Oak Hill Gardens
September Newsletter

-Fall New Offerings  

-Chicagoland Orchid Festival 
In This Issue
Fall New Offerings
Special of the Month
Growing Tip of the Month
Quick Links
New Offerings
Join Our List
Join Our Mailing List
Issue: # 60
September 2011
Dear Friend,

Bulbo eberhardtii

Bulbophyllum eberhardtii

As usual in September, we have big news.  This is the time of year we publish a "supplemental" plant list, i.e. items new to us that were not available here at Oak Hill in the spring.  We call it our
"Fall New Offerings" list, and it can be
 found by clicking on the link below:

Fall New Offerings 

 

There are over 100 new orchid varieties for sale here at Oak Hill

Otaara Jane Fumiye

Otaara Jane Fumiye 'Hawaii' AM/AOS

Gardens and ready for shipment immediately.  Check them out at the link above! 

 

If they are still available, you may also pick them up at the:

 

Chicagoland Orchid Festival   

 

This 19th annual festival takes place on Fri-Sat-Sun  

September 23-24-25, 2011.  It takes place here at  

Oak Hill Gardens and also at three other nurseries (four separate locations) here in the Chicagoland area over that three day weekend.  Here at Oak Hill the Festival features the following:

 

-Special sale pricing on selected items

-Guest growers with plants for sale

-Free speakers programs for your education

-Free plants with every purchase

-Free food  

-Prize drawings worth a total of $1000 

 

All the information you need about Oak Hill Gardens events/info during the festival can be found at the Chicagoland Orchid Festival website at the link below:

 

Chicagoland Orchid Festival at Oak Hill Gardens  

 


Come and enjoy the fun and the camaraderie at this great event!   

 

Lc Bowri-albida 'Pink Lady'

Lc Bowri-albida 'Pink Lady'

Check out our special of the month below, as we have a great orchid favorite back in stock and ready for you to enjoy this winter spring season.  

 

Also, Liese has some advice on how to make your hobby more enjoyable in her "Orchid Growing Tip of the Month", at the bottom of this page.  Don't miss it!

 

See you at the festival!

 

Best wishes,

Greg 

 

 

Fall New Offerings

Paph Ho Chi Minh
Paphiopedilum

Ho Chi Minh

 New and Exciting Orchids in Stock!

This is the time of year that we do an extensive expansion of our website.  We have many new items in stock for the orchid collector.  Check out all 13 pages of the list at the link below:

 

Fall New Offerings 

  

Aerangis fastuosa

Aerangis fastuosa

Epi pseudepidenrum

Epidendrum pseudepidendrum

September Special of the Month
Phal Mini Mark
Phalaenopsis

Mini Mark 'Holm'


Phalaenopsis Mini Mark 'Holm' 

We have been importing this miniature favorite for many years now, and we always sell out!  They are back in stock now, and are bigger and better plants than ever before.  Get yourself a blooming size Mini Mark now for only $19.99.   

They should bloom during the coming winter/spring season with several 1" diameter flowers.

 

 

 Phalaenopsis Mini Mark 'Holm' 

  

 

Growing Tip of the Month - by Liese 

Liese Head


   "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff"

 

"Fred" began to panic.  Oak Hill Gardens was the 8th place he had called looking for a "pond apple" branch on which to mount his Ghost Orchid.  No one in the country, it seemed, had this type of wood (native to the Florida Everglades) in stock.  It would certainly ensure the survival of his leafless (and rare!) Dendrophylax.

   

"Wilma" called a few days later looking for 3-4 foot long live sphagnum strands so that she could gently wrap the roots of her Neofinetia falcata and place it in the decorative Japanese ceramic pot for which she had overspent.

 

Even though Oak Hill carries numerous substitutes for both of these exotic items, we did not have the perfect solution that either of them were looking for.....

 

Many items that are used in the orchid world for potting, mounting, spraying, etc., seem to change through time.  When Hermann would repot orchids 50 years ago, osmuda fiber was the potting material of choice.  Over the years, osmunda became more difficult to procure, and thus much more expensive, eventually becoming cost prohibitive for both the commercial and the hobby grower.  Tree fern is another example.  It was also widely used in potting mixes years ago, and is also becoming harder to get and too expensive for most to use as a result. 

  

There are usually many items that can be substituted for an "ideal," or hard-to-find solution.  "Fred's" Ghost, for example, would be just as happy growing on a stick of grapevine or a cork slab.  At Oak Hill we have four large Ghosts in our stud plant area, mounted on four different substrates, all of which are growing beautifully and bloom every year like clockwork.   

 

"Wilma's" Neofinetia would also find a happy home in Chilean sphagnum moss, or a lovely bed of coconut fiber, as we use here at Oak Hill (we will pit the roots on our coco fiber Neos up against any of the best-grown plants in Japan!)

 

Orchids, it seems, are not as discriminating as a lot of folks think.  Most always, the plant wold be just as happy growing in that old chipped, calcium-stained clay pot as in any dragon-carved, hand-painted, too-small, expensive orchid vessel.  Mounted Holcoglossums and Aerangis are just as content clinging to a cedar shingle as they would be fixed to a fancy piece of driftwood or a cypress knee.

 

The orchid hobby can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.  As long as the orchid has good, clean aerated media it will be happy.  "Don't sweat the small stuff!"  Simplify your growing techniques....and your life.  It will free up some time so that you have more to enjoy the beautiful blooms in your collection. 

 

(BTW, the names in this article have been changed to protect the anally retentive....)

 

Enjoy the orchid hobby!

Liese 

 
Please come to the festival September 23-24-25!  You'll be glad you did!

 

Sincerely,

 


Greg, Liese and Hermann