president's message

January 2020

Happy New Year to one and all!

2019 is officially behind us and it’s time to launch into an exciting 2020! We have a fantastic line up of speakers, plus many orchid activities and field trips to look forward to! Orchid world rock star Fred Clarke, of Sunset Valley Orchids, will be starting our year off with a bang; and while we have many of our favorite regular speakers on the line up, we also have a few new folks planning a visit! A sneak preview of our speaker schedule will be hitting your email boxes soon.

 Thank you all for coming out to celebrate at our annual holiday party and to all who worked so hard to make it such a lovely event! For those that missed the party, I’m back as your society president for another year and we’re over the moon to welcome members Francisco Shoji Ramos and Jack Zhu to the board of directors! We’re still seeking volunteers in the areas of membership and hospitality/food. Both are very easy and fun roles and a great way to get involved and support our fabulous society!

This year we’re planning some fun extra-curricular activities including bringing back our in-home species meetings, where members can show and share their species orchids and we all get an even greater opportunity to learn. Additionally, we’re planning a weekend orchid painting lesson lead by talented member Jeff Maude, visits to members’ homes to see their collections and a new “meet a member” section of our newsletter!

Please reach out to me if you are open to hosting. Thank you all for your enthusiasm, participation, and support of our wonderful society. Here’s to a fresh and fantastic coming year with the OSSC and beyond!

All the best,

Erin

erin's fun fact

Have you ever considered wearing an orchid on your head?

Award–winning Irish haute couture milliner Philip Treacy made it a reality. This highly creative and talented milliner has been described by Vogue magazine as "perhaps the greatest living milliner" and I can see why!

Mr. Treacy became inspired by orchids saying, “I was overwhelmed by their diversity of colors, shapes and patterns.” He had originally set out to design one orchid hat in celebration of National Orchid Day but, “found that it did not reflect the beautiful variations of the orchid.” Mr. Treacy designed 3 hats based on his appreciation of the Phalaenopsis, the Oncidium, and the Vanda. Feast your eyes on these gorgeous hats!

Here is a short video with Mr. Treacy in his studio, talking about his loving of orchids and hat making. Have a look, I think you’ll really enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx-Ja4Tzl6E