Carol Helen Beule
Carol Helen Beule, who annually helps create the Southern California Orchid Society’s display for the Huntington’s annual October orchid show, will be this month’s speaker for the Malibu Orchid Society meeting. Beule will speak on “The Genus Lycaste” at 7 p.m., on Tuesday, May 21, in the Hart Lounge, at the Community Methodist Church, 801 Via de la Paz.
The meeting is open to all residents, and even novices will find some information that is useful in growing these lovely and exotic plants.
Native to the New World, Lycaste orchids are found from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn. There are two types of species, warm growing and cool growing, and their conditions and appearances are quite different.
While plants are often considered to be a greenhouse orchid, when their specific needs are met, they can be grown along with Cattleyas and other outdoor growing, temperate-climate range orchids, which seem to thrive in this area of Southern California. Lycaste can easily become very large specimen plants.
Beule will speak on Lycaste Orchids.
Before becoming known in the orchid world, Beule was an Emmy award winning Costume Designer for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
She received her master’s degree in fine arts in costume and lighting design from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. For the first 15 years of her career, she lived in New York City and worked on theater productions and television shows before moving to Southern California in 1994.
Working for more than 40 years as a professional costume designer Beule has designed for film, commercials, stage and television, which has included Robo Warriors, The Specials and Dreamgirls.
After retiring, Beule started making ceramic pots for the Japanese/Korean/Chinese orchid called the Neofinetia (Vanda) falcata, Asian Cymbidiums and other small plants.
In her search to find the perfect plant that would grow where she lived in Studio City, she discovered the Japanese orchid called Neofinetia (Vanda) falcata – and various other species that thrive outside. Lycaste is one of those species.
Beule is a Fully Accredited American Orchid Society Judge and the 1st VP of the Orchid Society Southern California.
Over the past 28 years, she has grown various forms of Paphiopedilum, Phalaenopsis, Cattleya, Laelia, Dendrobium, Sarcochilus and Asian Cymbidiums in two small greenhouses and her outdoor growing area.
This is another example of genus Lycaste.