Tuesday, March 16, 2021
OSMT meeting is online!

7 pm CST: Mary E. Gerritsen, Ph.D. on “Masdevallias: Selected Species and How to Grow Them“
Location: Zoom Online Meeting

Mary E. Gerritsen, Ph.D. has been interested in plants for most of her adult life, and has been growing orchids on and off for the last 40 years, despite several cross country moves as part of her “other life” as a biomedical scientist. Her passion for orchids was rekindled when she moved to the San Francisco Bay area in 1997 and attended an orchid show. Returning home with a few plants, she decided to join a local orchid society to learn more about taking care of them, and from these beginnings, her current passion grew exponentially! Now Mary truly has put her roots down, and has orchids in two greenhouses, five lath houses, her front porch, sun room, and anywhere else she can put them. Her collection of about two thousand plants, mostly species, is rich in masdevallias and other miniature orchids of many different genera. She has co-authored five botanical books with co-author and photographer Ron Parsons “Masdevallias, Gems of the Orchid World”, “Calochortus, Mariposa Lilies and their Relatives”, “A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species”, “A Bay Area Guide to Orchids and their Culture” and most recently “The American Orchid Society Guide to Orchids and their Culture”.  Mary has served as a president and vice president for both the Peninsula and San Francisco Orchid Societies, and is currently chief operating officer and treasurer of the Orchid Conservation Alliance and a director of the Orchid Digest. 

Mary’s presentation Masdevallias, Selected Species and How to Grow Them provides a little background about the genus Masdevallia and the major subsections, a photographic survey of my favorite species with a little information about their growing conditions, followed by a careful consideration of general cultural requirements, pests and diseases.