SOUTHERN ONTARIO ORCHID SOCIETY NEWS October 2016, Volume 51, Issue 9 Meeting since 1965

Next Meeting Sunday, October 2, Floral Hall of the Toronto Botanical Garden,

12 noon: sales. Cultural snapshots on the stage at 12:15 pm. The topic will be Humidity presented by Alexsi Antanaitis

Speaker Program at 1 pm ; Our speaker is Graham Wood who will be speaking on the Topic: Paphiopedilum Maudiae. Why has it changed so much? Graham is the founding owner, in 1990, of Lehua Orchids located on Hawaii Island, the Big Island. Since 2000 Lehua Orchids has focused on breeding new hybrids, primarily Paphiopedilums, with smaller programs in Lycaste and Angraecoids, and recently has commenced a Phragmipedium program. The Paph program has achieved considerable success and recognition. Amongst active breeders of slipper orchids Lehua Orchids is ranked No. 1 in the US for Hybridizers with Awarded Hybrids and No. 2 in the world. (There are hybridizers with more awarded hybrids but they are now either retired or have sadly passed on). Much of Lehua Orchids success has been achieved working with the single flower, mottled leaf, Maudiae style Paphs. Graham will be talking on the changes that have occurred in the Maudiae style hybrids; how these came about; and some of the objectives Lehua Orchids has for future breeding. He will also discuss Lehua Orchids culture of slipper orchids. Graham is an accredited American Orchid Society judge and Lehua Orchids has received over 160 AOS quality and cultural awards since it began exhibiting in 2003. Member plant table discussion. Bring your flowering orchids.

Raffle.

