News

Illinois Orchid Society member Kay Perry was selected as a judge for the 23rd World Orchid Conference held earlier this year in Taiwan. In her article, World Orchid Conference 2024, Kay shares highlights and amazing photos for us to see what it was like to be there.

A new series of articles has been created to share more information about some of the plants of the month selected by the IOS judges at our member meetings. The articles have a Q&A format, in which IOS member John Hockberger conducts an interview with the grower of an orchid that has received special recognition. You can find these articles on the Specialized Topics page, under Resources.

For the last few months, the website committee has worked to deliver a new website for the Society and prospective members alike. Our new website was created to reflect the vibrancy of the Society, make it easy to plan for upcoming meetings, provide orchid growing guidance from IOS experts, and share photos of orchids in bloom from our monthly meetings and orchid shows.

Visitors enjoyed 22 exhibits of live orchid flowers and artwork. The show featured 350 blooming orchids selected for the competition from the private collections of many orchid growers from greater Chicago

Two new orchid species were discovered in Sri Lanka, Gastrodia munasinghae and Gastrodia thilakapremae. The scientific journal Phytotaxa reported that both are critically endangered.