Eyes on Orchids Newsletter of the Baton Rouge Orchid Society

P.O. Box 66242—Baton Rouge, LA 70896-6242 February, 2014 - Volume 56 - Issue 2

www.batonrougeorchidsociety.com - 225.308.1404 –info@batonrougeorchidsociety.org

February Meeting - Wednesday, February 19, 2014 - 7 p.m.

Baton Rouge Garden Center - 7950 Independence Blvd.

Program:

President’s Message

February Program Our program this month will be a teleconference with Dr. C. Sathish Kumar direct from India! He will discuss “Orchids of

Western Ghats". Ghats is an area of southern India.

See Dr. Kumar’s complete biography on page 4. We are privileged to have him for our program. He is a personal friend of Lata’s.

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Orchids are universally accepted as some of the most beautiful flowers. Many of them also have a glorious odor although a few are real stinkers. However one loves them just the same. So while I was sitting here composing my thoughts as to what I am going to write about for this month’s newsletter, it occurred to me that some of you suffered the same tragedy as I have. The more I thought about it, the more depressed I became and so I composed a song of woe. Here I ponder, alone and downhearted, for many of my orchids have departed. They have gone to flower in paradise because of winter’s snow and ice. Should I rant and rave or sit and cry? No, now the greenhouse is half empty I can go out and buy, buy, buy !!! Seriously folks, my advice is not to do anything right now. Wait until June before you decide to throw any thing away. If you see no activ-ity (new roots, rhizomes, or leaves) by then you may commit them to the compost pile. And remember, that’s three months from now - so save your nickels and

dimes and keep the faith !

BROS Officers, 2014

President John Huner 225.275.7419 jbhuner@yahoo.com

Vice-President Beth Blackstock 225.284.4999 bethbb@cox.net

Secretary Valerie Creehan 225.756.8363 vcreehan@bellsouth.net Treasurer John Nelson 206.817.5400 john@laorchid.com

Show Chairman, 2014 Lata Johnson 225.933.0801 ljohnson@sulc.edu Newsletter Editor Danna Spayde 225.317.0933 orchidnut_2000@yahoo.com

Board Members Blair Many, thru 2014 John Graham, thru 2015 Jim Gershey, thru 2016

SWROGA Representative: James Jeansonne AOS and Orchid Digest Representative: John Huner

Chairs of Standing Committees: Program Co-Chairs ♦ Lata John-son ♦ Tin-Wein Yu Membership ♦ Beth Blackstock Finance ♦ John Nelson Librarian ♦ Bob Danka Refreshments ♦ Vacant

Minutes of January Meeting The plant clinic began at 6:40 PM by Tin-Wein Yu providing helpful information in regard to the mounting of orchids. President John Huner called the meeting to order at 7:09 PM. He recognized two visitors and explained the drawing of our raffle tickets and door prize to the guests. He an-nounced that Lata Johnson offered to be the show chairman and reminded members to pay dues if anyone had neglected to do so. Due to the recent cold weather, John reviewed the effects of some plants that had suffered damage. The Gulf Coast Society Orchid Show in Gautier, Mississippi will be held on February 14, 15, and 16. The location has changed to the Convention Center located on 2012 Library Lane. James Jeansonne and John Huner will assemble our exhibit. Valerie Creehan and Lata Johnson offered to take down the display The program for the meeting was a continuation of mount-ing of orchids. Several members led this “hands on” pro-gram. Patti Granier began by questioning members in regard to bringing a mounted plant from last February. Jim Gershey presented his mount from the previous year. Beth Blackstock brought a Whole Foods phalaenopsis that she had mounted with the sphagnum moss on a piece of cedar board last Sep-tember. The orchid looked healthy. She stated that she pre-fers to dip mounted orchids in a container of rainwater. Beth also said that the foster Whole Foods orchids improve and thrive much more when the moss is removed and the orchid is repotted immediately. She brought numerous phals provided by Whole Foods for members to mount and repot. She gave a demonstration on removing the orchid from the soft sleeve, along with advising not to get too much water on the leaves. Small seedlings of dendrobium aggregatum x aggregatum v. majus were furnished by Roy Tokunaga. Two sizes of cedar boards and a number of cypress knees were provided to members for mounting. The members participat-ed and enjoyed a practical class of mounting. Frank Zachariah presented several interesting mounted or-chids. One tolumnia was mounted on the rough side of a floor tile, while a second orchid was mounted on a larger rock. A third orchid, which was a cross of James’, was mounted on a slab of wood. All plants were healthy. Members took a short break while refreshments were pro-vided in the kitchen. Blair Many awarded the raffle plants. The meeting adjourned at 8:35 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Valerie Creehan Secretary