President’s Remarks Welcome Orchid Our cultural snapshots will continue to take place on the Lovers. Boy has the weather ever changed. It is starting stage at 12:15 pm. October's session will be on to become very cold at night and many of your babies humidity. Alexsi Antanaitis will be running these. All need to be warm. Like most of us, you are beginning to are welcome to participate in the sessions. Remember, bring in your little ones with all the outdoor pests that if there is a topic you would like us to cover, please let have invaded. It is now time to start thinking about me know. getting rid of these unwanted guests so they do not invade your growing areas and create havoc. Our fall shows are coming up quickly. By the time you receive this newsletter, Don will already be collecting A big thank you Jocelyn Webber, Eric and Ellen Lee, flowers for the COOS show. Both Don Wyatt and I will be asking for your for the SOOS displays. Synea Tan, Terry Kowalczuk and Joe O'Regan for th th offering their Saturday and Sunday for our growing tours. September 26 – 27 is the COOS show in Cambridge. Don Wyatt will be crafting our display. Thanks Don. After touring the growing areas did I ever come back th th with some new and great ideas to try. Thanks ever so October 15 – 16 is the ECOS show in Montreal. I will be designing the display. much. nd rd th October 22 – 23 is Windsor's 4 annual show. Thank you members whose names begin with the letter Check their website for discount coupons. I will be doing this one as well. N through R for supplying the treats for the September th th meeting. The members whose names start with the November 12 – 13 Essex County Orchid Society's letters S through Ta are on board for October's treats. show. Once again, Don will be designing the display. Thank you in advance, members who generously loan Our future speakers are as follows: us your precious babies. October 2nd Graham Wood, Topic: Maudiae. Why has it changed so much? A reminder to all: when you pick up plants that are for There will be some plants for you to purchase. sale, please either pay for them immediately or put them November 6th Jean Ikeson, Topic: Dendrobiums back where they were before moving on to the next December 4th Party time and auction sales area. If you are not sure if you want them and would like to have the vendor hold the plant, please ask 1 the person to do so. Unfortunately, plants have been October moved and set down elsewhere and the seller is unable 1, TJC Monthly AOS Judging at TBG to find these plants. It is only fair to consider all the 1-2, Central NY Show, Syracuse. vendors in this matter as a new cross went missing at 2, SOOS meeting, Toronto Botanical Garden, our last meeting. Thank you for being understanding in sales 12 noon, program 1 pm this matter. 15-16, Eastern Canada Orchid Society Show and Montreal judging. Now is the time for our 2017 memberships. Once again 22-23, Windsor Orchid Society Show. we will be having a drawing for an orchid at each meeting. If you have renewed your new membership for 19-23, AOS Members Meeting, Huntington 2017 or have become a new member, your name is Library, San Marino, California. eligible for this draw. You must be in attendance to November receive the orchid. If you are not in attendance, we will 5, , TJC Monthly AOS Judging at TBG draw again and your name will be placed into the draw 6, SOOS meeting, Toronto Botanical Garden, sales for the following month. The first draw will be in 12 noon, program 1 pm November and last draw will take place in January so 12-13, Essex County Orchid Society's show. you need to renew before that period. 12-13, Niagara Frontier Orchid Society Show and Mid America Orchid Congress, Buffalo Botanic Gardens. Hope you are enjoying the cooler weather. 19, TJC business meeting and Montreal judging, Jardin Happy Orchiding, Laura Liebgott botanique de Montreal. Questions or comments: Please contact me at: December [email protected] or 905 883 5290 3, , TJC Monthly AOS Judging at TBG. 4, SOOS meeting, Toronto Botanical Garden, sales Plant of the 12 noon, program 1 pm 10, Montreal judging, Jardin botanique de Montreal. Month. This honour went to Sherry Decyk’s AOS Judging Results little beauty, Please note, all of these awards are provisional until Dendrobium published by the American Orchid Society. . Hibiki ‘Pauwela’ Toronto Judging Centre, September 3, 2016: Our guest Paphinia benzengii CBR-AOS, Doris Jensen. speaker Alan Note! The next judging will be held at the Toronto Koch informed Botanical Gardens, Saturday October 1, 2016; judging us that this plant education at 10 am; judging at 1 pm. AOS Judging is a has flowers that service of the American Orchid Society and is open to are lighter than all! Bring us your flowering orchids, the FCC clone of this cross, called ‘Tiny Bubbles’, but are 25% larger than it instead! The leafless last Native Orchid Rescue Offer by the year’s pseudo-bulbs were just covered with the SOOS Conservation Committee slightly cupped light magenta flowers with a darker Do you know places where native orchids grow that may magenta and yellow lip. It is a cross of Dend. be threatened by upcoming road or building construction bracteosum and laevifolium. Sherry and Peter or other developments? If so, SOOS's Conservation bought two plants of the cross from H&R two years Committee would like to know where and whom to ago. The other one is a poorer grower. This is the contact in the hopes of mounting a rescue operation. first time this plant bloomed - as a result of Sherry Our goal will be to carefully remove and transplant those giving it more light. She grows it warm, with 62F orchids to suitable new locations where they will again have the opportunity to thrive. If you can help, contact nights in the winter. It is potted in a seedling bark any member of the Conservation Committee directly or mix. It gets watered once a week and fertilized Tom Shields, the chair, at [email protected]. every two weeks. Too bad Sherry and Peter did not bring it to the judging the day before..... Congratulations anyway! Holger Perner in China transcribed by Inge Poot. 2016 All illustrations courtesy Holger Perner, PhD Coming Events Our August 2016 Orchid Fest featured Holger Perner as September our speaker and supplier of some of the orchids his 24,25, Central Ontario Orchid Society Show, company grows in China. This is the conclusion to the Hespeler Arena, Cambridge, Ontario. transcript published in the last newsletter. 2

