Apr 302014
 

Andrea Niessen will present our program tonight entitled “The Pacific Coast from Colombia and its Orchids.” Andrea states, “The Colombian Pacific Coast is one of the Biodiversity Hotspots of the world. The variety of Orchids is tremendous and many are still undescribed. I am going to show various aspects of this rain forest, how the orchids grow in nature and how they have adapted to this area including the island Gorgona which use to be a Prison Island and is now a National Park.”

Andrea Niessen was born in Cali, Colombia to a German family. She received her high school degree from the Cali German School and was an exchange student in Claremont, California where she graduated again at the St. Lucy´s Priory High School. She went on to earn a Biology degree with an emphasis in Botany at the Universidad del Valle, Cali. Andrea then earned a Master´s of Science with a major in Electron Microscopy and minor in Virology from the University of Florida in Gainesville USA. She worked as a research associate at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in the Pastures Entomology Department and later in the Virology Unit. She has been a dedicated hobby Orchid grower all of her life. Andrea has served as a board member and president (1992-1997) of the local orchid Society, Asociación Vallecaucana de Orquideología and judge of the Colombian Orchid Committee.

Andrea has lectured about Colombian Orchids in Colombia, USA, Canada, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Nederland, Singapore and Germany. With her husband Juan Carlos Uribe, she has maintained her own orchid nursery since 1989. ORQUIDEAS DEL VALLE LTDA, which has grown to include two retail shops, one in downtown Cali and the other in the town of Ginebra, two nurseries, one warm growing and the other for cool growing plants and laboratory facilities for seed flasking. ORQUIDEAS DEL VALLE LTDA has attended many National and International Shows and also six World Orchid Conferences and European Orchid Conferences exhibiting and selling the beautiful and diverse orchid species from Colombia.

ORQUIDEAS DEL VALLE LTDA will provide plants for our raffle table.

 

Apr 082014
 

Our April Program will be presented by George Carr and is titled “The Genus Catasetum – weird and wonderful.” George is an accredited American Orchid Society Judge in the Florida North Central Judging Center in Tampa, Florida and has been growing orchids for 35 years. His interest in the genus Cycnoches began in 1993 when he requested to do his research paper on the genus for his Student Judge requirement. His paper, Cycnoches – One Hundred Sixty-five Years of Confusion was completed and presented in 1995 and in 1996 the paper was awarded the first American Orchid Society Education Certificate of Appreciation. In 2003, George was named as an accepted American Orchid Society taxonomic authority on the Catasetinae specializing in Cycnoches.

George has published some 35 articles in the United States in Orchids and the Orchid Digest, Brazil, France in Richardiana, England in the Orchid Reviewand Colombia. His most recent paper on Cycnoches and hybrids of the genus was published in a supplement to the October 2012 issue of the American Orchid Society magazine Orchids.

George is retired but stays busy with his research and writings about the Catasetinae and other orchids. He has a blog on the Catasetinae, http://catasetinae5.blogspot.com, where, from time to time, he publishes articles with photographs of plants and flowers which interest him and which he hopes will interest others. We hope you will join us for this very interesting presentation.

 

Amazonia Orchids will provide the plant table tonight.

 

Apr 082014
 

I’ve been a bit under the weather lately and haven’t been updating the site in a timely manor. My apologies!

–Ron