orchid , a Cattleya seedling purchased at a display in Orlando , Florida . I had decided to take it out of that horrible dry bark and give it a great boost in the best garden humus I had at my disposal . Do I even need to state how well that worked out ? But I was not to be deterred from growing orchids .
My parents were always very supportive of my horticulture ambitions and shortly after that I convinced my Dad to go in halfs with me on an overgrown Cattleya that was on sale at a local nursery . That orchid thrived , and in November of 1984 my parents agreed to take me for a visit to a local orchid grower who was also the President of the Central East Texas Orchid Society . I bought another Cattleya from Max Nash and he also gave me a small starter of Brassavola nodosa . I still have that B . nodosa , by the way , it ’ s a little larger now . Max encouraged me to visit a CETOS meeting and that December at the Tyler Junior College campus , I met a group of people that would forever impact the life of a curious and soon to be addicted young orchid grower . I am forever grateful for the encouragement , support and friendship that my fellow orchid growers at CETOS provided for the better part of my formative years . In May 1985 , I joined the AOS and have been a member ever since . During that time I quickly filled my bedroom window with orchids and after turning my room into a complete rainforest with condensation dripping down the drywall ; my parents built a 16x20 ft greenhouse to house my ever growing collection . As my experience , knowledge , and passion for orchids grew along with my collection , I served first as Show Chairman , Vice-President and then later President of CE- TOS all before completing high school . I was very lucky to live close to two professional growers who became mentors and great friends . Dillard Scott had a commercial operation in Ben Wheeler , Texas . I spent many weekends out at his place learning about orchid growing and hybridizing . Dillard did all of his flasking in a glove box and was successful at everything from dry seed sowing , Phal . stem props to mericloning Cattleya ’ s despite having only the most basic of lab equipment . So I truly started with the basics . On the opposite end of the spectrum as I got older , Jimmy Rozell , who ran a commercial lab focused on Phal . seed and stem propagation took me under his wing and it was there I learned about more advanced lab techniques . During those years I dabbled with orchid hybridizing , my grandfather built a laminar flow hood for me and I began spending time with several local growers learning about hybridizing and lab work . To the testament of my grandfather , I still use that same home-built laminar flow hood to this day for all of my lab work . College was a bitter sweet transition for me as I found it necessary to move away from my beloved greenhouse and dear orchid growing friends . Sadly , I lost many of my prized orchids during my time in college and then moved several times for my career , which was outside of horticulture . Years passed and my collection stayed fairly small . I continued to dabble with hybridizing and desired nothing more than to leverage my years of orchid growing through a focused hybridizing program where I believed I could contribute to the orchid industry . I had a passion for yellow and red Phalaenopsis , but early in my career I just could not afford the higher priced stud plants that represented the best of those color forms . But , by 2000 I had matured in my career as computer game producer and I found myself in a position where I could start investing in high quality stud plants . In late 2000 , I purchased a coerulea Dtps . Kenneth Schubert and the color so fascinated me that I started
Phal . Taida Sunshine ( P . tetraspis var . alba × P . equestris var . cyanochilus ‘ Martel ’ s Blue ’)
Phalaenopsis - First Quarter , Vol . 21 ( 3 ) 2012
Phal . Jennifer Palermo ( P . tetraspis var . alba × P . violacea var . coerulea ‘ SDO Violet ’)
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