Orchid Care: For the Beginner - Barb Schmidt

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Résumé :
Orchid Care: For the Beginner demystifies orchid care for a wide audience in this slim, instructive volume. The book can function as a reference guide, but it's best read cover to cover, as the information is well chosen to keep from frightening off beginning


enthusiasts. This quote came from a July 18, 2016 review in Publishers Weekly. The philosophy behind this book is that if you understand how orchids grow in their native environments, you can learn to mimic these conditions in your home. Most orchids are actually very easy to grow once you recognize their needs.


The book contains 14 chapters which are essentially broken down into four main topics: the history of orchids, care for orchids, growth patterns of orchids, and miscellaneous topics such as picking your first orchid, pest control, and repotting. There are also two tables in the book which can serve as reference guides: Orchid Characteristics and Troubleshooting Guide.


The author is an instructor for horticultural societies and universities, such as the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society, Western North Carolina Orchid Society and Cornell University She has a secondary science teaching degree, and has been raising and showing orchids for over 12 years. Her orchids have won a variety of awards, including first place ribbons at the Philadelphia Flower Show. This combination makes her uniquely qualified to author this book.

Biographie:
Barb Schmidt recently published her first book titled, Orchid Care: For the Beginner. She has a bachelor of science degree in chemistry and biology and a teaching certificate in secondary science. She's has been raising orchids for over 12 years and is a member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) and the American Orchid Society. Her orchids have won a variety of awards, including first place ribbons at the Philadelphia Flower Show.

Following college, she worked for 10 years for a major Pennsylvania electric utility in their Environmental Engineering Department. Eventually, she left industry and started her own Environmental Engineering Consulting Firm. When her children entered middle school, she decided to go back and get a secondary teaching certificate in science. She used this degree to teach at the local middle school.

Barb teaches horticulture classes for the PHS, the Western North Carolina Orchid Society, Cornell University, and the Northampton Area Community College. She presented Everything Orchids at the Gardener's Stage during the 2016 Philadelphia Flower Show and will be there again presenting Orchids Gone Native on Sunday, March 12, 2017.