Happy February Birthday to the following:

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Jeana Cefalu 2/25 Zach Goodnow 2/3 Myra Seab 2/13 Danna Spayde 2/28

Green Growers Schedule Because of the terrible weather-Green Growers did not meet in

January Meetings resume on February 12, 2014

March 12 April 9 May 14 June 11

July - No meeting because of our Annual Show

Meetings at 7 p.m. at the home of Gene & Thelma Berg, 425

Nelson Dr. Come for good fellowship and

learning.

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Besides being an entertaining speaker and gracious guest, Roy was a fount of knowledge. He shared some thoughts with me. 1. What are 5 things the best growers have in common? 1. Media pH 5-7. 2. Media low in dissolved salts. 3. Pest and disease absent.

4. Avoid extremes of temperature and moisture. 5. Nutrition in balance with light, tem- perature, and plant type. 2.There is lots of confusion over ferti- lizer. Can you give us some recom- mendations? Good water is defined as having alkalini-ty between 50-200 ppm calcium car-bonate and total salts below 300 ppm. [Note: This is not us!] Michigan State Fertilizer (13-3-15 with 8% Calcium and 2% Magnesium). This is recommended for RO (reverse osmosis) or rainwater. Calcium is very important, and it cannot be stored. It must be available when the plant is putting out new growth. If or-chids are outside (60 inches rainfall) use Dolomite AG once/year at ½ tsp per 4 inch pot. If you need supplemental Calci-um, use calcium nitrate at 1 tsp/gallon. You can use fertilizer with the Nitrogen source of urea or ammonia, but it is rap-idly absorbed and will favor vegetative growth over flowers and roots. Phosphorus (the middle number) is mis-understood and overused. It is never nec-essary to supply more than 3% (as in the Michigan State Fertilizer of 13-3-15). 3. Can you recommend some outside reading for those who would like to learn more? Orchid Pests and Diseases. AOS Guide Book, 2008. Physiological Disorders of Orchids by Thomas Sheehan.

Let’s Talk About Orchids

by Frank Zachariah and Roy Tokunaga

Secrets of Our Success. by Robert Fuchs, Orchids Magazine, Sept. 2004. Light, Principles of Light. by Erick Runkle, PhD, Orchids Magazine, May 2008. Adaptive Repotting Approach. by Mary Jo Gilsdorf, Orchids Magazine, May 2006. Water Quality: What’s In Your Water? by Jack and Carl Peters, Orchids Magazine, May 2012. Http://www.staugorchidsociety.org/culturewater.htm Dr Bill Argo, Black-more Company: Water Quality, pH, and Media.

Fredclarkara ‘After Dark’ Photo by Malcolm McCorquodale

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Dr C. Sathish Kumar is a Senior Scientist of the Plant Genetic Resources Division of Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden & Research Institute (JNTBGRI) at Palode, Kerala, India where he is working since 1984. Born in 1957 in Trivandrum, Kerala, Sathish Kumar passed out his M. Sc. in Botany in 1981 with First Class from Kerala University. Soon he joined Calicut University and started his adventurous journey into the world of orchids with a study on the Orchids of Silent Valley. He joined JNTBGRI in 1984 where he is heading a team of scientists to study taxonomy, Reproductive Biology, Breeding for Hybrid Development and Con-servation of Indian Orchids. He studied and published accounts on the Orchids of Western Ghats, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim and Manipur. His study on the orchids of Myanmar based on col-lections at Central National Herbarium, Kolkata and European herbaria with P. Or-merod fetched him much accolades. He discovered 2 new genera and over 25 new species of orchids from India so far. He is the Coordinator of the All India Coordinat-ed Research Project on the Taxonomy of Orchids sponsored by Ministry of Environ-ment & Forests, Government of India. This has 6 collaborating Units across India col-lecting and studying orchids for an update. He has traveled widely in India and abroad in connection with his orchid studies. Dr Sathish Kumar is a recipient of several honors/awards including the prestigious Dr B. P. Pal National Environment Fellowship Award for Biodiversity for 2003, Dr V. V. Sivarajan Gold Medal of IAAT for 2006 and Dr T N Khoshoo Award from the Or-chid Society of India, Chandigarh in 2008. He has published 9 books and 60 papers in national and international journals. He is in the international panel of experts of CITES. He has been a project reviewer for National Geographic Society. He is the Chair of the Indian Subcontinent Regional Or-chid Specialist Group of IUCN/SSC. His team at TBGRI has produced over 20 new or-chid hybrids including one in Paphiopedilum. He edits the botanical art Magazine called Vanda originally published twice a year from Thailand and now brought out from Kolkata.

