The Arizona Orchidist Newsletter 

The next OSA Board meeting will be held on Sunday,
January  30, 2000, at 1:00 PM at Norma Kafer’s home.
Her address is: 920 Encanto Dr. SW Phoenix
Phone:   (602) 252-6197
Time:    1 PM
The meeting is open to all OSA members who wish to attend.

 The next regualr society monthly meeting will be Thursday, February 2, 2000, at the Valley Garden Center, 1809 N. 15th Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona.  Phone: (602) 252-2120.  The meeting, open to all plant enthusiasts, will start at 7:00 PM.

Refreshments will be provided by:    Beverages:  Jane Heckel
       Edibles: Pam Albright and Lucy Redmond-Hall
Janet Jurn, Refreshment Coordinator  ( 623) 386-2741 

February’s Program  
How to Mount Orchids  

We will demonstrate, and have a hands-on program dedicated to mounting your orchids onto different types of materials.  Orchids can be mounted on tree fern, pieces of cork, wood, and a variety of other things.  Typically the choice material is tree fern or cork.  
If you have an orchid you would like to have mounted, this is the meeting to attend!  Bring the orchid you would like to have mounted and, if you have it, bring the material you would like it mounted on, and we will help you do it.  If any member has extra mounting material or New Zealand sphagnum moss, please feel free to donate a little to the program.  We have plenty of fishing line for anchoring the orchids to the mount.  
I also want to use the February meeting as a culture clinic.  If you have any problem plant, bring it to the meeting for a “check up”.  Please don’t bring all your orchids!  :)  This will be your opportunity to have your troublesome plant evaluated, diagnosed, and (hopefully) a remedy recommended to help it improve.  In fact, you could bring in your most “poorly grown” orchid in for evaluation.  I’ll even throw in three free raffle tickets to anyone bringing in the worst grown orchid!  The dead ones don’t count!

From the President’s Desk
                                Lou Ann Remeikis
Most of you know we were planning on having Dr. German Carnevali speak at our February meeting.  We have postponed his speaking engagement until March.  It will be easier to coordinate his travel for March, as he is going to be conducting some molecular work at the University of Southern Florida in Gainesville the latter part of February.  He will come to us from Florida, before returning to his home in Mexico.  
Those of you who attended the January meeting had the opportunity to meet Dr. Gustavo Romero and listen to his presentation on his work in South America.  I found Dr. Romero to be a very informed speaker and really enjoyed the photos and the details of his travels.   I look forward to Dr. Carnevali doing the same in March.
 

Thanks to those of you who brought items for the raffle table.  Julie Rathbun, Phillip Liu, Leith Plunkett, Jane Heckel, Karen Berger, Joe Freasier, Wilella Stimmell, Fred Meyer Supermarket’s Garden Store, the Santa Barbara International Orchid Show Committee, and OSA are all responsible for the wonderful choices we had on the raffle.  And...because of their generosity, and the generosity of our members and guests who purchased raffle ticket, the raffle was quite successful.  Thank you!
As I mentioned to you at the meeting, OSA has agreed to participate in the Chinese Cultural Festival.  The new millennium celebrates of the Year of the Dragon. This year’s festival will be held February 11-13, at the Chinese Cultural Center, 668 N. 44th Street.  We really need volunteers to help us man the tent this year.  This three day festival is celebrated by 100,000 people each year.  Considering this, please realize it is less of a hardship on a certain few people if we have willing volunteers we can count on.  All I ask is that we have volunteers willing to work a half day shift to relieve the burden of a few people handling the entire festival.  Even a couple of hours would be appreciated. When I pass around a sign up sheet at the February meeting, please sign up to help during this event.  It isn’t just work - it’s a lot of fun!
The Valley Garden Center Board of Directors has approved our show dates for 2000.  Our annual orchid show will be held November 11 and 12th, 2000.  Julie Rathbun will be our Show Chairman.  In the near future, we will be calling for a planning meeting which will be open to all members.  We’ll keep you posted!

During our January meeting, I advised you I had accepted the resignation of Maura Roberts, a Board Trustee. 

 Maura has been very busy with work and travel, and she felt her position as Trustee would benefit by an appointment of another member who could be depended upon.  With this in mind, I have appointed Karen Berger to fulfill the last year of Maura’s 2-year term.  I look forward to working with Karen, and I know she will do what she can to aid in the continued success of OSA.  Welcome aboard Karen!

Another addition to the Board as a Trustee is Connie Hall, a very new member who accepted this appointment.  This came as a result of Jennifer Hall becoming our Editor of the Arizona Orchidist Newsletter.  The Editor is a voting member of the Board, and as such Jennifer would only be eligible for one vote even though she would hold two voting positions - Trustee and Editor.  To provide our Board with a more complete voting number, this change was made.  Thank you Connie for accepting the appointment!
Sarah Heberling is now officially the Hostess and in charge of our New Member Services.  Sarah lives in Arizona most of the year (usually October through May), so we may have to improvise during the hot months of the year when anyone who can - does go to cooler climates.  

