinating group of plants than you ever dreamed! Bill Thoms and Doris Dukes have been growing orchids around Central Florida for more than 45 years and have received almost every award granted by the AOS as well as more Awards for Culture than anyone else in the world, (105 in over 29 genera, including 48 in the Bulbophyllum alliance and 13 CCEs plus 4 others 90 points or above before they had the Cultural Excellence award.
Many of his crosses are winning awards around the country and the AOS has recently added a yearly award named for him for the best Bulbophyllum exhibited.
The talks are spiced with funny stories and funny associations so whether you grow thousands of orchids, only a few, or none at all, you will have a wonderfully entertaining time and be able to grow anything better. Many of the most important requirements for growing world class plants are made easy to understand and remember.
Don’t miss this great opportunity to learn how to grow these fascinating plants and to hear one of the most knowledgeable, interesting and funny speakers in the orchid world.

Speaker – John Budree                                                                                            

Topic – Growing better orchids in south Florida

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

Ramnarine John Budree, was born in Trinidad and migrated to Florida about fourteen some years ago. In Trinidad he grew many different types of orchids and took part in collecting and showing at many shows, but there was always something more. He wanted to learn more about orchids, wanted more of a challenge. He wanted to grow and flower them, of course. So when he came to Florida, he got involved with orchids on a different level. Here he was able to grow all of those types of plants he could  only read about and even meet all of those people that grew and wrote the
articles that he had read in AOS magazines.
So he started on his journey/adventure. He started to go to many of the
shows and what you do when you go to a show, YOU BUY ORCHIDS, which you
know nothing about, in the hope you can grow or flower it [yea right].
He always liked Paphiopedilum but he was told he couldn’t grow them.
This became a challenge to John and he found these plants very
interesting as well. He met some of the biggest and the best at growing
orchids, Jack Schendowich, Warren Kelly {Orchid World}, Bob Skully {Jones
& Skully}, Mr. Frank Smith {Krull-Smith} and Sheldon Takasaki {Carmela
Orchids}. These people really know how to grow orchids but not just
orchids, Paphiopedilum, Cattleya, Phalaenopsis, Dendrobium, and Oncidium,
e.g.. Krull Smith has more AOS awards than any other orchid grower past
or present.
At the 19 WOC., in Miami, in 2008, John had an opportunity to work with
Frank Smith, a excellent grower and very experienced Paph. grower. He
tried to absorb as much of Frank Smith’s knowledge as possible, and did
an exhibit on his own. After that, he started to grow many types of
Paphs. and today he owns over 1750 as well as about 2000 other types of
orchids. Of course, he says, he has also lost count of the ones he
killed. In short he have been growing Orchids for about 35 years, from
flask to flower and has accumulated about 45 AOS awards