Paphiopedilum in China: Paphiopedilum macranthum is in the same subgenus. It comes from SE Yunnan an area that is much more humid and warmer. The plants grow on limestone cliffs and also on the bottom of them in rotten leaves and forest duff. The winters are much cooler than the summers and this must be copied in cultivation. The large flowers have a huge white lip with heavy pink flushing around the opening to the pouch. The sepals and petals are rounded, much smaller than the pouch, beige to chartreuse with red-brown reticulation, heavier on the petals. The staminode is flushed with deep yellow. Paphiopedilum emmersonii is distinctive for its large, creamy, oval petals and the relatively small yellow lip. The cream sepals visually balance the petals quite well. It is an impressive flower! All Chinese Paphiopedlum species grow in areas with Paphiopedlum hangianum is the largest Paph in this high humidity. subgenus. It has cream flowers with maroon “eyes” at the base of the petals. All the segments are full and Paphiopedilum armeniacum is in the subgenus rounded resulting in a lovely flower in the best clones. Parvisepalum (which refers to the relatively small The fly in the ointment is that it takes two years for a dorsals and ventrals in this group. All species in this shoot to mature and it is hard to get the fertilizer just subgenus have mottled leaves.) It is the yellow Paph right, so as to speed it along, but not kill it. that created such a sensation when it was first brought into cultivation in 1982 and given an FCC right off the Paphiopedilum barbigerum is in the subgenus bat!!!!(Cringe, Cringe!) The flowers have quite wide and Paphiopedilum(some species in this subgenus have flat yellow segments with a huge yellow pouch. Superior mottled leaves and are referred to as the warm growing clones also have red markings on the staminode, paphiopedilums. The ones with plain leaves are cooler contrasting well with the rest of the yellow flower. growing). This species has mottled leaves. It grows on This species comes from elevations of 2000m in the NW limestone cliffs. It has single flowers held well on a part of Yunnan and is the most cold tolerant of the strong stem that is just right in length. The flowers have Chinese Paphs. Its preferred habitat is on the edge of large white dorsals, overlaid beige or red-brown limestone cliffs with some bushes above it to shield it proximally and whose side edges curl up. The petals are from the hottest sun. Since the cliffs are quite crumbly, beige, narrow with crimped edges and are held more or anyone collecting it or coming close to photograph it in less horizontally. The lip is brown or orange brown the wild is referred to as an “Orchidiot” by Dr Perner! It extended into long ears at the top sides and narrowing needs a pH of 6.5 to 7. It makes lots of runners when towards the tip of the pouch. happy and should be grown in a pan.(See habitat shot Paphiopedilum dianthum also grows on limestone below) cliffs. The seeds germinate on bits of moss on the cliffs and as the seedling grows it collects duff around its base and so creates its own growing medium. The pairs of flowers are held on tall stems. Their leaves are plain. Everything about the flowers is slender. The dorsal is long, white with some green veining proximally, the petals are chartreuse marked along the edges with brown, long and twisted. The pouch is triangular and a pale brown.(See photo below)

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Species Culture and Hybrid Culture, by Alan Koch, transcribed by Inge Poot Alan has been growing orchids since 1969 and has owned his orchid business Gold Country Orchids (www.goldcountryorchids.com) since 1986. This means he has been growing orchids for 47 years and since he has a near photographic memory his observations are so numerous that they are a gold mine we were lucky to mine! Alan got the idea for an orchid business when he had a job in Belize removing “parasites” from coffee trees and made more money selling the “parasites” than he got for the job of removing them! A job like that and many subsequent trips to orchid habitats led to the sort of observations he shared with us in his lecture. By observing the habitat one learns what one has to Paphiopedilum hirsutissimum also germinates on moss copy to grow the species well. and collects crumbly clay particles as part of its growing Epidendrum polybulbon (it had more name changes than you can shake a stick at) is a cute little miniature medium. In cultivation you can copy the texture by with tiny creeping bearing very small two- using 2 parts seedling bark, 1 part charcoal, 1 part leaved pseudobulbs and relatively large purple-brown Perlite and 1 part spongerock. Use a coarser mix for flowers. It seems to grow on horizontal limbs only and Paph. dianthum. Spongerock is especially liked by Paph have hanging, up to 10-cm long, white exposed roots. dianthum. So do not grow it stuffed into a pot or on an upright raft! The plants have fairly narrow plain green leaves. The It will mope! single flowers tend to emerge horizontally on strong Rupicolous (formerly laelias + a number of stems. The flowers are chartreuse, on the dorsal there is other genera...) do not really grow on rocks, but in the a light to heavy overlay of brown leaving only a picotee cracks in the rocks. The rocks supply calcium and about of chartreuse. The petals are quite wide, have half of the species also have iron in the rocks they grow undulating edges and may curl from the middle to the on. So supply both calcium and iron (as iron sulphate) apex. The proximal third has brown spotting while the since if the iron is not rest has a magenta overlay. The pouch is a shiny light needed by the brown, darker in some clones. particular Paphiopedilum helenae grows in a very humid species, it environment (that explains why your transcriber’s plant does no harm died...) It is a cute little miniature with tiny plain green either. leaves and a dainty flower that opens greenish and ages briegeri, a to deep yellow. beautiful Our speaker closed the programme with three superior yellow varieties of species in this subgenus: flowered Paphiopedilum barbigerum variety coccineum is a miniature is form with a solid brown overlay leaving a wide white an example and it needs good light, good drainage and edge on the dorsal. The petals also have this brown quick drying after watering. Extra calcium and extra iron is required. Putting plants out of doors in the summer overlay , butleave a narrow picotee. The pouch is a helps with the high light requirement. copper colour and the whole flower is glossy.(see Cattleya crispata (which used to be called Laelia flava) Orchid Wiz for pictures) is a better choice for windowsill growers who want a Paphiopedilum villosum variety boxalii is a species with yellow miniature than Cattleya briegeri, because it descending spoon-shaped petals. In this variety the naturally grows among grass and therefore needs less petals and pouch are light copper coloured and the light. Dendrophylax funalis has no leaves and just forms a dorsal and petal bases have heavy black spotting. ball of roots. The plant at Gold Country was not adding Paphiopedilum villosum variety attratum has very dark any bulk until it got extra calcium. They now have a three sepals and petals with the dorsal sporting a white edge. foot root ball and just take off pieces to make salable divisions! Flowers are produced singly and have chartreuse to green seals and petals and a white lip. 4

