Next Meeting is on Thursday, November 17^th, 7:30 pm -10:00pm

Pleasant Hill Community Center
 320 Civic Drive - in the McHale Room

Cindy Hill Presents
"My Ten Favorite Orchids and Why I Love Them"

This is a personal tour of the orchids that she has come to appreciate more every year, including species from Coelogyne, Laelia, Dendrobium, Cochlioda, Cleisocentron, Neofinetia and Schoenorchids. The focus will be on the reasons she finds them so rewarding and sharing what she has learned about keeping them happy.

Cindy has been growing orchids for pleasure for over 40 years, beginning on a kitchen windowsill in St. Lewis with mail-order plants from Orchids by Hausermann, near Chicago. (Remember catalogs?) When she moved to southern California in 1982, she started growing plants outdoors on a small patio and in a 7x7 ft lean-to greenhouse in Solano Beach.  Finding microclimates of temperature, light and moisture in her small yard, she extended her growing area and collection.  Since moving to the Bay Area in 2005, she now grows around 700 species orchids in an intermediate greenhouse.  Plants she has cultivated have received the highest cultural and quality awards, as well as the Benjamin Kodama and Carlyle A. Luer Annual Awards from the American Orchid Society.

Cindy served as Acting Editor of Orchid Digest magazine for five years and has been  member of the Publication Committee  of both the AOS and Orchid Digest.  Her articles have appeared in both magazines as well as in Die Orchideen Journal.  She has volunteered as a docent  for the California Academy of Sciences and has been an accredited AOS judge.  Observing orchids in the wild in Madagascar, Borneo, the Philippines, Hon Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Guatemala, Ecuador and Peru has helped her develop an understanding of what an orchid's natural habitat looks, sounds, smells and feels like, which she applies to her cultivation methods.

Plant Table will be provided by Cindy Hill

Speaker’s Dinner is at 5:30 pm at BJ's, 385 Sun Valley Mall, Concord, CA 94520 
Everyone is welcome to attend and meet our speaker before the meeting. If you can join us, please contact Eileen Jackson by the Tuesday 11/17 for reservation purposes. Find tel # in the roster.