Oct 292014
 

Our November program will be presented by Jim Watts.  Jim will present a program titled “Leafless Orchids, fascination and frustration!”  This program is a review of the various leafless genera and their species, discussing the habitat and growth habit of these fascinating orchids

Jim started growing orchids in 1994 in Tallahassee with 6 equitants and a phalaenopsis.  When he moved to Miami for University of Miami in 1996 he thought he was in heaven!  As he expanded his collection, his two main areas of interest became Tolumnia and the leafless orchids.  He pestered the AOS editors to feature an article on leafless orchids in the Orchids magazine for almost two years.  He was doing a lot of research on his own, and was hoping for more information.  Finally in frustration, the AOS editors told him to write one himself if he really wanted to see it.  So, in March 2003 issue of Orchids, his article was published.  He had a reprint for society newsletters from around the globe, including the Canary Islands, Canada, and all over the United States.  Jim is an Accredited AOS Judge, having joined the program at the Florida Caribbean Judging Center.   He now lives in Hollywood, FL.

The plant raffle table will be a selection of phals and paphs that were donated to SFOS from Pine Ridge Orchids.  Dan & Margie Orchids will supply the blooming plants for our special raffles.

We hope you will join us for this interesting and informative program.

Guillermo Salazar
Program Chairman

Reminder: Any plants you wish to have considered for judging must be entered no later than 7:30PM. This allows our judges ample time to properly evaluate your orchids and, if necessary, present them for award photography before the main program begins.

Oct 122014
 

Paul Phelps of Phelps Farm Orchids, Inc. will present our October program. The program titled “Cattleyas, The Queen of Orchids” is a hands on presentation that will talk about culture, potting and repotting, fertilizer needs and other growing tips specific to growing the Cattleya alliance.

Phelps Farm Orchids Inc. is a commercial Orchid farm located on five acres in North West Hillsborough County about 15 minutes north of the Tampa International Airport. The business was started in 1986 by Paul and Patricia Phelps and grew out of Patricia’s love of orchid collecting, into a thriving commercial operation. At the time the business was started, the growing area was 3500 square feet of Quonset greenhouse. In 1992 the greenhouse was doubled to 7000 square feet. In 2012 a 1600 square foot greenhouse was built to house hanging and mounted Orchids that require daily watering.

Cattleyas are the specialty of the house but other genera are grown there as well. A breeding program was started in the late ‘80’s with the main focus on the Cattleya alliance. At present Paul has made over 800 hybrids.

A web site was brought on line in 1994 featuring an on line catalog. You can visit this site at www.phelpsfarm.com. This web site is currently undergoing a renovation including a shopping cart for online ordering and a link to articles about Orchid culture and other relative information. Locally Phelps Farm Orchids was featured on NBC’s Daytime show with Cyndi Edwards and nationally they were featured on the PBS series Americas Heartland. If you would like to see the episode on the web, go to www.americasheartland.org, Click on Stories, choose Season 5 and click on Episode 503 and then select the story called Petal Pushers.

Phelps Farm Orchids, Inc. will be providing the plant raffle table as well as bringing plants for sale. Many of the plants Paul & Patricia are bringing were produced at their nursery from their breeding program.

We hope you will join us for the wonderful program.  Guests are always welcome at our meetings.

Remember, plants brought for judging must be entered no later than 7:30 PM!

Plant judging is from 7:30PM until 8:00PM

Program begins at 8:00PM