Plants grow faster when they are oriented on the Sarchochilus substrate the same way they grow in their natural australis was habitat. For instance grows on shown flowering horizontal limbs not on the upright main trunks. When under a heavy grown on a vertically hung plaque they will sulk. Move tree canopy with the plaque so it lots of Granny sits on the Smith apple bench or place green to olive the plant into a flowers with basket and it white lips spirally will take off. arranged on Also consider long pendent that plants inflorescences. It turned out they loved the low light of growing on 400 to 800 fc! Phalaenopsis do best with about 1000fc horizontal limbs so this species needs much less light. So get it for your grow into the windowsill! sunnier part of Brassavola nodosa grows on the outermost tips of tree the tree and branches and does not really flower well at our latitudes. need more light Of course using lots of artificial light CAN overcome its than a plant reluctance to bloom well. But why not grow the closely that grows on a related species Brassavola grandiflora? It has fairly trunk. Cattleya nobilior forma amaliae is 4n (it has flattened leaves rather than the very terete ones of twice as many chromosomes as a normal form.) It has nodosa. The flowers of B. grandiflora are so similar to rounder fuller flowers that last longer and best of all it is nodosa that many “lumper” taxonomists consider it a easier to flower, because it does not need as big a day forest adapted form of nodosa. It will bloom profusely in and night temperature differential as the typical form of much lower light. the species. Many species orchids photosynthesize with their roots. A hybrid our speaker used as an Another horizontal branch epiphyte is Dendrobium example was grown in a clear pot because it inherited wassellii. It grows twice as fast on the bench as it does the green photosynthesizing roots from its walkeriana on a vertical mount. When grown properly, it is covered parent. If you have an orchid whose roots turn green with upward curving, dense inflorescences of white when you water it, that tells you that the roots flowers. photosynthesize and need to be exposed to light for the Cattleya luteola is the plant to grow optimally. least light requiring Another thing you have to look for in the habitat and cattleya species. It has observe closely is the amount of rainfall that is occurring. star-shaped chartreuse It can say it all. flowers with a tubular gold Cattleya (Sophronitis) coccinea grows on small trees lip. If you grow it in and shrubs on mountainsides with upwelling air masses ordinary cattleya light it will that cool as they rise and bathe everything in a mist from produce two flowers on an 4 pm on. In the rainy season rain is added to the inflorescence once a year. equation. As a result everything is covered in moss and Grow it at phalaenopsis never dries out. This means salts cannot accumulate as light (1000fc) and the same plant will flower three times they get constantly washed out. To make the plants per year with up to four flowers per inflorescence! If you survive fertilizing, flush them with de-ionized water 20-25 grow a phalaenopsis in cattleya light it too will produce minutes after applying the fertilizer. They will thrive as fewer flowers, because part of its energy is sapped long as they get a big drop in night temperature. Gold repairing sun damage. Country Orchids has line-bred and selected coccineas Macroclinium is a mosquito pollinated genus. that do not need a big night time drop in temperature, Macrocinium lexarzanum was grown by Gold Country but the salt intolerance is still there. on the West wall of their greenhouse and remained a Dendrobium cuthbertsonii never dries out in its wet soso plant. When Alan realized it was mosquito native habitat. It is therefore not surprising that it is very pollinated, he figured that mosquitoes like it dark and salt sensitive. Again fertilize and 20 minutes later flush damp, so the plant must have a similar habitat. with deionised or rain water and it will do just fine. There Therefore he moved it to the East wall and lo and behold is a pink form of the species that may be confused with it thrived! They got a CCE on the plant when it was a the pink Dendrobium laevifolium, but you can tell them semi-globe covered with 616 flowers! The number apart by the warts on the cuthbertsonii leaves. doubled on a subsequent flowering when the plant was two feet across! The dainty cream flowers have purple

