Carol Klonowski has been growing orchids since the 1980's when a friend in Berkeley, California, gave her a cattleya and it bloomed out with three big, dark lavender flowers and an intoxicating fragrance. She built an entire greenhouse in her backyard to accomodate the precious plant, which only led her to buy more orchids. Then another friend gave her a gift membership to the Orchid Society of California and it's been a serious hobby and passionever since. She can recall going to monthly meetings where orchid legends such as the late Frank Fordyce would be available to answer the many questions an eager hobbyist could ask.

Carol is currently the President of the Orchid Society of California and a fully Accredited Judge with the American Orchid Society, California Sierra Nevada Judging Center.  She is a Trustee for the American Orchid Society and writes for Orchids Magazine.

Click here to learn more about OSSC's regular meetings .

• NEW GOLDEN CIRCLE MEMBER [Submitted by OSSC President Ryan Langton on 12/21/2021] According to the Society's bylaws, "The purpose of the Society shall be to foster and encourage the education of its members with respect to the culture, growing, hybridization, preservation, and perpetuation of native and hybrid orchids of every variety." It also reads: “The Golden Circle membership may be granted to members who have demonstrated extraordinary dedication to the aims and success of the Society over an extended period of time.” Since the Orchid Society of Southern California’s inception in the 1940’s, there have been a small number of Golden Circle Award recipients. The level of dedication and commitment to our society required to receive this level of award has been displayed by very few and esteemed group.
  
  Since becoming a member of OSSC in 2002, Carol Beule has immersed herself into the society in so many ways -- at the monthly meetings, the annual auctions, past picnics, and in the design and construction of the society’s displays at the annual Huntington International Orchid Show for many years. She began serving in the role of First Vice President in 2013 and has continued since, scheduling speakers and arranging for plants to raffle every month. She has found some outstanding guest speakers (including herself) through the years and has even graciously hosted out of town speakers at her home. She has attended several of the World Orchid Conferences. She has become an expert on the genus Neofinetia and even uses her artistic skills as a costume designer to make ceramic pots in which to grow them. She has generously donated her pots and plants to the annual auction for many years, helping to bring in auction proceeds. Carol is a natural teacher, educating and guiding people interested in becoming better orchid growers, to which many can personally attest. To top it all off, she has done all this while managing to become a fully accredited Judge with The American Orchid Society.
  
  Consequently, for all these reasons and more, Carol Beule has been nominated by the Orchid Society of Southern California’s Board of Directors for the distinguished honor of the Golden Circle Award and her nomination was approved unanimously. We heartily congratulate her and thank her for many years of faithful contribution to the Orchid Society of Southern California.
• IN MEMORIAM [Submitted by David Dassey and Alberto Ossa on 10/25/2021] Long-time OSSC member Lucille Raskoff Banks passed away in Sept 2021 at the age of 96. An OSSC member since 1972, Lucille served on the Board of Directors several times, ultimately as President in 2009-2010. For many years she operated a retail orchid nursery –Orchids, Etc.-- out of her home in the Hollywood Hills with a diverse collection of orchid genera, and enjoyed traveling around the world on orchid expeditions. Lucille was a member of several other local societies including San Fernando, San Gabriel and the Species Society, and put up a display at the annual East-West Orchid Show at the Otani Hotel for many years. She was also a founding member of the Five Cities Orchid Show in Arroyo Grande. Lucille’s broad knowledge of orchid growing was always appreciated, and we will miss her.
• IN MEMORIAM  [Submitted by OSSC Past President Krystine Chaparro on 9/27/2021] Norma Skinner passed away on the morning of September 2, 2021 at the age of 92. Norma was a long-time member, recipient of the Diamond Award of Excellence, and past Treasurer of the Orchid Society of Southern California. As a good friend of mine, I remember when she first came to one of our annual June auctions; Carol Beule and I took her under our wing. That day after bidding on some great cattleyas, which were her favorite orchids, we signed her up to start her membership in OSSC. Ever since she always enjoyed attending the meeting as long as she was able. Norma was in the banking business for 36 years and raised her hand to fit right in as Treasurer of the OSSC. She kept us in check and balance with ease. She has been a great asset to the membership and board and we will all miss her.
• OSSC’s FIRST ORCHID YARD SALE  [Submitted by OSSC Treasurer Wendy Fisher on August 26, 2021] OSSC had its first official yard sale on Sunday, August 8th. With no experience in orchid yard sales, James Roberts, 2nd VP, Carol Buele, 1st VP, and Ryan Langton, President, set about organizing a yard sale. (Kudos and applause to these officers.) This wasn’t just a passing fancy. There were good reasons for an Orchid Yard Sale. First off, we haven’t had a lot of in person meetings in the last year and a half (it’s easy to count to ‘one’) so there was no contributing plants to an opportunity table. Then an estate donated an orchid collection. Carol, David, Junaid, and Erin went to retrieve it, loading up four cars full of orchids (and leaving a lot of undesirables behind). Then, of course, what to do with all the plants when we weren’t having meetings or an auction. David took almost 50 plants to babysit, Carol 15, Erin 20, and Wendy 3, and Junaid delivered 35 to Alberto (I apologize if I missed someone – this is going from my memory). After over a year, the babysitters were tired and wanting to have time to pay more attention to their own plants (and make room for new orchids). In addition, other members had spent the last year and a half caring for their own orchids which resulted in extra divisions taking up valuable space in their growing areas (and leaving no room for new orchids).
  On behalf of our Society, I want to thank those who donated plants to the sale (we had at least 12 who donated – I’d list their names but I’d feel bad if I missed one) and the plant “baby-sitters. Special thanks to Donna Ballard and James Roberts who spent most of their Saturday cleaning and virus-testing plants to make sure the plants we sold were healthy. Carol and Ryan also worked tirelessly on Saturday, cleaning, pricing, and organizing. Harry S contributed a big supply of pots to sell. Thanks to Ted Augustyn for creating a wonderful flyer to post on our website and on Facebook & Instagram. Ted also put extra advertising on Facebook which really got us noticed. And thanks to those who helped with the selling. I could thank myself too, but all I did was sit and take money from our visitors.
  I must also thank Ryan and Ariel for volunteering their home for the sale. On Saturday, with a massive number of orchids and Ryan’s beautiful parrots in the house, it was literally a jungle! The unsung heroes of the sale were Ryan’s parents, Jeralynn and Stephen, who were key in setting up the shade areas, bringing in the tables, toting plants back and forth, and being on call to help in any way. (It can be a benefit to have your parents living a couple doors down.) Having glass tables to display the orchids was quite classy. [Side note: the shade and tables were put out on Saturday and the orchids not until Sunday. Ryan had people coming by wanting to know if he was selling tables!]
  We started with 182 plants. Shoppers were there before our 8am opening and by noon we were almost out of plants! When the day was over, we had zero plants! The cherry on the sundae was Manny the Mannequin who stood tirelessly out front with his giant “Orchid Sale” sign. Amazing how many did a double take of Manny – at first glance he is quite human. At second glance, one notices there was no lower half to his body!
  Our Orchid Yard Sale grossed $2,297.50. Expenses were mainly the cost of the virus test kits, Facebook advertising, and Square credit card fees. We netted $1,999.87 which will cover many months of speaker fees.
  We also got three new members because of the sale! Welcome to Carol Jung, Ferelda Bolling, and Ryan Constantino!!
  Oh oh… and thanks to those of you who supported the sale by shopping. Couldn’t have done it without you! You got some great deals on orchids. Overall the sale was incredibly successful, not to mention a whole lot of fun!

