June 5 Meeting
Ron McHatton, of AOS, to Speak on Orchid Viruses
At our Thursday, June 5, 2025, meeting Ron McHatton will speak to the Houston Orchid Society about orchid viruses. Ron is the American Orchid Society’s Chief Education and Science Officer. He is a Ph.D. chemist by training, receiving his degree from Iowa State University and spending two years as a postdoctoral fellow at CalTech in Pasadena, California. If you are an HOS member and would like to ask Ron a question about possible viruses in your orchid collection, please email questions and pictures to Stephen Gallagher at sgallagher007@gmail.com.
Ron McHatton started growing orchids in Northern California about 60 years ago at the age of eight with a Cattleya purchased from a local grower. This single plant quickly became a collection occupying every window facing east or south, and his fascination with orchids has never waned. Over the years his private collection has numbered in excess of 2,500 plants—a direct result of no willpower or common sense!
Ron’s orchid growing experience spans grow lights while a graduate student in Iowa, out-of-doors in southern California as a postdoc at CalTech, a northern greenhouse in upstate New York, a temperate greenhouse in Atlanta, and a shade house in Central Florida. He even has experience on the mass-market side of orchid work (he calls it the dark side of the Force).
Ron is responsible for the editorial content and layout of the American Orchid Society’s monthly magazine, Orchids, and holds a monthly orchid Q&A webinar, the Greenhouse Chat, available to American Orchid Society members.
Ron represents the American Orchid Society on the Orchid Hybrid Registration Advisory Group, an international group that advises the Royal Horticultural Society on matters of hybrid registration and nomenclature. In addition to his professional positions, Ron is an accredited American Orchid Society judge with 35 years under his belt. Prior to joining the AOS staff in 2007, he volunteered for more than 25 years, chairing several national committees, twice holding a seat on the society’s Board of Trustees and briefly serving as a vice president. Ron has also been a long-time supporter of Orchid Digest. In this role, he has for many years served and currently serves on its board of directors and executive committee, and as its president for three consecutive terms.
The meeting begins at 7:30pm at First Christian Church, 1601 Sunset Boulevard, Houston.
If you haven’t already ordered your official Houston Orchid Society name badge, you can now order yours online.