5 spotted petals and lip and are produced as an umbel at therefore called the the end of a stem. Parvisepalums, where “parvi” means The frost hardiest “small”. Their cattleya species our pouches make up speaker is aware of for it in size though! is Cattleya And then there is intermedia. It has a Pleurothallis big temperature leptifolium. You tolerance as it grows would guess that it in sand at sea level likes it cool and quite and up to just below shaded like any the snow line up in other self-respecting Pleurothallis. But it will get big but the mountains. At refuse to flower! Put it in the burn zone (gradually!) of sea level it makes your greenhouse and watch it flower its head off! Gold very small struggling Country’s plant rewarded them with 3200 flowers when it plants that manage got the sun it needed, just as in its native habitat! one to at most two By contrast, Leptotes bicolor only needs low light and flowers per inflorescence, but at the upper limit of their thus makes a good windowsill plant. range they get much taller and flower with up to five Paphiopedilum hirsutissimum variety esquirolei has flowers per inflorescence. At sea level the flowers are as its native habitat a sinkhole. When one examines this one to two inches across, but up in the mountains they sinkhole one finds that the temperature is 10F degrees are up to five inches in natural spread. At 1200m cooler than the adjacent forest and more humid. So, one elevation the plants do get a bit of frost, but survive it successful grower of this species put it onto a milk crate quite well, because the eternal fog helps to mitigate the placed under the bench. The flowering improved effect of the cold. substantially! If you move the struggling plant from sea level to the Multifloral paphiopedilums on the other hand, like to mountain habitat it all of a sudden grows well and is dry between waterings; they like it brighter than other soon indistinguishable from the plants growing naturally paphs and they are heavy feeders. there! A local collector was not aware of this and was Microterangis hariotiana has been changed back into most grateful to Alan for the information. It made him a an Aerangis, but unlike most Aerangis it does not have lot of money! white flowers but pendant sprays of gold to orange Cattleya intermedia alba plants are usually loddigesii blooms. The waxy flowers are perfectly arranged all hybrids with intermedia around the fairly long stem and look like miniature Cattleya loddigesii is the next hardiest cattleya species. cattleyas with a little spur. When the temperature in a greenhouse dropped to 22F Unfortunately the plants are very salt sensitive and need because of a faulty propane heater this species was a good drainage and high humidity. To meet all of those survivor. conditions, mount the plant on some sort of plaque and Oeceoclades is a genus that grows in leaf mould and put the plaque into a clear pot. That way it can leach has to contend with all sorts of critters that want to eat it easily and the clear pot encloses it a bit and thus – especially the new succulent growth. So the plants provides higher humidity. Again do the fertilizing and 20 grow with their rhizomes buried in the substrate and the minutes later leaching with de-ionized water trick. No new growth buries itself in it too and when ready sends brown leaf tips for you then! up a shoot in very little time – to flower before it gets eaten. If you grow it with the on the surface it Aerangis luteo-alba variety rhodosticta has many will sulk! Oeceoclades maculata is the best known votes as the cutest species of all orchids! (your species of that genus. It has light brown flowers with a transcriber among them!) It looks like a tiny white cream lip that sports two large, raised, purple spots. flowered Several flowers are presented on an upright stem. phalaenopsis with Modest but charming! a red to orange Brachypetalum paphiopedilums need calcium in their nose! But most medium since they grow in limestone areas. Good people lose it after sources of calcium are dried and crumbled egg-shells, 2-3 years and that oyster-shell (available as chicken grit in farm co-op accounts for the stores) and Dolomitic lime. erroneous “wisdom” that it is The same is true of Chinese paphiopedilums such as a short-lived the huge, bright yellow Paph. armeniacum. This group species. It is if you has relatively small dorsasl and syn-sepals and they are grow it with the usually 6 recommended culture of mist daily and water every Cattleya aclandiae is a bifoliate cattleya and almost all second day. Instead grow it like a phalaenopsis. In its bifoliates do about 25% of their total photosynthesizing native habitat it grows under the tree canopy with the from their roots. So make sure the roots are exposed. If roots exposed and in the light. To get light to the roots you use pots use clear pots only. Some growers repot mount it or grow it in a clear pot. Warm and humid too, of bifoliate cattleyas with the new growth right at the edge course. of the pot, then put the pot into a larger clear pot and let A truly short-lived species is Psychmorchis pusilla. It the growths hang free in the outer pot for two years lives at most 6 years, but someone managed to keep it when the process is repeated with re-potting. alive for 22 years by keeping it on an agar slant in a Cattleya harrisoniana does much better with the double bottle. They re-plated it when the medium got pot, growth over edge of pot method described with C. exhausted. Talk about a labour of love! aclandiae. The miniature Cattleya (Sophronitis) cernua with Cattleya dowiana is a large flowered yellow species clusters of orange one-centimeter flowers goes very dry with a dark purple lip. In its native habitat it gets a few between rainfalls in its native habitat. It only rains every clear days from January to March and lots of rain from 4-6 weeks, but the humidity is a good 40-50%. There May to November and clouds the rest of the time. The may be morning dew to help hydrate the plants. temperatures are even, with 75-80F days and 58-72F Cattleya (Sophronitis) brevipedunculata is very nights, going gradually from the lower limits of the range similar to Cattleya (Sophronitis) coccinea in in winter to the higher limits in the summer. It should be appearance but it is less salt sensitive. Cattleya a good windowsill plant, but it is not small! coccinea should be watered every second day. Rhyncholaelia digbyana that cattleya-like species with Cattleya walkeriana photosynthesizes from the roots. It big green flowers that sport a spectacular fringed lip is also wants to dry out not easy to bloom. In its native habitat in Belize it grows quickly after on deciduous trees and gets full sun at that point and in watering. So use response the leaves turn bright red and it will bloom clear pots and an readily. In summer it experiences torrential rains and that open mix such as you have to mimic as well. One grower in Florida who wine corks. This got a high CCM (but not a CCE, because the leaves species has to dry were red.....someone knew less than they thought they out well to flower. did) puts it on a garbage can in the fall, out in the full sun When happy this to mimic the leaf drop. When last seen it was a huge species can flower plant and it had 36 flowers!!! from both the top of a pseudobulb as well Cattleya as a leafless schilleriana is flowering shoot! the only cattleya Hybrids of this species have often been awarded as the species with species. About half of the AOS awards have this stomata (holes for problem! To check for authenticity look at the lip. The gas exchange) on mid-lobe should be an inverted triangle. Many C. the roots! 20% of walkeriana albas are actually C Angelwalker (Little the guard cells Angel X walkeriana). have stomata on Straight Cattleya walkeriana takes 5-7 years to get to them. Do not put flowering size but its hybrids mature much quicker. it into a pot as Cattleya Sierra Doll (walkeriana X Pink Doll) is 50% this will make it walkeriana and thus needs to dry out. Put it into a clay go downhill! pot with an open mix. It has dark pink flowers with a Mount it and put darker edge to the lip. The lip throat is usually yellow. the mount into a clear plastic pot to increase local What can I cross C. Sierra Doll with to get a hybrid humidity. Use 5cm wide strips of tights/pantyhose (Alan suitable for lower light growers? thought calling pantyhose “tights” sounded more Cross it with Cattleya alaorii to get Cattleya Petite Doll. manly....) to tie the plant to the mount as it is easier on Sierra Doll blooms for 7 months of the year while Petite the plant and easy to remove once the plant is well Doll only blooms for 3 months, but it is better than no attached to the mount. blooms in low light! The clone shown had light lavender Cattleya araguaiensis has single flowers with very quite full flowers and a darker pink throat. narrow brown mottled sepals and petals and a long, Cattleya Love Knot is a cross of C. sincorana X C. tubular white lip whose mid-lobe has a light purple walkeriana and it can take low to intermediate light. The overlay and a yellow picotee. They are Brazilian warm clone shown had somewhat star-shaped flowers with growing plants that grow low on trees and therefore white flowers and a purple mid-lobe to the lip. need low light. Cattleya Tahoe Rose is a cross of C. purpurata and C. walkeriana. It it easy to grow, flowers 2-3 times per year 7 and is not troubled by scale or mealy bug!(Sounds Water all cattleyas (unless otherwise instructed for almost too good to be true!) The clone shown had special species) once a week. Every 5 days may be purpurata shape and an oval purple lip with a white too much. patch under the white column. Pre-water 20-25 minutes (can be up to 1-4 hours Cattleya Fuchsia Doll (2003) (Cattleya sincorana x though) before you do the thorough watering. Cattleya Sierra Doll) is a darker pink. The clone shown When fertilizing it is best to have two buckets with had a lovely lip, white with a dark wine edge and a hozons, one for the CaNO3 solution and the other for yellow patch near the column that darkened to orange the MgSO4 solution. Combine them with a Y-shaped under the column. hose piece just before the water it is to be added to. There is a problem with the name because The Santa E.g. of special needs: Cattleya nobilior needs five Barbara Orchid Estate used the same name to register months with no water to get it to flower. an entirely different, large growing cross in 2008, So be Bare-root imports should be soaked in tepid water for sure to buy it from Gold Country if you want a plant an hour before potting them up. Don’t bother with sugar, suitable for the windowsill. but do add a bit of trace element fertilizer to the water. Cattleya Quinquecolor (Cattleya aclandiae x Cattleya Use the fertilizer at 1/10 th the strength recommended forbesii) is a pretty cross with olive sepals and petals for growing orchids. It WILL do something for transplant spotted burgundy and a rose pink lip and column. The shock, but vitamin B1 usually recommended for that centre of the flower was lit up by a yellow patch under seems to be useless. A flush of 3% hydrogen peroxide column and radiating orange veins on the side-lobes. helps best for transplant shock, because it sterilizes and The clone shown had four flowers on one inflorescence. on decomposing adds oxygen to the root zone. It also Grow it in a clear pot and enjoy the fragrance! causes bifurcation of roots and elongation of root tips – Micro-minis: all good things. But since this was not rigorously tested, C. cernua X C. Orpeti results in a little gem Cattleya manufacturers cannot claim it as an effect. Sato. The clone shown on Orchid Wiz was a star- To pot up a cattleya in sphagnum moss, put a bit of shaped flower in deep magenta with a red-toned lip. moss under the rhizome, then wind strands of moss Alan showed a light orange clone with yellow in the around the top inch of the root ball and then friction fit it throat of the lip. into the top of the pot. The roots will soon push some of C. longipes X C. harrisoniana is an unregistered cross. the moss further into the pot. A clear pot is best for most The clone shown had three star-shaped, rose-pink plants, because it lets in light for use of root photo- flowers with a yellow lip marked with yellow and dark synthesizers and the grower can check root health. Root purple. health is the number one aim and concern.

