OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Origins, History and Stories of SCVOS
President Sandi Fox
As the current president of the SCVOS, Sandi has been part of the society since 2008 and has also served as the Membership Chairperson, Treasurer and Secretary. As a long-standing member, she has arranged field trips, bus trips, holiday parties and many other activities encouraging member participation and inclusion.
36 years ago, when Sandi and her husband, Randy, moved to south Santa Clara County, her coworkers presented an orchid as a housewarming gift. Included with the new home was a greenhouse where the Fox’s planned to start their vineyard and make delicious wine. They discovered that growing the vines was easy but making wine is magic. Looking at her housewarming orchid as the only plant in the greenhouse, her collection quickly grew with purchases during orchid shows but especially from San Francisco’s Rod McClellan and Santa Barbara’s Cal-Orchid and Santa Barbara Estates.
Vice President Virginia Kristo
Becoming our newest Vice President during 2023 after being a great secretary during 2022, Virginia has been a member of SCVOS intermittently since 2004.
Her love for orchids began 23 years ago when her mother gave her an orchid after the birth of her daughter. Amazingly... she got it to bloom again and with that she was hooked. Plants with "special needs" have always picked her attention as she attempts to grow and flower them. Since she does not have a greenhouse, she specializes in cymbidiums and Laelia anceps-types as those are somewhat easy to grow outdoors in the Bay Area. Yet, she loves the challenge and will try to grow any type of orchid alongside her succulents and roses.
Treasurer Gill Thacker
Gill is an orchid hobbyist joining the SCVOS in 2022 to learn why his orchids refused to put forth the lovely blossoms they had when he bought them at the store. Since then, and thanks to the educational presentations that are put on by orchid growers with local and global expertise at most of the monthly meetings, he has learned much more than just how to get them to flower again. Treasurer is his first role as an officer of the Society.
Hospitality Director Cheryll Arvola-Moss
Cheryll has been a member of the Santa Clara Valley Orchid Society for over twenty years. Currently she is Membership Chair having held the position for a number of years. She has also served as Secretary.
Plants and gardening have been an interest of Cheryll’s from an early age as she fell in love with orchids with the gift of a cymbidium from her daughters and husband, Tom. This love became permanently planted after having the opportunity to help her aunt, Valerie Tonkin, with the termination of her orchid business. This experience opened the door to the world of orchids for her.
Retired as a teacher, Cheryll’s other passion is handweaving. She is a graduate of Cal Poly Humboldt, formerly Humboldt State University.
Newsletter Editor Olivia Pham
Olivia Pham is a recent transplant to San Jose yet, she brought with her a love of plants, especially orchids! She loves to grow all types of orchids and is currently interested in miniature plants. Like any city-dweller, her apartment presents the challenge of growing indoors and outdoors in limited space and less-than-ideal conditions. As a result she frequently experiments with different growing media, artificial lights, nutrients, and more.
She firmly believes in the power of experimentation and observation in learning to care for plants. Olivia found a great fondness for orchids after caring for a common phalaenopsis and seeing it rebloom. Continually inspired by her orchids, she also strives to bloom wherever she is planted. When she is not staring lovingly at her plants, she may be found hiking on the Northern California trails, knitting, or learning a new craft on YouTube.
Secretary Virginia Fischer
Virginia's passion for orchids began in the mid-1980s, when she attended Rod McClellan's annual spring orchid show and sale in San Francisco with her mother and sister, Fe. By the mid-1990s, she had joined the Malihini Orchid Society and occasionally participated in the SCVOS activities.
The societies' lectures expanded her orchid knowledge and led to the growth of her collection beyond McClellan's cymbidiums. Despite some setbacks, several orchids thrived.
In 1998, Virginia and her husband, Ron, invested in a mail-order greenhouse (10' by 7 1/2') to accommodate her intermediate and warm-growing orchids. While her favorite orchids are those in bloom, her focus shifts from year to year as she strives to achieve better blooming and maintain their health. Virginia is excited to take on her first board position with SCVOS as Secretary.
Membership Chair Mary Bui-Pham
Mary's passion for orchids began over 30 years ago, sparked by a stunning Phalaenopsis gifted by a friend. Captivated by its elegance and the fact that the blooms lasted for months, she was thrilled. However, like many first-time orchid growers, she soon succumbed to the all-too-common fate of killing her beloved plant. Undeterred by this setback, she joined the American Orchid Society, determined to unlock the secrets of orchid care.
Fast forward three decades, and Mary is now an Associate Judge with the Pacific Central Judging Center and an active member of local orchid societies. She supports her orchid obsession by working in a field that allows her to feed her passion, and she’s always eager to chat about orchids with anyone who shows even the slightest interest. Mary's collection is diverse, with a particular fondness for Paphiopedilums, Neofinetia falcata, Dendrobium moniliforme, and Jensoa Cymbidiums. However, it is the Coryanthes and variegated orchids that truly have her heart.
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Director & Orchid Show Co-Chair Svelatna Perets
Svetlana always has had a passion for greenery, both indoors and outdoors. For a while, she was particularly drawn to African Violets. During a trip to Hawaii, she encountered a lady slipper orchid for the first time... and fell in love. She brought one home, yet unfortunately, she didn’t know how to care for it properly, and it didn’t last long. That experience sparked her interest in orchids, and over time, Svetlana developed a love for various species, especially fragrant Phalaenopsis and the diverse Oncidium alliance.
Growing her plants on a windowsill and under LED lights, makes it rather convenient to set on timers for easy care. She dreams of being surrounded by orchids and plants and hopes to have a greenhouse one day. When she finds a bit more time off work, she plans to start designing one! She even keeps orchids in her office, complete with a small light to keep them happy.
She has a wonderful family: her husband, their two kids, and three fur babies (cats)—she proudly embraces her title as a crazy cat lady! On a personal note, she is grateful to have discovered the SCVOS a couple of years ago. She enjoys attending the monthly meetings, contributing as a board member, and connecting with fellow orchid enthusiasts.
Director Javier Perez Sanchez
Javier has been a dedicated member of the SCVOS since 2007, holding various leadership roles over the years, including Vice President, President, and Show Co-Chair. He continues to support the organization as a Director-at-Large and volunteers for a wide range of orchid-related activities. In addition, Javier is an active member of nearly every orchid society in the Bay Area.
His fascination with orchids began more than 50 years ago when he discovered several large Cattleya gaskelliana plants that had fallen from trees after a major storm. As his interest in orchids grew, so did his collection. Over the years, he has cultivated orchids in a variety of settings—from outdoor gardens and large greenhouses to small spaces under grow lights and even on windowsills. His lifelong passion for orchids, combined with his education in botany, tropical forestry, and ecosystem ecology, has taken him to many parts of the world. Along the way, he has continuously refined his growing methods, seeking better potting techniques, growing mediums, and environmental conditions for his plants. Today, Javier focuses on cultivating warm-growing orchids, as well as bromeliads and succulents that thrive outdoors.
Director Audrey Young-Tarter
Audrey has been growing cymbidiums since 1992 and purchased her first sepal/ventral peloric cymbidium in 1997 - by chance a seedling of a hybrid registered by RJ Dean of Australia as Cymbidium Cleo's melody had mutated as a partial labeloid and sepal peloric cymbidium. This specific cultivar was named Freakout and after getting one, Audrey's passion grew to wanting to learn everything about the hybridization of this cultivar and other similar sepal or ventral partial labelloid cymbidiums.
Audrey loves to lecture on her favorite subject - peloric Cymbidium orchids - and provides presentations about it. She has also presented subjects such as Back Yard Orchid Growing and The Rod McLellan Acres of Orchids.
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