April Members’ Meeting

Join us for our April meeting, featuring guest speaker Steve González. Steve will talk with us about beginner-to-intermediate orchid care. Whether you’re new to orchids or have been growing for a while, Steve’s talk is sure to be enlightening in helping us become better growers.

Steve González Bio

Steve González has been growing orchids for 50 years. He is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico. There, he worked with orchids in a local garden center and then gained more experience working with the collection of the Botanical Gardens of the University of Puerto Rico, then to Pennock Gardens, the largest wholesale/retail garden center on the Island at that time.

After college, Steve returned to learn to grow orchids near windows, under fluorescent lights, and then under high-pressure sodium lamps. Most of his plants do grow outdoors in the summer months. Residing in Minnesota provides the opportunity to grow many types of plants which could never be grown in the Caribbean. Most of the plants he enjoys are intermediate temperature growing, which require slightly higher humidity. He has enjoyed exhibiting plants at the local meetings and regional orchid shows.

Steve has traveled extensively, walking through many orchid habitats and commercial greenhouses around the world. He has enjoyed observing habitat and cultivation of orchids in his native Puerto Rico, Northern Minnesota, Brasil, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and throughout CentralAmerica. Steve has also enjoyed visiting many museums and Botanical Centers in this hemisphere and the grand Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London.

Steve has been a member of the Orchid Society of Puerto Rico, Greater Cleveland Orchid Society, West Shore Orchid Society and Orchid Society of Western Pennsylvania. He subscribes and is a member of the American Orchid Society, Orchid Digest, The International Phalaenopsis Alliance, APO (Associação Portuguesa de Orquidofilia), and the local Orchid Society of Minnesota since 1990 where he has held various board positions and is a past President. Steve is currently an American Orchid Society (AOS) Judge and the current Chairperson of the regional AOS Chicago Judging Center.

Publications:

• ORCHIDS - Harlequin Phals, Paph sukhakulii - I see Spots!, Great Ideas: Water Temperature, the last challenge, Cymbidium Hybrids: Then and Now, Maxillarias: A Complex and Variable Genus (2-part) Brachypetalums & their Hybrids, Growing & Showing Orchids in Portugal, Judging an Outreach Show in Brasil. GREAT IDEAS: All About Peanuts, heating RO water

• ORCHIDS & ORCHIDEEN - Three Fabulous Cattleyas from Brazil (2 part ORCHID MAG, 4 part, Orchideen)

• ORCHID DIGEST - Large White Phalaenopsis Breeding

• AOS Webinar: Judging those Diminutive Pleurothallids & Growing Brachys & their Hybrids

Agenda

11:00 am Meet and Greet, Pullman Room

11:15-11:45 New Member Orientation discussion and presentation, Alsdorf Auditorium

11:55 am Please have your plants and tags on the display tables for judging

12:15 pm Plant judging starts

Cast your vote for People’s Choice

12:30 pm Short business meeting for all members, Alsdorf Auditorium

1:00 pm Steve González on Beginner-to-Intermediate Orchid Care

2:30 pm Meeting adjourns

Please note: Recording of Illinois Orchid Society meetings, presentations, or speakers is prohibited without prior written consent.