For the month May we have Ron Parsons of South San Francisco, California. His photography and encyclopedic knowledge of orchids is known both nationally and internationally. He will be giving his presentation titled: Orchids of Sichuan China.
Ron plans on bringing plants for sale.
Dinner information to follow.
Bio infromation:
Ron Parsons has been growing orchids for going on 40 years and has been interested in and has grown species orchids for most of that time. He loves to photograph orchids and other flowers whenever he can, whether it be in collections or trips to see them in nature. Ron has approximately 40,000 digital images, most of which are orchids, and has a slide library of flower photographs that exceeds 100,000 images. He has about 2500 published photos that have appeared in magazines, periodicals, journals, and books. He was co-authored three books, all with Mary Gerritsen. The first two are called Masdevallias, Gems of the Orchid World and Calochortus, Mariposa Lilies and their Relatives, and a third book has just been published in January of 2014, a two-volume set called A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species. The most recent book has nearly 1200 pages, 1800 photographs, and features more than 500 species.
Orchids of Sichuan China:
In June of 2012 I was fortunate enough to attend a tour in the province of Sichuan, China led by Holger Perner and his wife, Wenqing to see Cypripediums and other native orchids in habitat. We traveled through the northern reaches of the province, seeing some of the most spectacular scenery and wildflowers I have ever seen. We visited two World Heritage Sites of such natural beauty, and traveled through different ethnic regions (although most of the people in this area are Tibetan), and our tour of six visitors had a truly incredible adventure. I had such a fantastic time I joined the tour for a second visit in 2013!