Cattlianthe Orchidglade (Cattleya walkeriana x Cattleya Guarianthe sincorana is salt aurantiaca) sensitive and produces 3 inch needs to be re- white, beige or potted every orange long-lasting year. flowers. The clone Cattleya shown had a just purpurata does gorgeous head of not get a rest light orange flowers period in its with yellow lips and natural habitat, a deep red spot just a reduction in under the white rain from April to columns. How would you grow it with this parentage? August. It usually gets five inches per month and it Paphiopedilum Norito Hasegawa (armeniacum X reduces to about 3 inches in the drier months. The malipoense) has green to yellow to even peach flowers. number of sunny days varies from a low of three per They all have the raspberry blotch on the staminode month to a high of eleven per month. They can tolerate from the malipoense parent. With this parentage you bright light if strong air movement is available. They do should be able to guess that it needs extra calcium. not make good specimen plants, since they do not tend Paphiopedilum Fumi’s Delight (armeniacum X to produce more than one growth per lead. (Baker & micranthum) has beautifully balanced yellow flowers with Baker) a brown reticulation on the petals. It needs extra {Brassocattleya Hippodamia (B. nodosa x C. Calcium. aclandiae) X aclandiae} is a nice miniature Cattleya Sierra Perfection (Cattleya Sierra Doll x Cattleya Carol Lynn) is a cute little white flowered cross A few cautions about adding Calcium: that would not clone. Gold Country then selfed it and is The pH needs to be 6 to make calcium available to the selling the seedlings. Hopefully most will be cute! plants.

