IN THE FEBRUARY 2008 ISSUE OF Orchids, I wrote about the need to create a strategy to save orchids from extinction as natural habitats disappear. Several choices were presented and the Conservation Committee, as well as the membership, discussed this in general

Thanks to the leadership of Longwood Gardens and the DuPont family, the American Orchid Society will be returning to Longwood for its Fall 2008 Members Meeting. The meeting will take place October 17–19 at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware, and Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, a distance apart of only 10 miles (16 km). It has been more than 60 years since the AOS last met at Longwood, and everyone involved is excited, not only about October, but for the relationship and bond these two great organizations are developing for the future.

As I explained in the June issue of Orchids magazine regarding th American Orchid Society Heritage Collection, for the first 70 years the organization operated from offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then moved to the former residence of Lewis and Varina Vaughn in West Palm Beach, Florida, where for the first time there was sufficient land but not the type that could be turned into a botanical garden.

The 2009 Orchid Source Directory, a handy resource that orchid hobbyists use to locate vendors of orchid plants, seedlings, supplies, books, greenhouses, cards, fertilizers, watering equipment, potting mixes, light setups, jewelry, accessories and other orchid-related wares, is available online.

Twice yearly, this advisory panel (now a formal subcommittee) meets to discuss nomenclatural matters and perhaps the two most important agenda items from this spring meeting are developments in the nomenclature of the Cattleya Alliance and the use of the hybrid indicator “x” before the names of hybrid genera.

It has been said, and arguably so, that the Chelsea Flower Show is the ultimate event in the gardening year worldwide. This year there were about 600 exhibitors all working together to magically transform the show grounds. In addition to exhibitors from the UK and the rest of Europe, international exhibitors came from as far away as the Caribbean, Sri Lanka, and Africa.