President's Letter

February 2026

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We had a terrific meeting on Sunday, January 18th at the Spartan Event Center in Hazelwood, in spite of the cold weather.  Over 60 members attended.

 

Dave Miller gave a very informative and entertaining talk on what AOS judges look for in exhibits, helping us to understand the basics of creating a great orchid exhibit for our show. Carol Panza had lots of members for her Mini-Class on Culture and Repotting of Catasetinae.

Thank you both!

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The OSWP Board voted to donate $100 each to the American Orchid Society, Mid-American Orchid Congress, Slipper Orchid Alliance, Orchid Digest and the National Capital Judging Center. These organizations do so much to help us all learn more about orchids. The Board also decided to sell or donate all the orchid books in our library, now stored in Lori Beth and Mike Bloom’s house. At our meetings the books are being sold for $1 each and also will be sold at our show. It’s a great opportunity to read about different kinds of orchid and various orchid information.

 

Get involved! Now is the time to see how you can help with our 2026 Orchid Show in the South Hills at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The show will be in April, because of a hotel booking issue. Our show will be 4/9 – 4/12, open to the public 4/11 – 4/12. We need your help! Go to the OSWP website and sign up to volunteer.

 

We hope to see you on Sunday afternoon, February 15th, at the Spartan Event Center in Hazelwood for our monthly meeting with OSWP member orchid sales orchid books sales (great orchid books for just $1), mini-class, business meeting, show and tell, raffle plus a great speaker. And we have great treats as always! Hope you can join us.

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Think Orchids!

Gary VanGelder and Demetria Marsh