If you are an AOS member you and read Orchids magazine cover to cover, as you should, you will have noticed a new feature. We have repurposed the back inside page to accomodate a "Parting Shot" And we want YOU to send us your best one!

We knew when coming out of the last Board meeting in Houston, Texas, in late April 2009 that we had our work cut out for us in the next couple of months. For one, we had postponed the decision of whether to keep the garden open past June of this year pending more information on the budget.

In June, the AOS introduced a new pin to benefit the Society. "The reason the pin was developed is the Affiliated Society Committee wanted to come up with a fund-raiser to help the AOS. We asked Dawn Vertrees for her help and, working together with her husband, Don, and a jewelry manufacturer in Rhode Island, this is what we came up with," says Carol Holdren, chair of the Affiliated Societies Committee and an AOS trustee.

At first glance the flowers of this genus hardly look like orchids but take one apart and you'll find all the familiar features. Closely related to Calanthe and Phaius, there are, at present count, some 13 species in this genus widely spread throughout tropical and subtropical Asia and the southwestern Pacific islands. Only two or three species...

Cattleya tenebrosa, one of the most spectacular of the former Brazilian laelias, was first described by Rolfe in 1891 as Laelia grandis var. tenebrosa in reference to its dark color compared to the yellow of L. grandis. The name tenebrosa doesn't just mean dark but rather implies a mysterious or supernatural quality. Two years later Rolfe, realizing this was a completely different species, described it as Laelia tenebrosa, a name that has effective "stuck" for nearly a hundred years. This species is closely related to...

The AOS Members Meeting in Houston, Texas, on April 23–26, 2009, was one of the best meetings of the present decade. Congratulations are due to Jim and Melba Butler and to the entire Houston Orchid Society for staging this event. Everything appeared to run smoothly according to the schedule, as all of the meetings started and ended at their proper time. My only regret: I wish there had been more time to enjoy the show and sales area.