Our speaker for the October 17th meeting will be Edgar Stehli from “Windswept in Time Orchids” in Ohio. (More about him below.) The topic is Bulbophyllum, a huge group of orchids found throughout the tropics.  They are quite varied in shape and size.  Some are fragrant, and some not!  Edgar says they are generally easy to grow once you know the tricks.  There have been lots of taxonomic changes in this group, but we will not be overly concerned with the nomenclature. The presentation will cover a brief history of the group, and its distribution around the world.  There are pictures of many of the more commonly grown species, and lots of cultural information as well.  Edgar has received many awards on his Bulbophyllum plants, and many of these are featured in the presentation.

Here is what Edgar Stehli had to say about himself:

 My interest in orchids began when I was just six or seven years old.  I found a plant growing in the roadside ditch near our house in North East Ohio.  When my father got home from work, I dragged him over to see my discovery.  He said “Oh! That’s an orchid.”  My first orchid find was a Spiranthes (probably cernua).  A few years later my family drove to Alaska and back.  On that trip, I found a Calypso bulbosa in Wyoming and several other orchids in Alaska and Canada. While in high school, I began growing some tropical orchids, and soon had a small collection.  During my final year at Case Western Reserve University my orchid collection moved to Florida with my parents.   Sadly, I never saw them again (the orchids that is!).  Also in my last year, I met Kim Sante who was working at the Cleveland Garden Center, now known as the Cleveland Botanical Garden.  Eventually Kim and I were married and  shortly afterwards we built a sun room on the corner of our house.  This of course allowed my orchid collection to get a little out of hand.  Finally in 1999 we began selling our plants to area florists, then through the orchid shows. We called our new business “Windswept in Time Orchids.”  We now attend close to fifteen shows a year, where our plants and exhibits have won many awards.

The October 17th meeting is a joint meeting with the Central Ontario Orchid Society (COOS) and will be held via Zoom. Invitations to both groups will be sent out the week before the meeting. If you are a member and have not received your invitation, or if you would like to attend as a guest, please contact OrchidataOSRBG@gmail.com. The meeting begins at 2 pm (EDST), but the doors will open, so to speak, around 1:30 to allow everyone to get settled and socialize a bit before the meeting.

We will also have a virtual Show Table which, this month is being assembled by Jeff Steele from COOS. OSRBG and COOS members may send photographs of their orchids in bloom to Jeff.grows.plants@gmail.com before 9 am on Saturday October 16th. Please include the name of the orchid and its parentage (if known) as well as your own name and any brief pertinent remarks about the plant and its culture. To make it easier for Jeff to assemble the powerpoint, please include pictures of one orchid only per email message with the ID for that orchid.