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Luckily there is no toxic concentration of this mineral. The plant just takes what it needs and lets the rest go. Always add two parts calcium and one part magnesium, otherwise other nutrients will precipitate out (this means they will turn into an insoluble compound and not be available to the plants.) At Gold Country Orchids they have two Hozons connected to a “y”. One Hozon goes into a Calcium nitrate solution and the other into a bucket of Magnesium sulphate (at half the concentration of the Calcium nitrate). They get combined just before being mixed with water and being sprayed onto the plants. It is actually easier to supply both minerals by using either baked and “Cuisinarted” eggshells or Dolomitic lime as an additive to the potting mix. Virus: Tobacco Mosaic Virus is not very mobile and it leaves you some time to remove a contaminated plant part before the virus spreads throughout the plant. The related Cymbidium Ringspot virus on the other hand has spread to the entire plant from an infected nick in merely ONE SECOND! Do not allow roots of plants to invade each other’s pots. This spreads virus quickly. So wear rubber gloves when handling plants and dip the gloved hands into Clorox/Javex between handling different plants. Use one-sided razor blades to cut tissue and discard each blade after each plant. (Some growers bake the used blades at 400F for one hour and that seems to work too. But the blades get dull very quickly and have to be discarded at that point. Your choice: energy cost or blade cost) Work on sheets of newspaper and discard the newspaper after each plant. If you must keep a virused plant keep it in a different growing area from the clean plants. Always look after the clean plants first and then the virused ones. Western flower thrips spread virus incredibly quickly, so be sure to kill them!! Dry seed will not pass on virus in most genera. However, chaff and ovary tissue will. For this reason Stewart Orchids used only dry seed sowing (no green pod) because so many of their stud plants were virused.

