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so I convinced Diane to let me put in a 6-foot x 8-foot greenhouse in the
Dave’s
Greenhouse backyard. A neighbor and I assembled the greenhouse, I built the benches
on which to put my orchids, installed equipment to control the tempera-
ture and humidity and now I had a place where I could put my ever-
expanding collection. That greenhouse is where I still have many of my
orchids although I also have them on the patio, out by the fence and in
the house. My collection now consists of over 200 different kinds of or-
chids.

During this time, I became friends with Nancy Donner and David Komar.
Nancy has been growing orchids a lot longer than I have (over 20 years)
and we had discussed the idea of having an orchid group here at The
Club. I asked Shannon about it and she thought a SIG orchid group was a
great idea. So, we started working on that a few years back and that’s when the orchid group was born. It’s been a SIG since 2017. Over the
course of that time, I think we’ve probably given away hundreds of orchids to our members. We have done many repotting classes over the years
and people have taken home orchids from many of our meetings/events to start their own collections. Most people end up with their orchids dying
but the key is to keep trying. As Nancy and David and I will tell you, you have to kill a lot of orchids in order to learn how to really take care of
them. If I had become discouraged after killing those 44 original orchids, I would never have learned as much as I have about orchids and how to
take care of them. And I’m still learning today.

As most of you know, the orchid group now tries to keep a blooming orchid down on the front desk at The Retreat. This is part of our passion for
growing orchids. We love to share our hobby and between the 3 of us, we always have something in bloom. And because we have things in
bloom, we want to share that with our fellow members in the community. Seeing a beautiful blooming orchid will usually help bring a smile to
someone’s face. It also gives us an opportunity to show our community the diversity of the orchid world. By putting things that you might not
otherwise see down at The Retreat, it gives you a glimpse into the wonderful
world of orchids.
As I mentioned a while back, I’ve been pretty active in the Sacramento Orchid
Society for quite a few years now. And this year I took the leap and became Presi-
dent of the Society. Little did I realize how much work that was going to be. It’s a
good thing that I’m nearing retirement and working less hours because I’m not
sure I’d be able to cut it if I didn’t have the time to dedicate to it. And this has
been a very challenging year for the Society. For at least the last 10+ years, we’ve
held our annual show at the same place. This year, that place decided to kick us to
the curb in January. I had to really scramble to find a new home for our show. But,
we were able to secure a venue and the show will be bigger and better than ever.
Dave’s first
Over the last few years, I’ve also been very involved with the SOS show. A few show garden
years ago, they asked me if I would be willing to create the Society’s display for
the show. I had never done anything like that but I am always up for a challenge so I took it on. It turned out much better than I expected and I
ended up receiving the trophy for the best garden in the show. After that, I ended up doing 3 out of the last 4 gardens at the show for the Society.
This year, it’s David Komar’s turn to do the garden. Being an artist, I think he’ll come up with something amazing.
Speaking of our show, I’d like to invite everyone to come to the show. This is a great opportunity to experience the wonderful world of orchids.
While you may not see all 35,000+ orchid species there, you will see hundreds of different types of orchids and other plants. And you’ll have the
opportunity to start your own orchid collection by visiting one of the many orchid and plant vendors who will be there. We’ll be carpooling to the
show and given the new, closer location this year, it should be something that everyone
Dave’s second can attend.
show garden
I want to say a special thank you to Nancy Donner and David Komar for taking the reins
of the Orchid Group
Dave’s third this year so that I can
show garden focus more on the
Orchid Society. And I
especially want to
give a huge thank you
to my wife Diane for
indulging me all these
years with my obses-
sion, I mean hobby.

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