Manteca jewelry store owner Patty Reece will once again lead the San Joaquin Orchid Society’s annual showing of exotic orchids with many coming from Reece’s own 20 by 30-foot temperature-controlled hothouse located behind her rural home. 
The 10th annual show is set for March 23, 24 and 25 in Stockton’s Sherwood Mall during the mall’s scheduled hours for the shopping public.  The San Joaquin Orchid Society is affiliated with the American Orchid Society that is known all over the world for its outstanding plants and exotic blooms.
Reece who owns New York Diamonds in the Walmart Shopping Center and serves as the growers’ president, said her group is bringing more orchid varieties for the public showing from Taiwan and Hawaii to be  included in the 100-plant display by its 65 members.  
One particular plant with white star-like blooms is entered by Sheldon Takasaki and named in the memory of his father who had been held in an American internment camp for the  Japanese during World War II. The orchid belongs to the Brassavola Little Stars family and was given the name “Yasuji Takahashi,” for his late father.
Sheldon is the owner of a large orchid nursery in Hawaii – Carmela orchids – and brings his expertise in growing the plants to the mall showing along with that of Manteca’s Patty Reece. She also is presenting a Mason jar that contains numerous tiny cymbidium orchids that root for months together and then are placed outside after they mature
Other orchid plants promise to please the eyes of orchid enthusiasts. 
Society members are volunteering to demonstrate to members of the public on just how to re-pot their pants from home and they will often do it for the public as well.  The group will also offer some of their plants for sale from their non-profit group. 

To contact Glenn Kahl, email gkahl@mantecabulletin.com.