INSIDE THE IPA
W
e just concluded our 19th IPA Symposium in Austin, Texas and by the comments given to me by various members
attending; it was a very successful meeting. We must thank James and Cathy Rider for chairing this event and for all the work
they did in putting it together. The four speakers at the symposium gave great lectures starting with Dr. Yin-Tung Wang, he
spoke extensively on research he has done with fertilizers since he was at Texas A&M University, to his experiences in
growing Phalaenopsis with large commercial growers. The second lecture was delivered by Olaf Gruss of Germany on Phalaenopsis
species, their variability, the habitats and their color varieties. The third lecture was given by James Rider who spoke on the equipment
and techniques used to take great pictures of orchids, including using your smart phone cameras, and the last lecture was by Rob
Shepperd gave us the details on his trials and tribulations in producing blue Phalaenopsis. We want to thank to all the lectures for a job
well done.
The main purpose of the IPA, as is written in our by-laws, is to promote, educate and
encourage the conservation of Phalaenopsis orchids. The IPA has been doing this since its
inception in 1981. We have issued the IPA Journal quarterly, held annual symposiums, like the
one we just had, we are also sponsoring the Phalaenopsis Monograph written by Eric
Christenson, and the maintenance of a Phalaenopsis species collection at the Atlanta Botanic
Garden. The IPA meets twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall, always in
conjunction with other orchid events around the US and Canada and provides at least one
speaker on the subject of Phalaenopsis. This year was the exception as there was not an
invitation to meet in the fall. So, the fall board and members’ meeting was carried out during
the Symposium in Texas.
At the Board meeting, the most recent issue of the Journal was discussed in detail
because it was also the first electronic version of the Journal made available to all the members.
This is a great step by the IPA by going digital, as we can now try to recover some of the foreign
member we have lost in the last five years, mainly due to the high cost of mailing. The digital
version of the journal will be used to promote the IPA domestically by sending digital copies to
interested orchid growers without having to incur the cost of printing and mailing additional
copies. Also, one of our directors, Joan Bateman, gave us an overview of revamping, or better
Photo: Eric Fang
yet, redoing our website. Joan will continue to refine this work and hopefully sometime in 2014
we will introduce the new website to all phal growers with a section solely for our members. The Board and members meetings are set for
2014. We will be meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota in early May in conjunction with the Mid America Orchid Congress for our spring
meeting, and in Virginia Beach in mid-November as part of the Merritt Huntington Memorial Lecture for our fall meeting. Also, the 20th
Symposium will be in Ontario, California sometime in early August. We will keep you informed of the dates when they become available.
Finally, a nominating Committee was formed to prepare nominations for Executive Committee positions for the elections in the Spring of
2014, and an audit committee was also formed to review the income and expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013.
After the conclusion of Olaf Gruss presentation on Phalaenopsis species at the Austin symposium, I realized that 15 years have gone by
since the IPA commissioned Christenson’s Monograph that was eventually published in 2001. With the limitations that Christenson had
with the printing of the book, especially with number of images and the location of the images, all clumped in one section in the middle
of the book, plus the fact that a few more species have been found, others have been merged and others added recently as the systematic
work on orchids continues, that perhaps it is time for the IPA to start looking into another publication similar to the monograph. Today
with the availability of digital printing it gives us the opportunity to have an endless number of images showing species and their
variability, color varieties and, habitats. It is just a thought that perhaps should be pursued further.
Respectfully submitted,
Carlos
Phalaenopsis | Third Quarter | Volume 23 | 2013
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