Tuesday, March 20, 2018
OSMT Meeting at Cheekwood

— Please note: April’s meeting will be on April 3rd —

7 pm Presentation: Mike Rollinger on “The 22nd World Orchid Conference & Orchids of Ecuador”

Location: Cheekwood Botanical Gardens – directions, 1200 Forrest Park Drive Nashville Tennessee 37205

Mike Rollinger has been growing orchids alongside his father since the early 90s. He has been involved with the hobby in several forms including being a past president of the Batavia Orchid Society and as the AOS Show Chairman for the Chicago Suburban Orchid Show from 2010 to 2018. Mike graduated with a minor in Horticulture and major in Landscape Architecture from Purdue University in 2006. His hobbies outside of growing orchids include photography. You can all see some of his recent work in the January 2018 issue of The American Orchid Society “ORCHIDS” magazine (three photos on page 63).

For both the March and April OSMT meetings, Mike will be talking to the society as a two part discussion. The first part will focus on the 22nd World Orchid Conference/Show that took place in Guayaquil, Ecuador last November; and from there he will Segway into the details of an 8 day tour taken through the Andes Mountains and Amazon Basin which was put on by Ecuagenera (an Ecuadorian greenhouse). “Ecuagenera Cia. Ltda.” is a family owned company specialized in the production and the conservation of orchid species and hybrids. Ecuagenera also put’s on tours for those interested in exploring Ecuador for Orchids, provided the 6,000+ known species existing throughout the country.

Mike will talk through all aspects of his trip including growing culture at each of Ecuagenera’s greenhouses visited, as well as talk about the climate conditions for the many beautiful orchids observed in-situ. The videos and photos shown will provide everyone with a better understanding of the often times harsh growing conditions that some of our cherished orchids grow. There is quite a bit to cover, as you can conclude from his talk covering two meetings. However, understanding that the tour group came across 140 species in-situ of which 6 species have yet to be formally named, the imagery and information will be greatly worth all the time covered.