president's message

October 2019

(NOTE: This column will rotate each month to the board member assigned to lead the previous monthly meeting. September’s Acting President is Erin Maxick.)

Don’t you just love this time of year? So much going on in the orchid world! A big thanks to our fantastic October speaker, Tim Culbertson, for the fun and informative talk on soft leafed orchids and for bringing such lovely plants for the raffle and sale table. Tim took the flower off of my Kefersteinia (one of the orchids he spoke about) to take home to harvest the pollen! Hopefully he will use it well and my next flowering will bring more than one flower! In other news, the Huntington Show was delightful as always. Carol and our hardworking team of OSSC volunteers built a gorgeous display. Thank you to all who participated and entered plants!

 Along with many other awards, Alfred Hockenmaier took home the award for 2nd best plant in the entire show for his Dendrobium Hibiki!! Well done! Many other members won ribbons including Junaid, who took home his first ever! Congrats, Junaid! It was a beautiful show! This month, it’s time to plan our travels up to Santa Barbara for the open houses. And our own Donna will be speaking on “Growing Under Lights.” Don’t forget that in December we will be having our holiday party in lieu of a regular meeting. More on that to come!

Wishing you all the very best,

Erin

erin's fun fact

Did you make it to the Huntington Gardens Orchid show last month? If so you would have seen the 3 beautiful painting sets of African birds and orchids in our display, but were you aware that they were painted by our very own OSSC member Jeff Fonda? Carol Beule came up with the fantastic idea of including African birds and orchids to honor the theme of the show, “Orchid Safari” and she asked Jeff if he would create the paintings. We’re so glad he said yes!

Jeff has been painting on and off since high school when he took his one and only art class. With little formal training, and primarily self-taught/practiced, it’s easy to see he’s got some serious natural talent!! Jeff had taken a 5 year haitus from painting before picking up his brushes recently to create a painting for his niece’s birthday and then our display art! He uses mainly acrylic paints and absolutely loves to paint animals and plants. When asked what he likes most about painting he said, “It’s a good distraction, I like making something I like, and the creative process.” Believe it or not, Jeff has kept only one of his own paintings as he always feels compelled to give them away! Lucky recipients! A major thanks to Jeff for creating and sharing such lovely art. You helped make our display a true stand out of the show, and so very special!