Next Meeting is on Thursday, March 9^th, 7:15 pm -10:00pm

Contra Costa Water District Building Board Room
 1331 Concord Ave. Concord, CA

Neal Winslow:  Growing Odontoglossum Orchids

     Neal, and his wife Sue, started growing orchids in the 70’s, starting with phalaenopsis orchids from the Rod McLellan Co. on the end of his kitchen table. When there wasn’t enough room for Neal and Sue to eat dinner they built a small greenhouse on the driveway. 
     In the early 80’s Neal left his job at SRI to take over the houseplant business at a local nursery. Of course, orchids were heavily featured at the 3000 sq ft greenhouse that housed the houseplant business. After only a few years, the nursery was sold for development and Neal took a job with Zoecon Corp where his friend Gerardus Staal worked. Neal worked in as a Research Biologist in Herbicide Development at Zoecon/Sandoz Crop Protection until the facility closed 16 years later. 
     In the meantime, Neal and Sue rented growing space from Robert Wescott/Herb Hagar, and later Bob Jones in Watsonville, and sold orchids at orchid sales and faires. The long drive to Watsonville each weekend eventually wore them   down and they built a greenhouse at their East Palo Alto home. 
Initially Neal grew Cattleyas and other warm growers, but over time switched to growing primarily Miltoniopsis and SLCs under intermediate conditions. About four years ago, Neal switched over to growing cool growers, especially Odontoglossums, which he had always wanted to grow.

    The talk will include discussion on cool conditions, culture, plants to grow, and some tips on selecting Odontoglossum alliance plants for other temperature ranges.

Visit the Diablo View Orchid Society page on Facebook: 

It is a CLOSED GROUP page, to which only members can post orchid related pictures and comments. To become a member use this link 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1688682468073346/?ref= ts&fref=ts
and someone will contact you and invite you to the group.