Greetings Orchid lovers!
The summer dormancy of the Utah Orchid Society has come to a close. Once again we will be gathering to exchange knowledge, show off some of our orchid successes and enjoying an out of town speaker!
- Date: Monday, September 10th
- Time: Door Opens: 7:00 PM, Meeting Start: 7:30 PM
- Location: Utah Associated Garden Clubs Garden Center, 1602 E 2100 S, Salt Lake City, Utah
- Join fellow members and Steve for dinner at The Dodo Restaurant located at 1355 E 2100 S staring at 5:30 pm
Don’t forget to bring plants for show and tell!
This month we will have speaker Steve Arthur of Steve Arthur Orchids! Steve has been growing orchids since 1972. He is an AOS judge and has 7 greenhouses totaling 10,000 square foot of growing space! Steve will be giving a talk on Central and South American orchid species and where they grow in nature. Steve will also be talking about potting with a cypress bark mix. Steve notes that this mix resists breakdown and can last 7 years!
Steve will be bringing over 100 bare root orchid plant species for sale. These plants will be Central and South American species (in conjunction with his talk) and a wide variety which will please both the home and greenhouse grower!
Steve is a scientist who worked for the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta and with the Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs for thirteen years doing research on animal tissue culture. For eight years, he taught middle school science in a private Catholic school in Augusta. He has two grown daughters.
Steve began growing orchids over thirty years ago. His current greenhouse in Graniteville, SC, where he and his wife now live, covers about 5,000 square feet of growing area. He grows a “mish-mash” of things but tends to focus on Cattleyas and has been making crosses for years. In his greenhouse lab, he also does contract work (such as sowing and harvesting seeds) for other nurseries. Steve is affiliated with Carter & Holmes, frequently selling plants for them at the big Florida shows, and is currently their Lab Manager.
He is also an accredited AOS Judge, and once a month, Steve drives to and from Graniteville to Greensboro to attend judging. If you visit Steve’s business, you enter his greenhouse via a large meeting room where his local orchid society meets and where he conducts classes on growing orchids. This meeting room is also home to sixteen birds— mostly Macaws but also Yellow Winged Parrots and Quaker Parrots. He purchased each of the birds while at orchid shows.
So come out and enjoy an orchid filled evening!
See you there!