Donna Ballard will speak to orchid growers who are beginners at the hobby.
The Malibu Orchid Society Monthly meeting, which is held in Hart Lounge at the Community Methodist Church in Pacific Palisades, will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16. The speaker will be Donna Ballard “A Culture Session: Orchids 101.” Light refreshments will be served, and all residents are invited to attend.
Her presentation of Orchids 101 will be geared toward beginner and intermediate growers. Orchids have four basic cultural needs: appropriate light levels, appropriate temperature levels, basic watering needs, and humidity requirements. Understanding these needs, growers will achieve success in growing and blooming orchids.
Ballard will share expert growing tips and demonstrate repotting techniques for various orchid genera. If a resident has an orchid plant and has questions about repotting, the speaker will likely have tips to accomplish a successful transfer.
She was born, raised and attended school in the San Fernando Valley. For more than 40 years she has been studying plants as a professional interior plant technician, a position she recently retired from.
For the past seven years, she served as a volunteer at the Huntington Botanical Gardens Thornton Estate Orchid Conservatory where she worked alongside Doug Overstreet who oversees the vast Thornton orchid collection.
Ballard is an active member of the Orchid Society of Southern California (OSSC) and an Accredited American Orchid Society Judge for the AOS Pacific South Judging Region. She serves on the AOS Board of Education and is currently the 1st Vice President of the San Fernando Valley Orchid Society. She frequently exhibits at both the Santa Barbara and Huntington Orchids Shows.
Her personal orchid collection numbers over 1400, and this is within an area of 485 sq. feet which encompasses her greenhouse, shade house and interior growing areas. Orchids she grows include Cattleyas, Paphiopedilums, Cymbidiums, Dendrobiums, Sarcochilus, miniature Vandas and Phalaenopsis orchids.
Do these orchids need to be repotted – and exactly how do you do that? Answers maybe forthcoming at a lecture about Orchids 101.