WANTED !  PHOTOS needed for updating our website.  If you have any color photos of your orchids in bloom, and would like to have them published on our website, we would be happy to get you in touch with Jim Johnson - our very own talented webmaster!

I look forward to seeing everyone at our next meeting, Thursday, February 3rd, at 7:00 pm.  Until then...

Happy growing - Lou Ann  

February Silent Auction
We will be having a silent auction in February, so don’t forget your  checkbook!

OSA COMMUNITY SERVICE REPORT
 by Wilella Stimmell, CSP Coordinator

On January 13, Ann Cherny, Shirley Engberg, Norma Kafer, and I presented a hands-on program for a Kindergarten class at PHOENIX CHRISTIAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, 2425 N. 26th St., Phoenix. As soon as we opened the classroom door, we spotted empty milk jugs and eager children! The children marveled at the beautiful blooms of the display plants shared with them by our team members, and after the repotting session, they enjoyed gently sniffing the flowers that were fragrant. 
Several of the five-year-olds had heard of rainforests, but apparently none of them had ever seen a digital camera before! Their teacher, Paige Meyer Adding, also took photographs of her students as they busily worked at...making a mess. During this and previous programs presented at other schools and for a variety of age groups, girls were less hesitant to immediately plunge their hands into a pile of wet fir bark in front of them, than boys. Does this observation of a difference in gender behavior have significance? 
As usually happens, at least one student forgets our warning that the milk jug greenhouse needs to be picked up with TWO hands lest the small pot inside become unbalanced and tumble to the floor. No harm was done, and the fir bark was gathered up and the seedling repotted. 
After the program, team members remarked that such young children are usually not so well behaved. It was our pleasure to work with the Kindergarten students at Phoenix Christian.

(A report on the programs that will be presented on Jan. 24, for two 4th grade classes at Most Holy Trinity School, will appear in our March newsletter.)

EVER SEE A CARNIVOROUS ORCHID?  WE DID.
By Norma Kafer

For those who missed Dr. Romero’s talk, here are some interesting points.  He has made numerous trips to Venezuela to collect and study orchids.  They are trying to collect all the plants in a specific region for baseline data.  Then they will know if something is influencing the quantity or type of orchids.  His slide show was interesting for those of us who have never traveled there.  He had pictures of granite outings and the grasslands.  We usually think of the savanna as large expanses of grasslands, however in the slides, it shows many different types of vegetation that have little in common with our image of a savanna.  They studies shrublands where there were numerous bromeliads and orchids in small trees.  Also they studies the area of where shrubland and forest mix.  That proved to be an unusually fertile area.  The light and humidity were just right to produce an increase in species.  He also showed us some orchids that were extremely rare and had never before been photographed.  We also saw grasses with carniverous traps in their roots, bees that go to pollinate an orchids and have to go out through a small tunnel in order to pollinate the plant.  And the carniverous orchids.  
We also thank Natalie Warford for meeting Dr. Romero at the airport, taking him back to the airport and for having him as her house guest during his stay.  Thanks Natalie.

Don’t forget to bring to the meetings your used Christmas, birthday, happy something cards.  We pack them and send them to St. Jude’s for recycling.  This we do in remembrance of Bea, it was her pet project. 

From the Editor
Taking over the Editor position for the Arizona Orchidist leaves me with some big shoes to fill.  Nancy Burnett did a wonderful job as Editor and we thank her for her time, effort, and inspiration.  If there is anything that you would like to see in the newsletter, do not hesitate to let me know.  If you have an idea for an article, or have done some research and written an article, found an informative book, or an excellent orchid-related website, please send the information to me.  Deadlines for the newsletter are the 15th of every month.  

I look forward to bringing the Arizona Orchidist to you each month.
Jennifer Hall
phone: (602) 864-1278
email: tanis@inficad.com

Virtual Goodies
This months website was found by Willie Stimmell
Internet Orchid Photo Encyclopedia
It can be found at:
http://orchidspecies.com/index.htm

There are 2219 species in 356 genera surveyed and the beauty of this encyclopedia is that synonyms are included in the alphabetical listings. Also, there’s a nifty feature: if you’re searching for info on a particular species, you can type in the name of the species and search the entire web site for just that information. But wait! There’s more! There are cute, colorful icons that indicate: whether a species is fragrant, temperature needs, and light     requirements. The compiler of this primo site is Jay Pfahl. Check it out!! For those without internet access Willie has generously printed it out and will bring it to the Febuary meeting.  
 
 
 

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