OOS members love to bring their beautiful orchids to the monthly meeting’s “show table” and share with others their cultural techniques for growing such specimens. OOS Meetings provide the perfect opportunity to do that!
OOS member Douglas showed a few Miltoniopsis orchids from his cool glasshouse (fall–spring days in the mid 60s to low 70s, nights to 45°F; summer days in the low to mid 80s, nights to 58°F). He grows them under the dappled shade of hanging basket ferns. All of them were delightfully fragrant! Mps. Pink Lemonade ‘Soyo’ is an orchid he purchased from Longwood Gardens in 2011. It was originally grown by Matsui Nursery. Douglas loves the beautiful waterfall pattern. Although the white Miltoniopsis with red spots lost its tag years ago, it, too, is from Longwood, and Douglas thinks it might be from the grex Hudson Bay. He showed two red waterfall Miltoniopsis from the same grex Lennart Karl Gottling. In the photo, the one on the left is the cultivar #12 and the one on the right is the cultivar Red Rim. Douglas shared with members that a grex name is assigned to the seed resulting from a given cross. In this case, the grex Lennart Karl Gottling is assigned to the cross Mps. Timberline × Mps. Pearl Ono, which was registered by I.N. Komoda with the Royal Horticultural Society in 2001. To date, twelve plants from this cross have received awards from the American Orchid Society, the highest being an Award of Merit with 83 points.
OOS member Gabriel told us that he grows most of his orchids at home by the windowsills.