About Us

The Southern Tier Orchid Society (STOS) was founded in the 1960s and began to blossom in 1986, when an enthusiastic group of orchid growers arrived to the gorgeous Finger Lakes Region of New York and stimulated the society’s growth. Presently the club membership includes about 60 people who come from a radius of 70 miles to the monthly meetings in Endicott, NY. These meetings include either an invited speaker, workshops, or twice a year (April and September) a plant auction, to bring orchids to members and funds to the club. Most years an American Orchid Society (AOS) judged orchid show is held in the spring. The club also displays in the CYNOS show in the fall and may do other shows if invited to participate in them.

We meet the 3rd Sunday of the month from Sept through May at the Vestal United Methodist Church,328 Main St, Vestal, NY from 2-4 pm. We encourage you to come at 1:30 for some 'Social Time.' At our meetings we may have a scheduled guest speaker or other activities that will enhance your knowledge and improve your experience with raising orchids such as our annual repotting workshop.

We have a monthly newsletter to keep members informed of our activities. We also use email (a google group) for reminders and alerts. The newsletters are emailed to members and are posted on this website later.

Meetings include a raffle of orchid items brought by members. Everyone is encouraged to bring their blooming orchid(s) for a “show table”. Sharing ideas for successful care and blooming of orchids always benefits our members.

We have an extensive library of books that are available for loan. A complete list is available on our website.

We maintain issues of the American Orchid Society magazine, ORCHIDS, which are available for loan and contain many exceptional, glossy, close up photographs of orchids as well as informative articles.

Our local group has a representative to the American Orchid Society, to keep informed the latest news from our parent society.