Orchid Guild August Meeting

Please join us on Sunday, August 10th at 1:30PM at the Albuquerque Garden Center when Peter Lin will present Wild, Weird and Wonderful Orchids:  A Portrait of Orchid Oddities! via Zoom. (email orchidsinabq@gmail.com for the link)

This fast paced presentation will take you on a journey of some of the world's most strange, bizarre, yet wonderful orchid species!  From Bulbophyllums to Zootrophion, there is much diversity in Orchid flowers.  We’ll take a look at Orchid flowers that have wild colors, have crazy lips, or are fringed, hairy, or just alien looking!

Peter started growing orchids over 40 years ago, but then stopped due to school and starting a career.  It wasn't until about 20 years ago that the orchid "bug" came back and he is now heavily involved once again!  He is an accredited judge with the American Orchid Society, and a hybridizer of mini-catts.  He enjoys meeting with other orchid enthusiasts, and can often be found at various orchid shows and societies around the country.

Due to limited growing space, Peter likes to specialize in miniature orchids, both species and hybrids, and has received numerous AOS awards.  His interests in orchids include Dendrobiums, Angraecoids, and Neofinetias.  He is also known as "Mr Sophronitis" as he has a passion for growing and collecting them.  He maintains a collection of a several thousand orchids at his home in Southern California in 3 small greenhouses, outdoors, as well as an offsite greenhouse.

Bring a friend. All are welcome

Petal Pushers Garden Club Meeting Minutes, June 24, 2025

submitted by Pam Walker

Meeting Location: The Garden Center, Grace Barnes Room

Speaker: Rose Kern, Master Gardener - “Scavenger Gardening”

https://www.solarranch.com

Rose has a great philosophy about scavenger gardening: it’s a mindset. With that mindset, she is always looking for ways to re-purpose ordinary items like wooden boxes, string, straw bales, wire racks, etc. She had dozens of stories and examples of how she transformed those items into beautiful and useful additions to her gardens. She digs holes in her garden to compost her kitchen waste along with old coffee grounds from Starbucks, and she drives around her neighborhood in the fall asking for bags of raked leaves for composting. She uses small restaurant take-out containers with clear lids as small greenhouses. She’s a fan of “snarfing” plants and cuttings from her neighbors, and usually collects the seeds from her grocery store produce.

She encouraged us to read the Foxfire books. It was an entertaining morning, and here’s her story about her visit today with Petal Pushers (PP): https://www.solarranch.com/scavenger-gardening-updates/

Business Meeting:

We had three visitors at this meeting, two of whom had heard about Petal Pushers at the Garden Center’s 50th anniversary celebration. At that event, PP was in charge of making and selling popcorn, but the popcorn machine was defective, and it kept tripping the electrical breakers wherever we plugged it in. The garden Council is getting a refund for the cost of renting the machine.

We have two members who have decided to become associate members of the PP garden club. This means that they will be welcome to attend meetings but will not be required to host a meeting or assist in Council events. One had been the PP representative to the garden Council, so she will be replaced by another of our members.

Susan summarized the lessons learned from the April plant sale. We did well selling daisies and geraniums, but petunias didn’t sell so well. Next year, we’ll buy strategically with this in mind.

We also have a better understanding of our Square credit card reader. It really improved our sales at the spring plant sale, but the fees take a chunk out of our profits. We can decrease the fees we pay to Square by paying our club dues by cash or check.

Petal Pushers’ new fiscal and program year begins every May 1, so we have been busy finding great speakers and field trips to do in 2025-26. Please sign up to host a meeting on the sign-up sheet that Susan has. All this information is being typed into the new PP yearbook which will be distributed soon.

July 18-19 is the annual Council flower show with the theme “Christmas in July”. Petal Pushers will decorate a 6-foot artificial Christmas tree with the theme of “Christmas in July is for the Birds”. We will be making the crafts to go on the tree at the Garden Center on July 9 from 9:00 – noon. Please come help for a while. We won the club competition at the flower show last summer, so let’s do it again!

Next Petal Pusher meeting: July 22, 2025, 9:30

We will visit the home of a PP friend to see her beautiful yard, veggies, and bee hives. No speaker, just a nice morning. Due to the bees, NO BRIGHT COLORS OR BLACK CLOTHING! WHITE OR CREAMS, if possible.

Orchid Guild June Meeting

Sunday, June 8th at 1:30PM at the Albuquerque Garden Center when Bill Thoms will present a program on Bulbophyllum culture via Zoom. (email orchidsinabq@gmail.com for the link)

Biography

Bill Thoms has grown and shown orchids for more than 45 years in the central Florida area. He has more awards for Culture in Bulbophyllums than anyone else in the world (51 so far) – and he and Doris Dukes together have 105 Cultural Awards in 30 different genera. The American Orchid Society has added a new Annual Award for the Bulbophyllums, the Bill Thoms Award. Bill gives talks all over the world on a wide range of topics ranging from his specialty, “Bulbophyllums”, to General Orchid Culture which is a favorite of most new growers. They all are presented in a funny style that helps growers understand how the plants work and they all revolve around the Culture of Orchids. He helps the beginner grower with lots of advice about fixing problems and has a wealth of accumulated information for the more advanced grower, too! No matter whether you have 1000s of orchids, just a few, or only one, Bill will give you tips to make them grow and bloom better. Many people say he is the best speaker they have ever heard. Come and see for yourself. He has a book, Bulbophyllums; the Incomplete Guide, From A to WHY?, which you may purchase from him. His web site (Bulbophyllums.com) has his book, special food and super eBook, which is more than 5 years' worth of videos of their plants, all his articles, fabulous photos and lots more. He and Doris now live near Greenville, South Carolina.

Bulbophyllums on the Sales Table - We will have a very nice selection of healthy mature blooming size plants available

25% Off Orchids

• Sales at the show were somewhat less than we had hoped for.

• Not to worry

• You will benefit.

• Most plants will be in bud/bloom and 25% discount off of marked prices

• Come early for the best selection