Northwest Orchid Society Newsletter

November 13, 2006
7:00 p.m.
University of Washington
Center for Urban Horticulture
3501 NE 41st Street
Seattle, WA 98105

Manuel Aybar is originally from the Dominican Republic. He has been growing orchids for approximately 14 years. The genus that got him started was Dendrobium in which he specializes. His current research includes the orchids of the Dominican Republic, for which he has gone on numerous orchid collecting trips back to his home country. He has been extensively involved in the judging of many shows around the U.S., including the Miami International Orchid Show.

His presentation is a compilation of many years of collecting trips into the beautiful island of Hispaniola. This program focus entirely in Dominican Species, many of them endangered today. Most of the orchids are presented in their natural habitats. Described as “a fascinating trip into the Dominican Republic paradisiacal rainforests.” Amazing color pictures of these Dominican beauties, some of the genera presented only exists in the island.

Beginner’s program: (starts at 6:30 p.m.)
No schedule program. Bring your orchid questions and an experienced grower will help find an answer.

Display Table:
Bring your whatever you have in bloom so everyone can enjoy them and have the chance to win a ribbon!

Sales Table:
Members may bring up to 10 plants to sell. Include a tag with your name and the price in the plant.

When: November 4 - 5, 2006
Where: Olympic Room, Seattle Center, just north of Key Arena (see #2 on the map)

It’s our biggest show and sale of the year with eight orhid vendors and up to 15 displays or bloooming plants. The sale opens at 9 a.m. on Saturday, November 4. The show area will be closed until 12 noon for ribbon judging. We will be open until 6 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday, the show is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

There will be a sales table open for members to leave plants to sell. Member plants for sale must include a tag (separate from the plant ID tag) that includes the member’s name and the price of the plant. All sale plants are subject to a 20% commission to the Society. Any member selling plants is also expected to bring at least one blooming plant for the NWOS display. For information on bring plants for the display, see below.

We could still use some volunteers to help staff the show on Saturday afternoon between 12 noon and 6 p.m. If you are available, please e-mail or phone Kathy Murray at kandmmurray@verizon.net or 425-257-0583. No special knowledge or experience is necessary.

If you have signed up to participate in the ribbon judging, you should arrive promptly at 8 a.m. on Saturday to get instructions and begin. Lunch will be provided for judges. If you have any questions, contact Michael Corn.

Our show is the main annual event where we can “show our stuff” to the general public and it is important that the NWOS display in our show contains a large number and good variety of plants. Last year our display was a bit sparse and this year we hope to do much better, so I urge all members to bring in your blooming plants for our display.

You may drop off your plants at the Olympic Room at the Seattle Center on Friday, November 3rd between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. You can either register your plants by e-mail in advance (see article below) or on paper at the show. Someone there can help you with registration if you need.

If you are unable to come to the show on Friday, you may leave your plants with someone else to bring or call me to make other arrangements.

We can use all kinds of plants in the display. Large specimen plants are especially desirable but we also need smaller plants to fill all the nooks and crannies.

For the Fall 2006 show, the NWOS is providing you another way to enter your plants. We believe that this will save time and effort for everyone, including our members, as well as reduce entry errors. If you go to www.nwos.org, you will find four different files. For the least effort, we prefer that you use the Excel spreadsheet file (xls) and follow the instructions in it. If you are not familiar with Excel, you can also do this using the Word file (doc).

Finally, you can also enter using the handwritten entry form and instructions. If you don’t have a computer, you can wait to enter your plants on forms that will be supplied at the show.

Please leave the Exhibitor Number blank as you will be assigned a number between 200 and 299 at the show. For your information, there is also a file describing the ribbon classes for the show. This information is also contained in the two electronic entry files as well.

After filling out the electronic form of your choice, you should bring it to the show on a floppy, CD or USB memory card. You can also e-mail your completed file to michaelcorn@comcast.net, but you must do so no later than Thursday, November 2. Be sure that you get a confirmation from Michael. We recommend that in any event you bring a backup to the show and print your own hardcopy list.

December: Holiday Party with a presentation from Kathy Murray on this year's Native Orchid Conference and the Schoenfeld and Rebecca Tyson Nothern trophies, plus a free plant!

SHOWS PAST AND FUTURE

(Above: NWOS’s display two-sided display at the Seaside Orchid Show. Cylvia Grantham pictured right. Other side below.)

The Sunset Empire Orchid Society Show at Seaside was held the weekend of Sept. 30. Our display consisted (see photos) of 45 plants from eight different members.

We had an excellent variety of plants which were nicely displayed. Thanks to the skill of Cylvia in setting up the exhibit and also Mike and Abby who helped “tweak” things, the display was quite successful. We won the AOS trophy, the Orchid Digest trophy and the show trophy for Best Visiting Society. This is the first time that I can recall winning all three of those awards at any show.

