MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR THE ELEVENTH ORCHID DIGEST SPEAKERS’ DAY!!

“WONDERFUL WORLD OF ORCHIDS”

Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California
Saturday, June 8, 2013 – 12:30 pm to 8:00 pm in the Ahmanson Classroom

FEATURING
All Genera Flower Display – Orchid Sales– Expert Lectures – Dinner
Remember!! AOS judging at 10:00 AM
Open at 11:00AM to bring your blooming plants for the flower display
Prize for best species and best hybrid,

Lecturers: Thomas Mirenda (Virginia), Ron Kaufmann (San Diego),

Paul Tuskes (San Diego), Mario Ferrusi (Toronto)

Dinner Speaker: Alec Pridgeon (Florida)

VENDORS: Cal Orchids; Sunset Valley Orchids, Andy’s Orchids, Canaima’s Orchids,
Marsh Hollow Orchids

Tickets: $60 ($75 at door) for afternoon Seminars, Wine and Cheese Happy Hour;
Dinner and Evening Entertainment

After June 5, 2013 contact
Simone Friend, 4349 Dogwood Ave., Seal Beach, CA 90740
Phone: (562) 431-1247 E-mail: orchidsimonef@aol.com

Limited Space!! Make Your Reservations Now!

Call Simone at (562) 431-1247 to make a late Reservation!

About our Lecturers:

Thomas Mirenda: Tom Mirenda has been the Orchid Collection Specialist at the Smithsonian Institution for the last 10 years. There he cares for and curates an extremely diverse collection of orchid species and hybrids from all over the world. His position includes developing and producing huge educational exhibits using the collection plants that last up to 4 months and visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Trained originally as a Marine Biologist, Tom made the switch to plants and orchids in his late 20s while living in Hawaii. Since then he has worked with orchids at NY Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden and an extensive private collection at Greentree Estate in Long Island. Tom was also the floor manager at the New York International orchid Show for many years during this period. For the last 6 years, Tom has contributed two columns each month for ORCHIDs magazine and is developing a new book based on those writings. Tom travels frequently around the US and internationally making presentations to diverse audiences, from scientists to the general public, about orchid ecology, pollination biology, strategies for orchid conservation. He is passionate about seeking collaboration between the worlds of Botanic Gardens, the hobbyist community, commercial growers and scientists to work together toward the goal of protecting orchids and their habitats. Currently working on a project to coordinate and centralize North American orchid conservation efforts, Tom hopes to extend the influence to other parts of the world where orchids are imperiled.

Ron Kaufmann: Ron Kaufmann is chair of the San Diego County Orchid Society Conservation Committee and a founding director of the Orchid Conservation Alliance. Ron has travelled extensively to view orchids in the wild in South America and Asia. His talk titled "Orchids at the Beach" will explore the habits and habitats of orchids that grow in the Brazilian restinga, a coastal sand plain habitat where a number of orchid species grow.

Ron is a marine biologist by training, and his scientific work includes studies of Antarctic and deep-sea ecosystems as well as marine communities in coastal Southern California. He has been growing orchids for nearly 20 years, starting with a reedstem Epidendrum and progressing to a diverse collection that contains mostly species orchids.

Ron has a long-standing interest in conservation and has been a member of the SDCOS Conservation Committee for almost 15 years and chair since 2004. Since 1991, the Conservation Committee has awarded over $165,000 to support projects in 21 different countries. Ron also helped to found the Orchid Conservation Alliance and serves on the boards of the OCA, EcoMinga Foundation (a conservation foundation based in Ecuador) and Orchid Digest, for which he also serves as an assistant editor.

Ron grows most of his orchids in a 36 x 24 foot greenhouse and several outdoor shade-covered areas around his house in San Diego. Friends have suggested that he build a second, much larger greenhouse to accommodate the many plants that often make walking through his greenhouse an exercise requiring extensive training in gymnastics and yoga to avoid serious injury. Thus far, this recommendation hasn’t been followed, although the rationale grows stronger every day.

Paul Tuskes: Paul Tuskes will discuss the culture of Phalaenopsis species. Paul and Ann Tuskes wrote the Culture of Phalaenopsis Species (ODC (66)4 p 135-193) for the Orchid Digest and he provided dozens of photos for the Phalaenopsis book by Eric Christenson 2001. Paul will discuss the care for newly acquired plants and those already established. Rather that discussing taxonomic groups, he has divided them into groups based on cultural requirements; and will review the pros and cons of mounted vs potted plants, hard to bloom species, and pest control.

Paul and his wife Ann have been growing species orchids for 30 years. Paul is on the Board of Directors for ODC, and both are AOS orchid judges and have written for ODC and AOS. In 1987 they started the Species Study Group in San Diego, and in 1989 worked with others to start the San Diego County Orchid Society Conservation effort that has provided over $100,000 to orchid projects worldwide. The SDCOS has been recognized by the AOS for its outstanding achievements in Orchid Conservation.

Mario Ferrusi: Mario started growing orchids just after his daughter Ilia was born in 1980. As everyone else, he started with a hybrid Phalaenopsis. This soon escalated when he purchased a hobbyist setup of 23 plants and florescent lighting.

Mario quickly learned to like the weird and unusual i.e. Masdevallias, Draculas and everything in the cool range. He joined the local society and, almost immediately became Membership chair. Soon afterward he took over the Show Chair job and held that for about 10 years. Just recently he became past president of Ontario’s largest society, Southern Ontario Orchid Society.

Mario joined the AOS judging program in 1992 and became accredited in 1998. He was Chair of the Toronto Judging Center for five years. Mario now has two greenhouses, the smaller one (15 X 20) is for intermediate to warm plants where as the larger (24 X 32) is for all the cool beauties. Mario has concentrated his hybridizing in Masdevallias, Odontoglossums, Lycastes and a few in other scattered genera.

He particularly enjoys exhibiting and competing for the AOS Show Trophy, but next to receiving AOS quality awards to his plants he cherishes cultural awards the most.

Alec Pridgeon: Dr. Alec M. Pridgeon was born in 1950 in Dallas, Texas, and received his Ph.D. in biology from Florida State University, specializing in anatomy and systematics of orchids. He is presently Sainsbury Orchid Fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where he specializes in molecular phylogenetics and co-edits and contributes to Genera Orchidacearum, a comprehensive multi-volume monograph of the orchid family. Volumes 1–5 of Genera Orchidacearum have already been published by Oxford University Press, and the last volume is in press.

In orchid circles he is perhaps best known as past Editor of the American Orchid Society Bulletin (now titled Orchids) and Founding Editor of the scientific orchid journal, Lindleyana. However, he has also written or co-written more than 50 scientific articles or book chapters and more than 100 popular articles, written and directed five videotapes, edited 14 books including the Proceedings of the 14th World Orchid Conference and The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids, and compiled the Orchid Action Plan for the Species Survival Commission of the IUCN in Geneva. He has co-organized four scientific conferences on Andean orchids in Ecuador and spoken at two of them. In 2011 he was elected Chairman of the International Orchid Committee and recently received the gold Veitch Memorial Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society.

His research interests have taken him from Mexico to Brazil and Ecuador, South Africa, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, and New Caledonia. He has been an invited speaker to eight World Orchid Conferences and the 14th International Botanical Congress in Berlin.

Dr. Pridgeon is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, Fellow of the American Orchid Society, and Courtesy Curator of the Florida Museum of Natural History. When not studying plants, he heads for the world’s oceans to enjoy scuba diving and underwater photography, particularly of whales and sharks.