Dr. C. Sathish Kumar Biography

BROS Meeting Dates &

Programs, 2014

Meeting Dates March 19 - Program TBA April 16 - Program TBA May 21 - Program TBA June 18 - Program TBA July - Show Time - No meeting August 20 - Program TBA

September 17 - Program TBA October 15 - Program TBA November 19 - Program TBA December - Christmas Party - Date TBA

January Plant Clinic

So how are your plants looking after all the cold we’ve had? Are they surviv-ing? Or are they about to bite the dust? The January Plant Clinic will feature a discussion of the damage to plants from the cold as well as any other problems that you’re having with them. Bring some of your damaged plants to the meeting for Show and Tell so we can work on figuring out the problems and the solutions together.

New Member

Jeana Cefalu 5140 Stumberg Lane

Baton Rouge, LA 70816 225.302.2550 (cell) kreativ1jc@aol.com

Seriously Mounting Phals at the January Meeting

January Photo Gallery

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From: The Independent - LONDON - October 15 2013 By Matthew Bell There’s no getting round this – the orchid is mainly about sex. Admittedly, most flowers are: the rose is all tight buds and extravagant climaxes; the lily is a pungent phallus. But the orchid is una-shamedly raunchy: it wants hot and steamy rooms; it has provocative lips; it poses like a geisha. It is also a decidedly masculine plant: the name derives from orchis, the Greek for testicle, because the root is shaped like one. According to a Greek myth, Orchis was the son of a nymph and a satyr, who attempted to rape a priestess at a drunken Bacchanalian festival. As punishment, he was turned into a flower, a throbbing ball-shaped one. In a previous life, its name was “ballockwort”. The Victorian era was a heyday for the orchid, a time when exotic flowers were a rich man’s play-thing. They became so sought-after that an army of ruthless “orchid hunters” would scour foreign climes for the fanciest species. Thousands of specimens were swept from the forests of Colombia and the Philippines and shipped to England. They changed hands for vast sums: in 1890, someone is rec-orded to have paid £1500 for one plant – the equivalent of £100 000 (almost R16 million) today. They were carefully reared in hothouses and grown men with names such as Rothschild and Schroder would compete to own the biggest. Today, the orchid is as common as the muck it grows in. That is, you can pick one up for about R90 at a supermarket, and they sell in their millions. Once considered the most difficult plant to look af-ter, selective breeding has toughened them up and they are now mass-produced in giant greenhouses. At least, the phalaenopsis is – the type most commonly seen in homes, but just one example of an extraordinarily big family: there are about 25,000 varieties in 880 genera. What is it about orchids that fascinates? “They have that exotic, strange allure,” says Johan Hermans, chairman of the Royal Horticultural Society orchid committee. “But I think what attracts people is the variety… from tiny orchids with complex structures to the big, blousy phalaenopsis that everyone knows. Plus, I think there’s always that slightly exclusive, mysterious, steaming jungles thing. It will always have that.” How did orchids turn from prissy rarities to the world’s best-selling pot plant? The shift came in the 1960s, with the development of meristemming, where a core cell is taken and used to produce more cells. These are then grown into separate plants. “It’s mostly done in Taiwan, where they have cheap labor,” says Henry Oakeley, former president of the Orchid Society of Great Britain. “That’s how or-chids became cheap. You can take a meristem now, and in two years you could have a million or-chids.” Orchids still demand care, as I recently found out. I looked after one for a fortnight, at the end of which the brilliant pink petals had wilted to tragic brown flakes. Oakeley reassures me this isn’t en-tirely my fault. The same happened to him, and, now 72, he’s been looking after these flowers since he was 15. “You do have to get the conditions right,” he says. “And you have to get your watering right; it’s a skill. Some orchids are very fragile and have very specific requirements, but the phalaenopsis you buy in a supermarket have been bred to enjoy the sort of conditions you and I like.”

Orchids are the Sexiest Plants