Alina Furtak
AOS-accredited orchid judge · Toronto, Canada
Talks on orchid growing, judging, hybridizing and orchid travel — for growers, and for judges and judging students. Available online and in person.
Selected speaking topics
- The Journey to Become an Orchid Judge
- Discover Orchids of Guatemala — Trip Diary
- Wild Orchids of Sicily — Trip Diary
- Brachypetalum Culture
- The Enchanting Slipper Orchid: The Allure of Paphiopedilum bellatulum
- Phalaenopsis stuartiana and Its Influence in Hybridizing
- Primary Hybrids: Phragmipedium kovachii and Phragmipedium besseae F1 Comparison Study
Each of these can be pitched for orchid society members or for judges and judging students. Say which audience you have when you get in touch, and Alina will shape the talk accordingly.
Requests for other topics are welcome too — if your society has something particular in mind that is not listed here, please ask.
Would you like to see one first? Alina presented Brachypetalum Species Culture at the American Orchid Society’s 8th Orchid Culture Day, “Step Into the World of Slippers.” The full day is available to watch at aos.org.
Several of these talks also have a published article behind them — listed further down — if you would rather read before you book.
Where Alina has spoken
- American Orchid Society, 8th Orchid Culture Day — Brachypetalum Species Culture
- Andean Orchid Conference (VIII), Ecuador
- Great Lakes Judging Center
- London Orchid Society, London, Ontario
- Orchid Society of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Burlington, Ontario
- Southern Ontario Orchid Society, Toronto, Ontario
- Toronto Judging Centre
Some of these have invited Alina back to speak more than once.
About Alina
Alina Furtak is an AOS-accredited orchid judge with the Toronto Judging Centre, based in Toronto, Canada. Her judging has taken her well beyond Ontario: she has judged in Peru, Kenya, Australia and Ecuador, and at the 24th World Orchid Conference in Dresden, Germany — each one a chance to see orchids in a different climate, and to learn how growers there work with what they have.
With the American Orchid Society she serves as an accredited judge and as a proofreader for Orchids, the Society’s magazine. With the Southern Ontario Orchid Society she is President and editor of the society newsletter, and she builds the society’s orchid displays for shows — work that has won awards.
Her passion for flowers goes back much further than her judging. She grew up around her grandmother’s plants — grown for the local flower market, alongside a shelf of botanical magazines — and that early habit of looking closely has shaped everything since. Alina came to Canada from Poland in 1990.
Her talks are built for people growing orchids at home, not in greenhouses — she grows a small collection at home herself. For society audiences, the emphasis falls on what a plant is actually doing and why — the reasoning behind the rules, not the rules alone — so that you leave able to work out the next problem on your own. For judges and judging students, the same material can go further into breeding lines, species variation, and what shows up on the judging table.
“Every orchid that is struggling is telling you something. Once you know how to listen, the whole thing gets easier. If I could learn it, so can you.”
Alina is also an artist
Her favourite subject — unsurprisingly — is flowers.
Published articles
Alina’s articles have been accepted and published by the following journals.
Published in Orchids, the magazine of the American Orchid Society
- A Collector’s Dilemma: Telling Paphiopedilum bellatulum, leucochilum and godefroyae Apart
- The Enchanting Slipper Orchid
- From Orchidomania to Conservation: Why Affiliation Matters (with J. Alexander)
- Who Wants to Go to a Conference?
- Hawaiian Garden: Where Palms and Orchids Meet
Published in Slipper Orchids, the journal of the Slipper Orchid Alliance
- Beauty from the Andes: Comparing Primary Hybrids of Phragmipedium kovachii and besseae
Orchid Care Journal
Alina made the Orchid Care Journal for herself — somewhere to keep track of her own orchid babies, what each one had been given and how it answered back. Orchids thrive on consistency, and a plant that is sulking will usually tell you why if you have been writing things down.
It turned out to be just as useful to other growers. There is room for fifty plants, with space for plant profiles, watering and feeding, light and environment, repotting, bloom progress and health notes.
Get in touch
To enquire about a talk, please use the form below.
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