Next Meeting: MONDAY, July 12th at 7 p.m.
Hosted by Englewood Area Orchid Society
Speaker: Katie Caldwell
Topic: Growing Tolumnias

Katie Caldwell has been growing orchids for 25 years and specializes in Vandas, equitants and Broughtonia species and hybrids. She was an ecology major in college and always liked tropical botany. She was encouraged to grow orchids by a friend of her inlaws, Ruth Fox. Ruth was quite a honcho in the orchid world and even maintained a condo in Hawaii because of her interest. Katie joined an orchid circle that was part of the St. Petersburg Garden Club and her interest grew. She now has 1,000 feet of growing area.

Katie will be speaking on Equitants oncidiums, now in a separate genus Tolumnia. These were some of the first orchids she grew and they are near and dear to her heart. Katie writes “I received a CCM of 86 pts for one at the Englewood show. I also did some hybridizing last year and have flasks going.”

Katie is a past vice president of West Coast Orchid Society and the Venice Area Orchid

Society. In 2006, she received an FCC/AOS for her Renanthera Mauricette Brin.