Prior articles found in this section are archived here.

(Most recent articles listed first.)

• This rare orchid in Dudhwa found bearing seeds after a century
• Wild orchids on brink of extinction, warns expert
• Rare orchid species blooms in India after 118-year hiatus
• Polk County’s Most Wanted – Plant!
• Westerlay donates thousands of orchids to frontline works
• PSA: A New Orchid Species Was Found In Palawan, And It Is *Tiny*
• Intoxicating, Putrid And Sexy: How Orchid Pheromones Attract Pollinators
• South Bay History: Torrance flower producer once supplied gardenias and orchids nationwide
• The sex lives of Fred Clarke’s black orchids
• Growers take two approaches to raising young orchids
• US Postal Service to Issue Wild Orchids Forever Stamp Feb. 21
• Rare, endangered orchids slip across porous southern Chinese border
• Westerlay Orchids Takes the Guesswork Out of At-Home Plant Care
• Three new Taiwan orchid varieties pique interest of European, US buyers
• New species of orchid discovered in Tibet
• Molecular Mechanism of Orchids Revealed by Japanese Scientists
• Saving rare orchids that are ‘confusingly difficult’ to grow in labs: Q&A with orchid expert Marc Freestone
• Unusual orchid mimics human body odor to attract mosquitoes 
• Orchid Mimics Carrion to Attract Flies
• Orchid’s secret note
• Keith Richards's smoking habits and the death of a rare orchid
• Santa Barbara Orchids
• The easiest orchids to grow
• Homemade Orchid Fertilizers, The Smart Way of Orchid Caring
• A simple way to water orchids
• Breeding orchid species creates a new perfume
• New orchid species is discovered in the UC Botanical Garden collection
• Cricket Pollination Discovered for the First Time
• World's Smallest Orchid Discovered (By Accident)
• Study reveals the reason why orchids use sexual trickery to lure insect pollinators
• Orchid named UK's most popular houseplant
• Wayanad, hot spot of rare flora, shows up 3 new species
• National Geographic Feature Article: Orchids: Love and Lies
• Heard on NPR: Orchids: 'Inflatable Love Dolls Of The Floral Kingdom'
• Orchid growers hope for technological boost
• Sneaky Orchid Drives Wasps Wild
• Orchids Through Darwin's Eyes
• Taranaki couple to play part in Obama's big day
• It’s a Corsage Nightmare: An Orchid as Big as a Car
• Orchids: nature's sexy sirens
• Sexually deceived by orchids? Well I never!
• Tracing Tahitian vanilla
• Orchid sexual deceit has male wasps in a loved-up frenzy