I don't have hobbies, I have obsessions…

What a better way to spend Father’s Day than engaging in one of my hobbies/obsessions!

Early in the afternoon, the Brookside Gardens Orchid Club had their meeting, at which Julia Redman gave a talk on Orchid hybridization, flasking, and seedling development, in which she described how to pollinate orchids and raise the seed.  Having had some exposure to plant tissue culture through my experiences with GWAPA, it was reassuring to see that growing out orchid seed uses most of the same techniques, with just slight changes in the protocol (the sterilizing techniques, growth media, and schedule to replating).  It was an excellent talk and I learned a lot, enough to perhaps try my hand at pollinating orchids and raising the seeds (more on that below).

Julia also brought a number of orchids for sale (she grows and sells orchids through her website), and I bought two Paphiopedilum hybrids – S. Gratrix and Paph (Puck’s Apple x gardineri).

BGOC members had numerous gorgeous orchids on display, but the one that really caught my attention was a beautiful Phalaenopsis equestris Chryss Mavrides brought.  I love orchid species (the world of Orchid hybrids is just so complicated that for a newbie like me, it’s just much easier to concentrate on species), and Phals and Paphs are my primary interest.  This gorgeous plant had been in continuous bloom for three and a half years, and had numerous very long spikes from which new flowers bloomed on a regular basis.  And when a given spike stopped flowering, it created keikis, essentially baby plants with leaves and roots that can be separated from the mother plant to yield new plants.  Utterly beautiful and fascinating, I really need to obtain one of these orchids!

After the BGOC meeting, the National Capital Orchid Society (NCOS) had their annual picnic just down the road, and Chryss from BGOC secured an invitation for all BGOC members, so I went to that as well.  What a blast!  Clearly, these are cool and fun people who share a passion for orchids.  There was no formal talk, but good socializing, and I met several people who shared their experiences and knowledge of orchids.  They had an orchid swap table, where anyone who had contributed could pick an item, as well as an auction, and something I’d never seen before – orchid Bingo.  You buy a card (the columns, instead of being B-I-N-G-O, were O-R-CH-I-D, cute, eh?), and whoever wins gets to go up to the table and pick the orchid of their choice.  There were close to fifteen orchids on that table, so as the game got into the early evening, it became obvious that more orchids per game needed to be awarded, and I ended up winning an entire tray with five orchids in it!  (Which is why it really pays to stick around until the end of hobbyist club meetings!)

In the auction, I won three orchids:

• A beautiful Oncidium Alosuka ‘Claire’ that is in bloom with close to a dozen beautiful yellow flowers, and
• An Oncidium Mendenhall ‘Hildos’ FCC/AOS with two spikes, and
• An awesome Doritis pulcherrima with nine spikes and numerous tiny blooms.

In the orchid bingo, I won a tray of orchids that contained:

• An Epidendrum floribundum x Encyclia linearfoloides that is in bloom, with two spikes with 31 flowers on one spike and 38 buds on the other spike, and
• Burrageara Nelly Isler ‘Swiss Miss’ in bloom with four flowers and 10 buds on two spikes, and
• A Paphiopedilum niveum (‘In Charm BM/TPS’ x sub ‘Yuan BM/TPS’) that is in bud, and
• An Oncidium alosuka ‘Claire’ that is in bud on one spike, with close to twenty buds (I think I’ll try crossing this to the other one I won in the auction), and
• A Tolumnia Genting Angel with four spikes, one of which has seven flowers, with the other three in bud.

All in all, I came home on this awesome Father’s Day with 10 new orchids, many of which are in bloom or in bud.  I’ll get pictures up as soon as I can take and process them.