Victoria Orchid Society

Next Meeting

“Masdevallias: Selected Species and How to Grow Them”

with Mary E. Gerritsen

 

The next meeting will be held online

Monday, Nov 23, 2020

7:00 pm

This will be an online virtual meeting! Please watch your email for details.

 

Mary Gerritsen, Ph.D. is an independent biotechnology consultant who has been growing orchids (mostly species) on and off for more than 30 years, and since relocating to the San Francisco Bay area in 1997 started a collection of small cool growing miniature species such as Masdevallias, Porroglossums, Lepanthes, and other assorted tiny gems. She also has a second intermediate greenhouse, filled with larger species such as Angraecoids, Dendrobiums, Oncidiums, Laelias, Phalaenopsis, and Bulbophyllums. She loves to see orchids growing in situ and has made it her mission over the last few years to see as many as possible, with trips to see and photograph orchids (and other flora as well) in Canada, many parts of the USA, and Mexico, and countries in Central America (Costa Rica, Panama), South America (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela), South East Asia (Borneo, southern and southwestern China, Sulawesi, northern Thailand, Papua New Guinea), western Australia, Europe (Crete, Cyprus, Germany, Mallorca, Rhodes, and Sicily) as well as South Africa and Madagascar.

She is the co-author of several botanical books: Masdevallias, Gems of the Orchid World; Calochortus, Mariposa Lilies and their Relatives; A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species; A Bay Area Guide to Orchids and Their Culture; and the American Orchid Society Guide to Orchid and their Culture, with fellow San Francisco Orchid Society Member and well-known photographer, Ron Parsons.

Mary frequently lectures to orchid societies in the San Francisco Bay area, and on occasion, nearby Southern California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and sometimes even further afield (Missouri, Kansas, Canada). She is on the board of directors of the Orchid Digest, the chief operating officer, and treasurer of the Orchid Conservation Alliance, and is also a member of the American Orchid Society, the San Franciso Orchid Society, the Peninsula Orchid Society, and the Pleurothallid Alliance.