"Sandra Murphy... a co-founder of the Minnesota Orchid Society... first became enamored of orchids while a botany student at the University of Minnesota in the 1950s.
... a... recognized hybridizer of the plants, died Oct. 22... was 69. ... her son, Phillip... owner of Crystal Lake Floral Design & Orchids By Murphy in Minneapolis. In the mid-1950s, while Murphy was a student at the university, a professor gave her orchid bulbs. Her father soon built a greenhouse for the family at its... neighborhood home in St. Paul. There she nurtured the bulbs into plants. Murphy worked from the greenhouse at her parents' home until 1992, when she opened the Minneapolis greenhouse. In 1964, she cofounded the Minnesota Orchid Society, where she was known as the "Asian lady slipper queen of Minnesota." Over the years, she won competitions for her orchids, accolades for her artwork of them and much thanks from those she supported in the love of the plant. Jerry Fischer of Orchids Limited in Plymouth got his start from Murphy, who he said was generous with her time and plants. "She was a very brilliant woman," said Fischer. "She could trace breeding lines way back to the late 1800s..." which is useful knowledge for orchid hybridizers. Fischer named one of his orchids for her: Angulocaste Sandy Murphy. ... Murphy wrote articles and created artwork for publications of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Horticultural Society. Her hybrids earned her certificates of merit in national competition. In 2000, she was featured in a gardening program on the Discovery Channel. And in the 1980s, she appeared on a Minnesota Public Television gardening series. ... Murphy developed a method of growing seedlings in plastic bags in a special mix, shaving as much as a year or two off the growing time" URL : http://www.startribune.com/466/story/1516311.html ************** Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
