2013 Orchid Auction Sneak Peek!

Blc. Kalei Mist
(That’s 7.5″ of Iowa Cornfed hand in the background.)

The orchids are here for the 2013 Orchid Show & Auction!  We have some great orchids ready to go home with you, including some unique surprises like mounted coconut orchids.

Here are just a few more orchids that will be available:

Bln Aka’s Aloha

Bnfd Gilded Tower ‘Mystic Maze’

Den. Salaya Gold

 

A Personal Invitation

I’m updating our mailing list to get ready for the upcoming auction.  Some of the names on our list have been at every sale or special function we’ve had for several years, and I’ve met a few of you.  We appreciate your enthusiasm for orchids and your patronage, so when we get a “Return to Sender”, I hate to simply delete the name.  Instead, I spend a few minutes cyberstalking you to see if I can find a more current mailing address.  It has worked a few times; some I can’t track down;  for others, google returns an obituary.

The first name I looked up this morning was linked to this lovely article at keloland.com about orchids.

“You get addicted to it.” Says Grabia, “but the greatest asset in growing orchids is patience.”. . .

Whether it’s caring for orchids or a life long companion, Grabia is always looking ahead.  “It’s essential that we develop and continue to grow mentally as well as physically.” he says.

I couldn’t agree more.  Rev. Grabia, if you still check this website, consider this your personal invitation.  I hope to meet you at the auction.

 

Fun at the Lawn & Garden Show

Potinara Burana Beauty

We had a great time last weekend at the Sioux Falls Lawn & Garden Show!  Thank you to all of you who attended our presentation and repotting demonstration.   Orchids are great houseplants and their needs really are fairly simple.  I was thrilled to see so many hands go up when I asked how many of you were growing orchids!

I hope I was able to offer you some information you can use.  As you can tell, I can happily talk orchids for well over an hour and I am grateful to everyone who endured the whole speech. I especially appreciated the folks who chuckled at my electrical conductivity/light color/rainforest climate joke!  (Was afraid I would either genuinely scare you, or that no one would get it!)  I know I promised to upload some of the information here on the website, but right now I’m busy finalizing details for our upcoming orchid auction!  Click Here for more info!  Check back next week, I will try to add the light, water and potting comparative charts.

Special Thanks to:

• The Minnehaha Master Gardeners for letting us participate in such a well run show.  All the volunteers were so helpful and knowledgeable and before we were packed up for the day, we heard them already scheming how to improve next year’s show.
• The fine members of the Sioux Falls Orchid Club for not only sharing their great photos, but also braving the cold with their beautiful blooming orchids! (Can it just be Spring, already?!)
• A huge round of applause for Wes on the great job he did with the Repotting demonstration!  I was inspired to go home and do a bunch of spring repotting and dividing this week and I know I’m not the only one! (Now that we know so many of you are growing orchids, perhaps next year we can do more of a “Make & Take” demonstration, where you get to repot your own orchids or maybe get a piece of one from us.  Wouldn’t that be fun)?
• A special personal thanks to Bethany for letting me wheedle a piece of her  cattleya Wes divided to replace one I killed.
  

  Mounted Cattleya Divisions

  The orchid’s name is Potinara Burana Beauty; it’s the lovely red and yellow flower pictured above.  When I got it home, I discovered two seperate pieces.  Both of these have been mounted on fir bark.  If I can get both divisions going, watch for one of them to be raffled at a future Orchid Club meeting!

• And another personal thanks to the “Orchid Mentalist” I told you about–the octogenarian who never ceases to add to his enormous knowledge of orchids.  He inspires me to strive to learn new things about orchids whenever I can.  He wrote last Sunday about the latest wing he’s adding to his “Orchidaceae Memory Palace”–moving many of his cattleyas to wood mounts on pieces of wood he collects while out with his walking club!

I’m already mulling over topics for next year’s Lawn & Garden Show!  Since several of you mentioned growing cymbidiums and I didn’t include them in the slide show, maybe that would be a good topic.  I’ve only recently started collecting them, myself, so we’ll see how good I am at meeting their needs by the 2014 Lawn & Garden Show.  Until then I’ll leave you with this photo of a cymbidium I got earlier this month–it’s spectacular!

 

Orchid Names

At October’s Sioux Falls Orchid Club meeting, we talked about orchid tags and how to read the names to get more information about your orchid.  All those strange names can be confusing and sometimes the abbreviations make it difficult to even figure out what family your orchid belongs to.  We looked at a few tags from the Fall Auction to see examples of species, named hybrids and hybrid crosses that have yet to be registered.  We also browsed a few websites that you can use to find out more about orchids.

Two  very helpful articles are Orchid Tag–Don’t Lose that Name! and RVO’s Orchid Genus Listing.   RiverValley Orchid Works is a great source of information for all things orchid–browse their articles and forums for helpful hints and gorgeous photos.

Two other good resources are the RHS International Orchid Register and the Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia.

 

2012 Fall Orchid Show & Auction!

It’s Orchid Auction time again!   Join us for fun, beauty and bargains!  Come just to see all the beautiful flowers, to buy a gift for yourself or a friend or to build a wonderful orchid collection of your own.  Want more details?  Click here!

 

 

Don’t Miss the Auction!

For more information, click on 2012 Spring Orchid Show & Auction.

Thanks to all the Volunteers from Sioux Falls Orchid Club who make this sale possible.

*A special thanks goes out this year to Michelle Kats for designing our sale flier.  Michelle likes gardening and would love to have more orchids, but is too busy right now being a doggy foster mom for Sioux Empire Pit Rescue.  Check out some of the great dogs she has helped find homes!

 

Member Photos & A Special Event–Judy

Today’s member photo post actually is more of a “Member Feature” in anticipation of a special event for our next orchid club meeting.  At the last meeting, member Judy graciously  invited the Sioux Falls Orchid Club to hold our March 17, 2012 meeting at her house in Sioux Falls.  Judy is a dedicated orchid enthusiast and grows her collection in an orchidarium, so this should be a very interesting meeting.

Judy's orchidarium with many happy blooming orchids!

  Judy was born and raised in Kansas.  She has retired from her career as a school teacher and is working on her next career as a novelist.  She and husband Dick moved to Sioux Falls a few years ago to be closer to family.  At orchid club meetings, Judy is always ready with a twinkling-eyed smile and her trusty orchid reference book to add a fine point to our discussions.

Judy’s interest in orchids began with a table full of blooming phalaenopsis in a big box store nearly 15 years ago.  About 12 years ago, she picked up a paphiopedilum at an orchid show in Kansas and it has bloomed faithfully every summer since.  A few years ago, she acquired her orchidarium along with some more orchids from another local orchid hobbyist.   She now has around 25 orchids.  One question I neglected to ask Judy was which orchid was her favorite.  If I had to venture a guess I would go with one of the two she talks about most at meetings:  her “fu manchu” lady slipper that she acquired at last year’s  Greater Omaha Orchid Show & Sale , or her laeliocattleya–an orchid that not only has large beautiful blooms, but that I suspect she likes also for the lyrical quality of the name (you’ll never hear her call them “Lc.” in meetings!)

It is certainly lovely in name and in presence!

In addition to learning about growing orchids in an orchidarium, we will get hands on experience helping Judy divide & repot one of her dendrobiums.  Additionally, Wes volunteered to bring his light meter to the meeting so that we can take readings of the various light sources and get a better understanding of our orchids’ light needs.  Members, check your emails for time and directions.  If you missed that information, please email the club.  Hope to see you there!

Inside Judy's orchidarium.