Jerry Hoffmeister's Cattleya dowiana.

Other special awards in our display included Best First-Bloom Seedling (Joff Morgan), Best Pleurothallid Alliance (Mike Pearson and Abby Chang) and Best Vanda Alliance (George and Cylvia Grantham). Our 45 plants received 28 show ribbons. The big winners this time were Andy Wright, who received a ribbon for each of the six plants he sent and Joff Morgan who received 7 ribbons for his 4 plants (several were entered in two categories) and Barry Bridge who received a ribbon for each of 4 plants he sent.

Besides the abovementioned individuals, the following members sent plants: Jerry Hoffmeister, Shannon Boling, Barry Boling, and Mike Foster and Donna Pierce.

Olympia is having a small show the weekend of Oct. 28-29 but we are unable to participate due to the proximity to our show. There are no more shows until the Tacoma show in January.

– George Grantham

Ex situ (Latin) means out of place. Whenever we grow orchid species out of their normal growing habitat we are growing them ex situ. In situ orchid conservation and habitat preservation are the first line of defense for safeguarding orchid species for the future. A strong conservation effort would result if orchid growers would pledge not to buy newly discovered orchids like Phragmipedium kovachii until after the orchid and its habitat have been safeguarded in situ. Given the realities of our world, ex situ orchid conservation is important.

Orchids and their habitats continue to be destroyed by logging, farming, collection and climate change. Ex situ conservation can start by just growing your species orchids well. The next step is to propagate them from division and seed, and then distribute them to other growers. Our current ex situ conservation efforts are unorganized and without clear direction. This could lead to problems for species in ex situ. One of the problems is preserving genetic diversity of a species. Another is knowing how many individual plants of a given orchid species are in ex situ.

For a long time Paphiopedilum delenatii was considered extinct in the wild. All Paph. delenatii from 1910 to 1991 were bred from a few plants found in the 1910s and '20s. This led to line breeding for about 60 years resulting in little genetic diversity and growth vigor. In 1991, new populations of Paph. delenatii were found. This increased the genetic pool of Paph. delenatii giving greater diversity and vigor to the Paph. delenatii in ex situ. Preserving genetic diversity of a species is important for ex situ orchid conservation. A large group of individual plants of a particular species are necessary to preserve a species well in ex situ. Species with few individuals have to be carefully crossbred to increase the health of species in ex situ. Ex situ conservation must encompass a wide range of flower and other plant characteristics of a particular species and not be limited to award wining quality. Award winning flower quality is based on human perception and not on the natural pollinator’s perception.

Zoos have cooperative systematic breeding programs for mammal species in their care to maintain healthy populations and genetic diversity. We should do that with orchid species.

The Living Orchid Collection (LOC) is a beginning strategy for an organized, ex situ orchid conservation program in which everyone who grows a species orchid can participate. LOC is a collective, living orchid collection entered into a web database. Grouping orchid collections together as a virtual single collection will be a stronger ex situ conservation effort then separate individual collections. A grower enters their species orchids into the database. Each grower will continue to own, grow and have all rights over their orchid. A LOC identification allows growers to remain anonymous unless they want their identity to be known. LOC could be used for producing pollen, seed propagation for genetic diversity, research, replanting in natural habitats, and taking pressure off wild collecting. Researchers and ex situ conservation efforts can use the database and then contact the grower by e-mail. The grower can decide if they want to take part in a particular ex situ conservation effort.

Orchid societies are encouraged to enter as a group. This would allow society members that grow only a few species to participate more effectively in ex situ conservation. A society would essentially have their own Living Orchid Collection. For more information on the Living Orchid Collection visit www.livingorchidcollection.org.

If you would like to share your favorite orchid web site, e-mail me. This month's site is:

And thanks to our judges: Kyong Hu and Dick Johnston. If you are interested in helping to judge the plant table, just let Mike Foster know—everyone is welcome, no matter what your experience level.

The 2007 AOS calendar, full of beautiful and unusual orchids is available at the November meeting. NWOS member Mike Pearson once again has a photo in the calendar! NWOS members pay just $10 when they purchase it at the meeting. Regular price is $11.95.

We've talked with several members, but we still haven't had any luck in securing a new editor for the newsletter.

No real experience is necessary. Basic writing/editing skills, desktop publishing or web experience will be helpful but are not required. This position requires a commitment of 8-10 hours per month.

Volunteers will need to have their own computer and an e-mail account that they check regularly. The editor is also responsible for printing and distributing the newsletter. If you are interested or have questions, please contact Brian Anderson at nwos_news@nwos.org.

For additional volunteer opportunities, click "Volunteer Opportunities" in the side menu on this page.