Distinguished Lecturer And Award-Winning Scientist To Host Lectures At Santa Barbara Orchid Show

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - March 15, 2014 - PRLog -- Distinguished lecturer and award-winning scientist, Dr. Daniel Geiger, Curator of Malacology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, to host two lectures at 69^th Santa Barbara International Orchid Show. Both lectures run Friday, March 14^th and Sunday, March 16^th at Earl’s Place at the Earl Warren Showgrounds.

Dr. Daniel Geiger received his degree in Biology from the University of Basel, Switzerland and completed his award-winning dissertation in Marine Biology at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Dr. Geiger has published four books on marine snails, holds several editorial appointments, and is a board member of several orchid societies.

Dr. Geiger will host two lectures at this year’s Santa Barbara International Orchid Show, Growing Orchids in a Terrarium and Imaging Small Orchid Flowers. Growing Orchids in a Terrarium will run at 10:30 a.m. Friday, March 14th and Sunday, March 16th.  Imaging Small Orchid Flowers will run at 12:30 p.m. Friday and Sunday as well.

Growing orchids in a terrarium.

How to set-up a terrarium for orchids and which plants can be successfully grown in such a setting. The topic has been written up for the American Orchid Society Orchids magazine in 2008 and 2012.

This talk has been given to a number of Orchid Societies, including Orchid Society of Santa Barbara, San Fernando Valley Orchid Society, Southern California Orchid Species Society, Malibu Orchid Society, South Coast Orchid Society, South Bay Orchid Society.

Imaging small orchid flowers

As a professional microscopist and photographer who sells stock photographs I will show how to take images of small to minute orchid flowers. Techniques covered are SLR macrophotography, stereomicroscope imaging and z-stacking, and scanning electron microscopy.

Principles of scientific photography have been written up in Geiger (2006), images have been exhibited at the Southland Orchid Show at the Huntington Garden, Pasadena, and a web article on z-stacking is available on the American Orchid Society webpage. A fruther article has been submitted to the Orchid Digest.

Dr. Geiger is also host to a lecture series on orchids at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. This series entitled, “Beauty & Science; the orchid evolves,” runs May 9 through September 7, 2014 at the John and Peggy Maximus Gallery at the musem. For more information, go to www.sbnature.org/exhibitions/757.html.

Richard Finn will host a talk called Creating Cut Orchid Arrangements. Finn will demonstrate how to create the same style of award-winning floral arrangements that can be seen each year at the show.  The demonstration will include the selection of containers and finishing materials, as well as how to create a beautiful cut flower arrangement at home.

Additional talks and lectures will occur through the show. The “Potting Booth” will give lectures and tips about potting orchids as well as caring for and growing orchids both indoors and out of doors.  “The Orchid Doctor,” Lance Birk, internationally known expert orchid grower, author, botanist, plant collector, photographer and adventurer will be available daily in the Earl Warren Exhibit Hall throughout the show weekend to answer your orchid questions and sign copies of his book “The Paphiopedilum Grower’s Manual.”

The Santa Barbara International Orchid Show, which will run from March 14-16, 2014, 9 a.m.to 5 p.m. each day, is the oldest and one of the largest annual orchid shows in the United States. General admission is $12. Seniors and students with ID pay $10; children 12 and under are free with a paying adult. Individual tickets can be purchased at the show box office or through Ticketmaster.

To find out more about the 69th Annual Santa Barbara International Orchid Show, visit www.SBOrchidShow.com.

About Dr. Daniel Geiger:

Daniel L. Geiger received is first degree in Biology from the University of Basel, Switzerland, and completed his award winning dissertation in Marine Biology at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, where he then taught as an adjunct professor. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History in molecular systematics, he took a position at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (www.sbnature.org), where he is now Curator of Malacology and oversees the electron microscopy facility. He has published four books on marine snails, has described 100 new genera and species (six species and one genus named in honor of him), and is member of the Abalone Advisory Group to the California Department of Fish and Game. He holds several editorial appointments with international journals.

Daniel has been growing orchids for approximately eight years, now specializing in Oberonia and Hippeophyllum, for which a global revision and monograph is being developed. He has an appointment as a Visiting Research Scholar with the Huntington Botanical Garden, San Marino, for his research on those plants, and collaborates with Dr. Alexander Kocyan of the University of Potsdam, Germany, on a molecular phylogeny. He gives frequently talks to orchid societies and at botanical gardens on various aspects of his work, including an invitation to the World Orchid Congress 2014 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Several of his articles have appeared in AOS Orchids, Orchid Digest, and the Journal of the Cymbidium Society of America. He is a board member of the Southern California Orchid Species Society, and member of AOS, the Orchid Society of Santa Barbara, and the Conejo Orchid Society.  For further information, see his website: www.vetigastropoda.com

About Richard Finn:

Santa Barbara native, Richard Finn, has been exhibiting and competing in flower shows since 1972. He received a degree in Studio Art from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Finn has taught Flower Arranging classes for 22 years, is currently a guest lecturer with the Santa Barbara Community College, Continuing Education programs where  his next class will begin April 10^th.  He has been judging the Orchid Show Flower Arranging Division for 22 years.

About Lance Birk:

Lance Birk, “The Orchid Doctor” is internationally known expert orchid grower, author, botanist, plant collector, photographer and adventurer. Is the author of two books, “The Paphiopedilum Grower’s Manual” and “The Last Orchid Hunter,” which is based on his 25 years as an adventurer combing the topics during the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s in search of rare orchid species to document their habitat conditions and locations and to collect plants for further study. During his travels he discovered an ancient, lost Mayan city and many new and some previously thought-to-be extinct plant species. He also encountered renegade jungle military forces and armed pirates, experienced airplane crashes, extreme weather conditions and deadly diseases, and contended with rival jungle hunters in a race to find rare and exotic orchids.