November 2005

The Orchid Grower

Upcoming Events

• February 4-5
  Orchid Quest
  
• February 18-19
  Batavia Orchid Society Show
  
• March 4-5
  NEWOS Show
  
• March 18-19
  Illowa Orchid Society 31st Spring Show
  
• April 29-30
  Illinois Orchid Society Spring Show
  

Meeting Dates

• Nov 20 - Orchids by the Ackers - Chuck Acker will talk about his trip to Peru to acquire Phrag. Kovachii
  
• Dec 18 - Holiday Party
  
• Jan 15 - Olbrich Gardens
  
• Feb 19 - Olbrich Gardens
  
• Mar 19 - Olbrich Gardens
  
• Apr 9 - Olbrich Gardens
  
• May 21 - Olbrich Gardens
  
• June Picnic
  

Paph Dollgoldi, grown by Chuck Acker - 1st place and special award

Brassavola nodosa, grown by Wayne King - 3rd place

Brs Spider’s Feast 'Highland', grown by CHuck Acker - 1st place and special award

Officers and Committees

Subit your photos to be included in the newsletter. Every month we want to include a gallery of photos to enjoy. Email your photos to Brook (orchids@tinamoupottery.com).

November Meeting

This meeting will be held at Orchids by the Ackers in Middleton. Bring your plants in to be judged as well as the Eric Young seedling phrag you were given by Acker’s last year. Acker’s will judge for “Best Grown Phrag” (it doesn’t have to be blooming!) and do our regular monthly judging. Judging begins at 1:00 and the meeting starts at 1:30. The "Best Grown Phrag" winner will receive a $50 gift certificate compliments of Acker’s. You must be present to get your new orchid for next year’s contest.

The meeting will mainly be on the topic of Chuck Acker’s trip to Peru to acquire Phrag. Kovachii. If you would like some background to this fascinating and very recent discovery can be found on the web site by Nina Rach from the Houston Orchid Society <autrevie.com/articles/Phrag_kovachii.html>.

Also the April 2005 issue of ORCHIDS has a story about the search of the flowering plant in situ.

Other items of interest for the monthly meeting:
Be prepared to bring your Christmas party payment and renew your membership at this meeting. Please go to the website and print a blank form and bring a check to the meeting.

Blackhawk Show Results

First of all, a huge thank you to Sandy Delamater and Wayne King who set up (and took down) our display which earned 3rd place. Also thanks to Tim Muldowney who helped take down.

Chuck Acker seems to have walked away with the show, but Meg McLaughlin received a "Best of Class" for her Phrag Paul Eugene Conroy. She is vindicated. Congrats to you both!!! Way to go, Wayne King and Sandy Delamater as well.

More photos are at the end of the newsletter.

Awards:

December Meeting

The Decmber meeting is the Christmas Party. More information will be available on this at a later date. The preliminary plans are to have another potluck and to give a blooming size plant to each attendee. The cost is $5. Please pay at the November meeting if you can.

Olbrich Gardens

We have contributed $200 to Olbrich Botanical Gardens for which we have received a thank you letter from the Director, Nancy Ragland. She points out that over 250,000 people come to Olbrich each year!

Orchid books and reference materials are located at Olbrich Gardens. We’d like to remind you that we have a library of information and it is available for your use. A list of contents is in your yellow folder and through the website. The items currently at Olbrich will be moved prior to Thanksgiving (due to re-carpeting). Please contact Liz Wood if you would like to see something after that point.

The Mexican Stanhopea

The following is copied from Hoosier Orchids about the Mexican Stanhopea. Thank you to Judith Rapacz for submitting it.

NEWS from Hoosier Orchids - 06/23/2005

First Flowering
In addition to specializing in artificially propagated orchid species, Will, Erich, and I have made many crosses. This is a tale about the first flowering of one of our stranger ones.

On 26 July 2001 I placed pollinia of the Mexican Stanhopea tigrina 'Traders Point' AM/AOS on a dark Colombian Gongora chocoensis [both parents are pictured in the Stanhopea section of the catalog]. A fruit developed and was harvested on 22 October 2001, seed germinated, and the seedlings grew well. One precocious plant produced a single flower bud. Slowly the bud grew larger and larger.
On Saturday, 18 June, 2005, almost 4 years after the initial pollination, the bud opened and produced a flower with a natural spread of about 4 inches. The lateral sepals were broad and long, shaped similarly to those of a Stanhopea, canted upward from their base at about a 45 degree angle from the horizontal plane through the center of the flower, and are creamy yellow heavily marked with lines of red spots. The petals, which are very tiny in the Gongora parent, are about 1 inch long and 1/4 inch wide with the same color combination. The 2 inch long lip is waxy, yellow with some red spotting on the hypochile [or base of the lip]. There are two horns on the lip, and the shape is intermediate between that of the two parents. The flower is pleasantly fragrant.

Although there is only one flower on the stem at this time, since both parents have multiple flowers per inflorescence we expect more in future flowerings. At the time of this flowering the pseudobulb is about the size of a small English walnut, and the leaf is about 10 inches long.

This will be the third Stangora to be registered. The other two are:
Stga. Elcimey [Stan. ecornuta x Gga. horichiana] registered in 1984 by C. Horich.
Stga. Ombelle d'Automne [Gga. galatea x Stan. costaricensis] registered in 2004 by M & MF Bourdon.

A name has not yet been decided upon for this new Stangora. However, since the flower has a predatory look to it one possible name could be Stangora Quetzacoatle, for the Astec Feathered Serpent god of Mexico, bringer of knowledge and chocolate to the Aztec people.

Member Voice

Would you like to give a talk at one of our meetings? Share your knowledge, photos from an orchid trip, or anything else orchid related. All you need to do is tell Elaine <egadzicki@charter.net> your idea and we’ll work it into one of our meetings. 

Do you have any good ideas about growing orchids? Have you read a good orchid book or article that you would like to share? Please email Sarah Lundey <sarahlundey@charter.net>. She will work with Brook <orchids@tinamoupottery.com> to help make our monthly newsletter a success.

Show Schedule

More Blackhawk Show Photos

Dtps Minho Princess, grown by Sandy Delamater - 1st place

Phrag Paul Eugene Conroy, grown by Meg McLaughlin - 1st place and special award

Stenocoryne aureo-fulva, grown by Sandy Delamater - 1st place