Resources: AOS: Orchids magazine, Orchids Plus, webinars, their web-page Your computer and search programmes such as Google (Transcriber’s additions): Orchid Wiz E-mail the seller of your plants with your cultural questions. COC web-page TBG library- SOOS orchid section

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.Crystal Star Orchids

broker service with over 15 top orchid nurseries Summer Open House From June to August weekends only From 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. By appointment only Tel: 905-478-8398 or email : [email protected] 20815 2nd Concession Road East Gwillimbury Ontario L9N 0G9

Ching Hua Orchids, In Charm, Krull Smith, and Sunset Valley.

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Sept 4, 2016 Show Table Ribbons

Class First Second Third Class 3 Phal.(Dtps) Arakaki Spring Phal bellina David Bryan Phal Ken Auant Phalaenopis and Fairy, David Bryan ‘Krull Smith’ Vanda Alliance Aeranthes ramosa David Bryan Saleem Baksh Phal.(Dtps) Taida Pearl ‘Taida Pink Lady’ David Bryan Class 6 Den Hibiki ‘Pauwela’ Den phalaenopsis Dendrobium Peter & SherryDecyk Michael Leung

Class 7 Brasiliorchis schunkeana Lepanthes deleastes All Others Peter & SherryDecyk Saleem Baksh

Class 9 Mixed Orchid Basket Baskets and Henry Glowka Displays

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About SOOS: Web site: www.soos.ca ; Member of the Canadian Orchid Congress; Affiliated with the American Orchid Society, the Orchid Digest and the International Phalaenopsis Alliance.

Membership: Annual Dues $30 per calendar year (January 1 to December 31 ). Surcharge $15 for newsletter by postal service.

Membership secretary: Liz Mc Alpine, 189 Soudan Avenue, Toronto, ON M4S 1V5, phone 416-487- 7832, renew or join on line at soos.ca/members

Executive: President, Laura Liebgott, 905-883-5290; Vice-President and Treasurer, John Vermeer, 905-823-2516, ; Secretary, Sue Loftus 905-839-8281; Other Positions of Responsibility: Program, vacant; Plant Doctor, Doug Kennedy; Meeting Set up, Yvonne Schreiber; Vendor and Sales table coordinator, Diane Ryley; Library Liz Fodi; Web Master, Max Wilson; Newsletter, Peter and Inge Poot; Annual Show, Peter Poot; Refreshments, Joe O’Regan. Conservation Committee, Tom Shields; Show table, Synea Tan, Cultural snapshots, Alexi Antanaitis, Directors at large Marion Curry, Lynda Satchwell and Kevin Hushagen . Honorary Life Members: Terry Kennedy, Doug Kennedy, Inge Poot, Peter Poot, Joe O’Regan, Diane Ryley, Wayne Hingston.

Annual Show: February 11-12, 2017. The Annual show is our major fund raiser. It allows us to keep our membership fees modest and provide you with quality speakers throughout the year. The show committee meets once a month at the end of most regular monthly meetings from September to March to coordinate the planning and development of the show. If you feel passionate about us having our annual show and have time to contribute, please join us.