CMOS Newsletter April 18, 2004

NEWSLETTER - April 18, 2004

News from AOS
The membership dues will increase on June 1st. Many of us have already renewed our memberships at the present $72 bargain rate for 2 years--it will be $46.50x2 or $93 if you wait. This 2 year special rate comes with a $30 coupon that can be used on a retail plant purchase of $100 or more from a participating grower of your choice. Renew at the old rate since you'll be unhappy to lose out on this special." Check here for nearby events and for places to stop on your summer vacation: http://orchidweb.org/events.html
"Fuzzy" Orchid
Here's how that "fuzzy" orchid (Dedbrobium eximius) looks in bloom!
Web Site of the Month
Unlike most other groups of plants orchids hybridise widely in nature. For the last 150 years they have been widely crossed in cultivation to produce over 110,000 hybrids (called grexes). Orchid hybrids can involve up to 20 distinct species from up to nine distinct natural genera. The first hybrid was made in 1854 and detailed records have been maintained since that time. For the last 50 years this has been done by the International Registration Authority for Orchid Hybrids, since 1962 under the aegis of The Royal Horticultural Society. Over 3,000 new hybrids are being added annually. The International Orchid Register can be searched by two methods: Parentage Search can be used to identify any grexes from particular seed and pollen parents; Grex Name Search can be used to find the parentage of particular grexes. http://www.rhs.org.uk/research/ registration_orchids.asp

Last Meeting

Fourteen members attended the last meeting on Sunday, March 14, at the Adams Conference Center at the Vet School. Thanks to Howard, members learned about some of the more common intergenerics (crosses between species of different genera). The Shaffers shared details and photos of their trip to Hawaii. A help sign-up sheet was passed around for the March 20th orchid show and sale at Superior Garden Center. Many thanks to the Shaffers for bringing snacks and plants and to Mona Laird and Jan Huggins for bringing plants and everyone else who brought snacks and plants and didn't put their names on the attendee list!

The CMOS Orchid Show and Sale at Superior Garden Center was a great success! Many thanks to all those who helped at the show and sale! Thanks to our hard-working president who spent the entire day at Superior! And thanks to all those who brought plants! Our show and sale gets better every year. Sales went well. Barbara got all her invested money back and even a little extra.

Photos: Jan talking about one of her plants (above); "Sale" part of the show and sale (top right); "Show" part of the show and sale (bottom right).

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be Sunday, April 18, 4:00 p.m. at the Adams Conference Center at the Vet School. Directions: From College, turn east (away from the main part of campus) on Rollins, at William turn South (right) into the parking lot and then left and park in front of the big windows. Parking is right in front. The door is up the sidewalk in the corner between the buildings.

David Bird of Birds Botanicals, Blue Springs, Missouri will be presenting the program Growing Orchids in a Cave. He will also bring a wide assortment for orchids for sale. Thanks to Phil Merry for the lead on this program! Don't forget to bring plants for show and tell.

We will also make plans for our Orchid Repotting Clinic on Sunday, May 16 at Superior Garden Center. The repotting session will be from 12-3 PM and our May meeting will follow directly after at 3 PM (to avoid having the meeting on Mother's Day). Divisions from the Misosuri Botanical Garden will be availabe at the May meeting. Volunteers are needed to help at the repotting clinic!

Central Missouri Orchid Society
E-Mail: orchids@coin.org
Web Address: http://CMOS.missouri.org