- This event has passed.
Jim Roberts: Summertime and the Growin’ is Easy
August 14, 2023 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Grower and hybridizer Jim Roberts of Florida SunCoast Orchids will be the speaker at our 7:30 p.m. Aug. 14th meeting. The topic will be “Summertime and the Growin’ Is Easy.”
It was in the college days of 1979 when Jim first encountered orchids during a routine doctor’s visit.
While there, Jim noticed a large cattleya on the desk. He asked the fateful question: “What kind of flower is that?” To which the physician laughingly replied, “You do NOT want to know!” A short story by the doctor about his all-consuming hobby ensued and within two days he had gotten two orchids of his own.
During his college years in Northfield, Minnesota, he was put in charge of the St. Olaf greenhouse and its repository of orchids. Jim knew little about the plants but read everything he could get his hands on.
After graduating, he moved to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands where he happened upon a sidewalk sale by the local orchid society. Jim joined the group, learned much about growing in a tropical arid environment, and about the native orchid species. He won his first American Orchid Society award for Encyclia bifida ‘Loves Favor’ AM/AOS.
After leaving the island three years later, he found himself trying to take 10 boxes of plants through customs back to Minnesota. Little did he know that the customs encounter would be the easiest part. It was a totally new experience trying to grow plants in a cold Midwestern state. Many plants did not survive. But many did, and Jim learned that orchids actually could be grown quite successfully in the stifling environment of a house surrounded by ice and snow.
During those years in Minnesota, he worked in the horticulture industry, served in various capacities with orchid organizations and lectured at many garden clubs.
He also had the privilege of traveling extensively around the United States, Europe and Hawaii for his career, visiting all of the major orchid nurseries. It was during this time that he started to turn this avid hobby into a small business.
In 2001, Jim moved to Florida with a small collection of plants and his dream of operating an orchid nursery became a reality. He currently grows the beauties in three gutter connected greenhouses encompassing 10,000-square-feet of growing space near Myakka City, near Sarasota. Visit his website at floridasuncoastorchids.com.
Jim also will be providing plants for our raffle table and bringing an assortment of plants to sell.