April 2006

The Orchid Grower

Upcoming Events

• April 15
  Guild Sale at Olbrich Gardens
  

Meeting Dates

• Apr 9 - Olbrich Gardens
  
• May 21 - Olbrich Gardens
  
• June Picnic
  

Cattleya bowringiana

Dendrobium from Orchid Quest

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).

Showy Orchis, Orchis spetabilis

Twayblade, Liparis lilifolia

These two orchids are examples of some of the orchids that grow naturally in Dane county.

ANNUAL SPRING ORCHID SALE

The Spring Sale at Olbrich Gardens is scheduled for Saturday, April 15. The sale plants will be supplied by Orchids by the Ackers. Sue Reed is spearheading the sale and a sign up sheet was passed around at the March meeting. It appears there will be plenty of volunteers for set-up on Friday morning and for sales on Saturday. The sale starts at 9 a.m. and ends when plants are sold out. Anyone interested in assisting should contact Sue.

ELECTION OF NEW OFFICERS

We need guild members to volunteer for President and Treasurer as well as positions on the OGG Board. Members of the OGG board help to organize the guild and meet once a month. Any member is welcome to attend the board meetings to find out what the board does. If you are interested in these positions or would like more information, please contact any member of the nominating committee. Nominating committee members are Liz Wood, ewood@biochem.wisc.edu, Sarah Lundey, Sarahlundey@charter.net, and Don Lamb, sunsetcourt@charter.net.

COMMITTEES FOR GUILD FUNCTIONS

The Board discussed the formation of committees for both Club and Guild functions as well as Orchid Quest 2007. More members are needed to become active in club events. Currently the small cadre of members who have been performing most of our functions will be willing to work with new volunteers. A sign-up list was passed around at our last OGG meeting and some of the members who have volunteered are included below and we are looking for more of you to participate:

Club Committees:

• Programs (Meg McLaughlin, Irene Mackie, Don Lamb and Elaine G)
  
• Judging (Wayne King has been doing this and Lorraine Synder and Jodie Thistle have volunteered)
  
• Nominating Committee (This is filled by two Board members and chaired by a member-at-large, currently Liz Wood, Sarah Lundey and Don Lamb)
  
• Newsletter (Denise Baylis and Brook Johnson)
  
• Away Show Chair (Sandy has been doing this but will need help for the coming season, Meg and Denise Baylis have signed up)
  
• Hospitality has been graciously performed by Geri and Dawn.

Formation of Committees for Orchid Quest: The board discussed possible committees that should be formed prior to the next OQ with possible sign-up at the June Picnic. Ideally each committee will have a written list ofresponsibilities with instructions on how to complete them. These committees include in no particular order:

• Show Chairperson – The person who oversees all of the committees and makes sure that "all the pieces" are being taken care; this person also fills in as needed. (Elaine G)
  
• Display - Arrange and organize the plants in the Guild display. (Sue Reed, Sandy Delamater, Amy Ripp)
  
• Guild Table – Organize the table, arrange Guild and plant information, sell plastic pots, etc. (Sandy Delamater, Svetlana Kot, Richard Miller, Dennis Pfarrer, Joan Smalley, Jan)
  
• Vendors – Contact vendors and societies, create/arrange layout for tables and exhibits. (Judy Stevenson, Elaine)
  
• Judging (and registration?) - Contact judges, set up class folders, keep track of which plants win which awards. (Liz Barlow, Jill Hynum, Wayne King, Elaine G.)
  
• Raffle – This includes obtaining prizes, including a major prize, tickets, etc. This committee could also be responsible for obtaining judges' gifts and plant awards. (Sandy Delamater, Don Fago, Liz Barlow)
  The listed members are those who have helped in the past but it is based on memory so please forgive any unintentional omissions. As might be noted, certain people wore many hats and could use assistance. Feel free to suggest further committees for any functions that were overlooked.
  

SURVIVAL OF CAPTIVE ORCHIDS

An Orchid Grower's Experience

Wayne King, one of the founding members of the Guild, and an orchid grower for over 30 years, shared the results of his study on the survival of groups of orchids in his collection over a fifteen year period. He found that the highest survival rate was for plants in the Cypripedium Alliance (ladyslippers) which, as a whole, had a survival rate of 44 percent. However, within that group, the phragmipediums had the best survival rate at over 70 percent. Six of the top ten ranked surviving groups were in the Cattleya Alliance with an overall survival rate of about 33 percent.
Wayne explained that several groups of orchids were "space savers" making it possible for him to find room to grow nearly 2,400 plants during this time period. The Phalaenopsis Alliance had a survival rate of only 14 percent and the "Pansy" orchids had a survival of only 3 percent.

It was pointed out that this kind of information is only rarely available since it isn't useful to commercial growers and few amateur growers either have enough plants or the time or record keeping to make it possible. Wayne grew his plants under a variety of growing conditions (i.e. lights, greenhouse, and windowsills). He shared that plants that came from the Midwest seemed to fare better than those obtained from Florida, California, and other places where growing conditions were substantially different and required the most adjustment on the part of plants to re-establish themselves when brought into the mid-west.

In reflecting on orchid growing as a hobby, he quoted from Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac, "… becoming serious is a grievous fault in hobbyists. It is an axiom that no hobby should either seek or need rational justification. To wish to do so is reason enough." Thus, however interesting survival rates may be, the true hobbyist is not likely to select plants strictly on this basis.

NEWS FROM AOS,

from Jill Hynum 

There's a lot of good information available at the American Orchid Society's website, www.aos.org.  For example, under "General Information", there are tips like these:  

" Yellowing Leaves – this is a normal aging process if only old leaves on backbulbs are involved. If newer leaves yellow and soften, look for too much light, low temperature, lack of nitrogen, or loss of roots."

If you are interested in travel:

The International Orchid Conservation Congress has scheduled a conference for March 19-24, 2007 in San Jose, Costa Rica. The conference is taking place at the hotel Tryp Corobici. It is being sponsored by the Lankester Botanical Gardens and the University of Costa Rica. One of the activities included in the registration fee is a field trip to the Lankester Botanical Gardens. The Gardens has a web site at www.jardinbotanicolankester.org.

The fifth Annual Native Orchid Conference will be in Ashland, Oregon June 8-12, 2006.

Finally, Rosalie Dixler, our AOS liaison, told me that the next AOS Members meeting will be held in Orlando the weekend of April 5 - 9th [that's a long weekend!]. If anyone has any issue to bring up for discussion at the Affiliated Societies Committee meeting, please let me know ASAP.

UP-COMING EVENTS

Russ Mackie will give a brief talk at the April meeting on Photographing Flowers. He will bring both a digital and a 35 mm camera.

Jill Hynum announced that the Madison Herb Society will be hosting Susan Wittig Albert, the author of a book titled "The Magic and Mystery of Herbs". The meeting will be held Thursday, April 13 at the Monona Community Center.

ERRATTA

Corrections to the March Newsletter:

1) The full name of the Wisconsin Orchid Society student judge who received the AOS award is Rebecca Dendakar.
2) There is NO spring show in Chicago for the Illinois Orchid Society this April, 2006. The Gardens is still under renovation and will not be open at that time. We hope to have our Fall show there this year. It's scheduled. There will be a spring show in 2007 in conjunction with MAOC.