Tuesday, October 16, 2007

University of Hawaii extension promotes orchid cultivation

"University of Hawaii extension agent Glenn Teves... shared his expertise with nearly 70 Molokai... aficionados... to help promote orchid cultivation as a potential industry on Molokai...

"Probably the most important thing you need to know about orchid care is sanitation," Teves said at the outset... If you don't sanitize the tools you use when you work with orchids, he said, you risk spreading viruses among... a mix of Clorox and water works just fine [really ?].

... Sunburn, he told the audience, is a problem on Molokai. There's a fine line, he said, between the amount of sun that makes the plant flower
profusely and that which causes sunburn to its leaves."

URL : http://www.molokaitimes.com/articles/71014195119.asp

Enjoy,
Steve Peralta
1888Orchids.com

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Orchids and Rats!

None of... many books about growing orchids list rodents as a pest... dendrobium keiki...
had been devoured... What little was left of the leaves had been shredded into wispy little
threads. One of the small stems was broken off and gone....found the telltale rodent droppings... more in line with a mouse than a rat... next step is to set some traps and see... Is a little peanut butter, or
maybe some cheese, more appealing that[n]... orchid plants?"

URL :
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/home/sfl-flhg13juneaunboct13,0,2900052.column?coll=sofla_features_home_xpromo

Enjoy,
Steve Peralta
1888Orchids.com

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Orchid Queen Beverly Tall of the Desert Valley Orchid Society...

"Bev Tall of Fountain Hills... 20-year orchid growing... with a custom greenhouse…orchid judge for the past 12 years.

Her enclosed glass-roofed greenhouse, built six feet underground, is three levels deep...
One descends to its depths via a sturdy network of stained-wood stairs arrayed with plants perched on ledges, shelves and steps, and hanging everywhere from hooks.
...
In the spacious main room of the greenhouse, a network of pipes overhead and throughout the room serve as the misters and heaters...

she says... "we don't want to be tied to the orchids... It's self-contained, so it can take care of itself for several weeks at a time."

On one end is a rocky formation with a waterfall... the water is part of the humidity control, and the small pool contains Koi fish which will eat
some of the unwanted bugs attracted by the orchids.

... the main blooming season is winter and spring...
"This is a hobby," she says, overlooking her tropical haven of more than 2,000 plants [smile...].
...
"As a judge I feel that I have to grow a lot of different (species) so that I understand how they grow and what a good one looks like so that I can
judge them properly," she says, "because you have to be able to judge all different kinds, not just one kind."

It takes seven years to become a judge, and Tall says it is like getting a Master's or a Ph.D.
"You have to do talks and papers and tests, and go to a lot of different (judged shows) to learn," she says.
...
"... it's not just a simple, 'read this book and you become a judge.' It's a lot of experience and a lot of practical application and a lot of studying to learn about all [!!!] the orchids."

Tall judges orchids in shows not just in the states but all over the world. She has been to London, the Rio and Ecuador to judge shows, and the last
World Orchid Contest was in France.

This past spring she enjoyed a jaunt to Taiwan to judge....
"I don't do this for commercial (purposes)," she says of her orchid growing and judging. "I just do it because I like it and I meet a lot of interesting people. It's an international community because you have people from all over the world judging..."
...
"There are 15 orchids native to Arizona," she says. "... Most of them grow in the White Mountains, though, because of the heat here, and those are
terrestrial plants..."
...
Tall and her husband, Wayne, retired to Fountain Hills eight years ago but have lived in Arizona almost 30 years.
"We built this house for a retirement home after our three sons grew up and
moved out, and designed it especially to have the greenhouse," she says....

Tall is a member of the Desert Valley Orchid Society, which meets in
Scottsdale, and she is pleased that there are a handful of orchid
enthusiasts from Fountain Hills who are also members.

She does lectures at meetings for the Valley Orchid Society, as well as for other orchid clubs in the U.S.

She also is on the board of directors for the Orchid Digest... and on the education committee for the American Orchid Society, and has written several magazine articles for Orchid Digest and for the American Orchid Society magazine.
...
Fun Orchid Facts Orchids evolved 40 to 80 million years ago from a lily-like relative...
The first man-made orchid was cultivated in 1856.
Orchids are the largest family of the flowering plant kingdom.
...
In Hawaii... eating the blossoms is said to insure return to the Islands...

In New Guinea, the male Crestless Gardener Bowerbirds keep fresh blossoms
at the entrance to their bowers to impress and win the females of their
species." [some men do it too / smile..]

URL : http://www.fhtimes.com/times/101007/tall.html

Enjoy,
Steve
1888Orchids

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

San Diego International Orchid Fair - Quail Botanical Gardens

" the San Diego International Orchid Fair... at Quail Botanical gardens in Encinitas.
...
Last year more than 3,500 paying visitors attended the show...

More than 25 species of orchid are indigenous to California. A half dozen are native to San Diego County, including a few found along the river in
Mission Valley"

URL :
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/10/06//news/coastal/19_13_3810_5_07.txt

Enjoy!
Steve Peralta
http://www.1888Orchids.com

Gray's Manual of Botany, 8th Edition by M. L. Fernald

"Gray's Manual of Botany, 8th Edition... by M. L. Fernald... the "Botanical Bible"... lists 21 genera of the orchid family as growing wild in northeastern North America.

Among these there are about 50 species, varieties and forms known to be growing within the limits of the state of Wisconsin... at least 10 in La
Crosse County... two more in Monroe County. And, at least three of these have been seen growing along the La Crosse River Trail.
...
some orchids... are in bloom right now.

... some of our northern "terrestrial" members of the family are pretty spectacular. One genus of our group... is stuck with having small flowers
that just happen to be all white...

The genus... spiranthes, synthesized from a couple Greek words to indicate "spiral flowered." Its florets are often arranged around a vertical stem in
a spiral formation... Ladies' tresses is the English rendition of thename...
One such can be seen in thin woods in some areas during July.

This tribe of orchids seems to be very much at home amid the grasses that can be found under trees in thin, dry woods or near trees growing in the
open...

our area... two species from this genus: nodding and slender ladies' tresses. A form that didn't fit the nodding description... was split out... and given the name Great Plains ladies' tresses"

URL :
http://www.couleenews.com/articles/2007/10/04/features/along%20trail.txt

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Orchid Artist Gregory Raymond...

"GREGORY RAYMOND Halili...
32... artist...

his latest series of miniatures... "Orchids," 20 pieces in watercolor onpaper, recently in West Gallery ... Mandaluyong City.

Limning numerous orchid varieties... Halili compacts in these pieces arange of colors... and a variety of patterns...

He never... depicts the entire flower but focuses on its labial form...Each piece is composed in an oval on creamy paper then dusted with metallic
powder...

Halili's... fascination with orchids... "The orchid is the flower most closely associated with humans, particularly the female genitalia..."

A Fine Arts graduate from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Halili has exhibited his works in New York, Philadelphia, Ohio, Arkansas,
Florida, Wisconsin, Washington, DC. In the Philippines, aside from West Gallery, he has shown in the Jorge Vargas Museum of the University of the Philippines."

URL :
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/diaspora/diaspora/view_article.php?article_id=91791

images :

http://images.inquirer.net/media/globalnation/diaspora/diaspora/images/pic-10010432320977.jpg

http://images.inquirer.net/media/globalnation/diaspora/diaspora/images/pic-10010432480556.jpg

Enjoy,
Steve Peralta
1888Orchids.com