GNTOS is pleased to have Tom Reddick speak to us Sunday, August 1 on “Mastering the Art of Orchid Growing without a Greenhouse”.  Tom began growing orchids at age 9, and has almost 40 years of experience in the hobby.  In the past 20 years, he has focused his attention on mastering orchid cultivation techniques in a home environment by growing out a wide range of orchids from flask to seedling size.  Tom will be bringing orchids to sell, plus will be providing orchids for our raffle.  We can’t ask for better than that!  So join us for a fun afternoon of orchid talk at our new meeting location, Preston Tower Condos! 

We will be in a room at the Preston Tower Condos at 6211 W. Northwest Hwy., Dallas, 75225, approximately ½ mile west of NorthPark Mall.  Everyone will need to park in the business parking lot, on the east side of the building and enter the front door of the building. Everyone will need to check in at the front desk and tell the clerk they are there to see David Gould for a meeting in the community room. The room is large enough to accommodate space for snacks,  plant tables for our members’ orchids, and the Snoopers Table, plus seating for our members and friends.

We’re not sure about the mask requirements, so please bring one with you as a precaution. Thank you!

PLEASE NOTE: We will be meeting the 2nd Sunday in July. We are having our 1st auction of 2021! These are fun events and great fundraisers for GNTOS to help pay for our annual show and sale each Spring. The next auction will be in December. Auctions depend on people donating orchids as part of the fundraising effort. So look through your orchids and pull out duplicates, extra divisions, etc. and bring them Sunday, July 11, along with some food to share. Then come prepared to add some new orchids for your collection!

This meeting will be at the Garland Senior Center again – at 600 W Avenue A, Garland, TX 75040. We met here last month. Keep your eyes on where we’ll be meeting for August, though as the location may change!

The society will be meeting Sunday, June 6 at the Garland Senior Center at 600 W Avenue A, Garland, TX 75040. Karl Varian, one of our members and a judge with the Dallas Judging Center, will be presenting a program on yellow cattleyas and their breeding in the past and today. Cattleyas are the orchid most people think of when orchids are mentioned because they have long been used in corsages.

Masks are required at the Senior Center. We will be having table judging as usual – members, please bring flowering orchids to share! We’re not sure if we’ll have the plants for a raffle yet, which is open to members and guest alike. However, we will have everything else as usual, so come on out and join us as we begin again to meet in person for our monthly meetings!

If you were a paid member of GNTOS last year, then you are automatically registered for 2021. You do NOT need to register for this year!

We are meeting again! Plans are in place for our June meeting and beyond. For now, the location is the Garland Senior Activity Center, 600 W Avenue A, Garland, TX 75040. This is the location for the Dallas Orchid Judging Center each month. Be watching for more information for our June meeting!

The Garland Senior Center is going to open in May, so we will start meeting at our regular time at 2:30pm this Sunday! There is no speaker – we will have a fun social time to renew our acquaintances, discuss the remainder of the year and just enjoy ourselves. Bring snacks to share — let’s all get reacquainted and get back into our orchid habit. See you this Sunday!

We are waiting to see when and where it will be best to restart our monthly meetings. In the meantime, keep growing those orchids! Members – send David pictures of orchids you have blooming so we can enjoy them in lieu of our Plant Table!

Hope to see you in May!

MEETING PLACE CHANGE:  We are back at the Garland Senior Center (600 West Avenue A, Garland, TX 75040) this month as the Harrington library is being used for early voting. 
We meet at 2pm with Orchids 101 starting at 1:30.

Stephanie Varnum has been a Texas Master Naturalist since 2002 and has volunteered as part of a Citizens Science Project for 16 years doing an annual survey of native orchids in Texas. She will be giving an overview of the many species of wild orchids that grow here. They range from moderately common to extremely rare and critically endangered.  Come and hear how you can help with this annual survey! Starting this year, the survey has been adopted as GNTOS’s volunteer education opportunity.
We will have our usual raffle and table judging after the presentation.

Orchids 101 will be led by Kathi at 1:30.