SPEAKER BIO

One of my passions has always been plants. I began growing orchids as an offshoot from working at

Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia just after college. From the very beginning it was all about Paphs,

particularly awarded and select clones of historic importance, of which my collection numbers nearly

3000. I currently manage the paphs at Sunset Valley Orchids, and do hybridizing in a wide range of

genera. I am an accredited judge with the American Orchid Society, and have served in various

capacities with various orchid societies in California and on the East Coast. I love meeting other people

who like orchids too, and doing so often finds me traveling to shows, vendors, and peoples’ greenhouses

to see the latest and greatest in new hybrids and to get the best orchid gossip. I like to be involved in

plants as much as possible: in addition to Longwood, I’ve worked at the Smithsonian Institution tending

to their orchids, and for years for the United States National Arboretum, collecting rare plants and

documenting cultivated species and hybrids for their herbarium. In short, I really like plants.

For your meeting, I’ll be sharing a presentation on Parvisepalum paphs, one of my favorite groups of

orchids. I’m so excited to present on these – they are just delightful! These plants are easy to grow and

flower, are vigorous, and have low demands on light and fertilizer, can be grown easily on windowsills

with a minimum of heat, and as such are wonderful plants! I will help identify some of the important

species in the backgrounds of modern Parvi paph hybrids, and discuss some hybrids you’re likely to

encounter when purchasing them. By the end of this presentation, you will have a new appreciation of

their beautiful flowers and ease-of-growth, and will much better able to select plants that best fit your

own growing conditions.

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