Our speaker this month was Dennis Olivas - a man with a serious orchid problem.
He's also a good cook. Some of our speakers want to have dinner with us so we treat them to a home cooked meal at our club president's house. It is always my job to cook the fish but Dennis said "have you ever tried..... ?" He ended up cooking, me assisting. We had fresh coho salmon slathered with mayonnaise and coated with furikake. I will definitely try this at home.
Anyway, Dennis owns 15,000 orchids. He keeps them in three 3,000 foot greenhouses in Daly City, CA. He's got all sorts of credentials but he is the most lay back orchidiot I think I have ever met.
Question: What do you like to use as a planting medium.
Answer: What do you have in front of you?
Question: What fertilizer do you use?
Answer: Anything with equal numbers mixed at quarter strength.
He also added that if you bought the pink, blue and yellow fertilizers, mix them all together and next time, don't bother. And that Miracle Gro was originally invented for orchids.
He brought orchids for sale of course. It looked like a feeding frenzy but I came away with:
Masdevallia Bella Donna x Masd. Infracta
Stanhopea nigroviolacea species 'Black Tiger' x self
Cattleya Quinquecolor
Cattleya Penny's Dream 'Tri-lip' (flowers just starting to open)
All for $75.
