Past DVOS Meeting

Peter started growing orchids 35 years ago, but then stopped due to school and starting a career. It wasn’t until about 14 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 he 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 thousand or more orchids at his home in Southern California in three small greenhouses, outdoors, as well as at an offsite greenhouse.

The Plant Table will be provided by Peter Lin

DVOS Meeting Speaker: Jeff Trimble will be talking about Cymbidiums

Jeff Trimble started growing orchids in 1972 when his mother gave him two flowering cymbidiums that she did not want. He joined his first orchid club in 1975. By 1978 Jeff was show chairman for the Peninsula Orchid Society, a member of the Santa Clara Valley Orchid society, and president of Malihini orchid society.

In 1980 he was asked to be the VP and then President of the San Francisco Orchid Society. Jeff took on the task of Show Chairman at the Pacific Orchid Exposition one year and later was a co-founder of Orchids in the Park.

He is currently president of the Peninsula Orchid Society, past president of the Cymbidium Society of America, a past president of the Gold Coast Cymbidium Growers, a CSA judge, and the judging chairman for Northern California for CSA.

Jeff grows Cymbidiums, Odontoglossums, Cattleya alliance, and many species in an unheated greenhouse in Pacifica

The Plant Table will be provided by Jeff Trimble

After receiving his degree in biochemistry from the University of Toronto, Dave opted to step outside his chosen field and operated a tropical fish import business for eight years.
Upon returning to school, Dave received a degree in enology and viticulture from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. While attending Brock, Dave began acquiring orchids one 2” pot at a time and before he graduated, Dave had over 100 orchids. Winemaking and a passion for orchids prompted Dave to seek a warmer climate in California about one year later.
Dave has been growing Paphiopedilums for about 12 years and seriously hybridizing for the past 8 years. His Paphiopedilums have received 75 awards to date from the American Orchid Society, with many of those awarded plants playing important roles in his

DVOS Meeting Speaker: Steven Beckendorf – Why are there so many orchids?

Orchids are the largest family of flowering plants, with about 30,000 species. How did they become so successful?

Recently, a combination of molecular analyses and orchid fossils has made it possible to estimate the rate of orchid evolution. The results show that orchid evolution has sped up at least three times since the most primitive orchids appeared. These accelerations produced not only the huge increase in the number of orchid species, but also the extravagant diversification of shape, color, and pollination mechanisms that fascinate us. I’ll describe some of the genetic and environmental changes that allowed these accelerations.

Steve started growing orchids in the early 1980s and quickly became fascinated by Odontoglossums and their close relatives because of their beauty and variety. They had a glamorous past as the most sought after plants in the orchid frenzy that gripped Europe in the 19th century. In addition, excellent hybrids were available from growers and hybridizers on the West Coast.

He soon realized that few of the species in this group were readily available and began collecting them for propagation and use in hybridizing. His attempt to find unusual or lost species has led to many trips to the cloud forests of Mexico & South America.

As a geneticist and developmental biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, Steve has worked on the mechanisms that define tissues and organs in early animal embryos. Because of this background, he has been interested in several of the scientific aspects of orchids, including molecular taxonomy and deceptive pollination strategies.

Steve is passionately involved in orchid conservation and is a director of the Orchid Conservation Alliance (OCA) and a member of the Conservation Committee of the American Orchid Society. He is also an accredited AOS judge.

The Plant Table will be provided by Dennis Olivas D&D Orchids