November 6 Meeting

At our Thursday, November 6, meeting, Laura Newton will speak on “American Orchid Society Special Annual Awards.” The presentation will cover the best of the best of orchids awarded by the American Orchid Society, and the process of how these prestigious awards are given.

Laura is the current AOS Director of Awards and Special Projects. She processes all the AOS awards and maintains the databases. She also provides the awards layouts in the monthly Orchids magazine.

Laura grows a wide variety of genera, but her favorite by far is the genus Bulbophyllum. It is truly a weird and wonderful collection of strange-looking flowers! She and her husband have garnered more than 250 AOS awards, which seems like a lot, but over a 20 year timespan only works out to about one a month, and they usually drag in about 12 to 15 orchids between their two monthly judgings and orchid shows.

Laura lives with her family on a 15-acre horse farm, which now has more orchids than horses, mostly grown in two large greenhouses, but also are found in and around the porches of their log home.