Mary Gerritsen’s talk on Growing Orchids Outdoors in California will help you make (some of) your orchids weatherproof, i.e able to thrive outside the comfort of your home. The talk will include information about creating suitable growing areas, micro-climates and how to cope with heat and cold. She will also delve into a survey of popular orchids that are grown outside year-round in coastal California.

Mary has been a fan of orchids since her post-doctoral days in the late 1970s in San Diego. She is an independent biotechnology consultant and in her spare time she travels as much as she can to see orchids in their native habitat. In the past 12 years, Gerritsen has traveled to more than 15 countries to track and/or photograph orchids. She has also written articles for orchid magazines, including Orchids, Orchid Digest, and the Orchid Review, and has written (with co-author and photographer Ron Parsons) a number of orchid books, including Masdevallias, Gems of the Orchid World, A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species (1st and 2nd editions), The American Orchids Society Guide to Orchids and their Culture and A Bay Area to Orchids and their Culture. Mary serves on the board of the Orchid Digest and is the incoming president of the Orchid Conservation Alliance, and is a past president of the San Francisco and Peninsula Orchid Societies. Mary lives in San Mateo, CA and has a large collection of orchids that grow in 6 outdoor shade structures, two greenhouses, her front porch and an indoor sunroom.