How did the orchid bug bite you?

[Morja]

I'm curious how everyone here became orchid-obsessed.
I remember being 9 or 10 and loving them. My uncle might have had a few and that got me interested? I honestly don't know. However, my parents were kind enough to get me a few books and to take me to a couple of orchid greenhouses, and bought me several different varieties. I can't say what happened to the plants in the long run (scary... I'm afraid to ask) but those early memories of the plants and their blooms and fragrances made a huge impression of early passion on my young mind that may have been worth their inevitable demise (...maybe).
In high school I started rescuing family members' struggling grocery store phals, and began to believe myself to have a knack with them because they rebloomed multiple times a year for me (a lot of it was dumb luck with mature plants designed to do this!). A couple years ago I started to branch out into other types of orchids and got quickly humbled. Now I find myself in my 30s obsessed with slippers, and here I am, haha.
My two year old has a brassovola of his own and gets dragged through the grass to look at roadside ladyslippers, so I think he's off to a good start! Though of course I don't expect too much; he'll have his own interests.
What about you?

 

[Tom-DE]

Morja, your addiction will just get worse and worse, no cure for it! Darlene is a good example.
I bought my first orchid(a white Phal.) at a flower shop in Manhattan, NY almost 40 years ago and killed it in a week, after that, I just kept buying orchids...and trying to prove to myself that I could be a good grower someday.

 

[mrhappyrotter]

I'm sure I've told this story or some variation before on here.

My childhood pre-orchid hobby / obsession was reptiles and amphibians. I was really into having naturalistic enclosures for my lizards, which is what got me into tropical houseplants initially. I wanted my pets to have live plants in their cages and tanks. Eventually the interest in tropical plants veered towards bromeliads (so you can probably already see where this is heading).

By the time I was in my pre-teen/teen years, I was ordering bromeliads from catalogues and that eventually lead me to a company in Florida called Tropiflora (which is still a major player IMHO these days, and maybe even the top bromeliad vendor in the USA). At the time, Tropiflora not only offered an extensive list of bromeliads, but they also featured a large selection of orchids. My impression of orchids at the time was that they were difficult, required a greenhouse, and were way too expensive, but I was fascinated by the descriptions I'd see in the Tropiflora listings.

Eventually one of my family members decided to gift me my first orchid, a Dendrobium biggibum (or hybrid). No it did not live very long, but it definitely sparked an interest that still burns 30+ years later. After that, the fever was fully inflamed. I was buying and checking out books at the library on the topic of orchids and the very first group that that really grasped my curiousity and interest were the Paphs.

It wasn't long after that I discovered there was an orchid greenhouse close enough for me to drive, a business owned by a Mark Rose called Breckinridge. Side note: If you've ever heard of the Phalaenopsis Mini Mark, the Mark it references is Mark Rose! From there it's been a life long addiction! Mark specialized in Phalaenopsis, but he had a sizeable Paph and Phrag collection and offerings. I still have plants from all the way back then.

 

[big923cattleya]

Goodness, it has been a while.
Went to a local garden center looking for an Easter present for my wife. Spoke to three workers about growing a gorgeous semi-Alba Cattleya. Three people, three answers! From sunny to shaded, warm to cool. So no one knew anything!
I came home with potted tulips or something in a traditional vein for Easter.
I mentioned it to her an she read my excitement I guess. Came home with a little book from the supermarket check out area. You know the area! It was about growing orchids.
I got interested. Went from under lights to small greenhouse to a bigger greenhouse to Florida to Michigan and underlights again!!!

 

[Morja]

Morja, your addiction will just get worse and worse, no cure for it! Darlene is a good example.
I bought my first orchid(a white Phal.) at a flower shop in Manhattan, NY almost 40 years ago and killed it in a week, after that, I just kept buying orchids...and trying to prove to myself that I could be a good grower someday.

Good! I don't want a cure!
I can relate to needing to prove to oneself that good orchid growing is possible. Definitely how I feel about blooming a phrag, which I hope will happen one of these days now that I've had a couple of phrags for a year.

 

[Morja]

Enjoying the stories!!

 

[Ray]

When I was an undergrad at Georgia Tech, I volunteered at "the public greenhouses in Piedmont Park" - now the Atlanta Botanical Garden. There were two greenhouses - I'm guessing 30' x 120' - side-by-side. The one I worked in was a rainforest and one end, transitioning to a desert at the other. Over a couple of years, I had amassed a tremendous collection of cuttings-turned-houseplants. (Before I moved after grad school, I sold over 500 plants that had been in a 900 square foot house...)

About a year or so in, I was asked to help in the other greenhouse. It contains these weird, somewhat ugly plants that occasionally had big colorful flowers - cattleyas - and a few paphs and other genera. After a while, the grower gave me a mature catt as a "thank you".

It took me about 2 years or so to kill it via the typical root rot/desiccation torture routine, and "I don't kill plants!" (HAH!!!) and that got me determined.

 

[Nelson Wong]

When I used to live in Hong Kong we have a decent sized yard 1000sq foot and a rock pond. HK is pretty warm and humid being pretty close to the equator and very suitable for orchids. My dad had an outdoor tent with around several hundred orchids in it, all different types. Then he would hang and place catteleyas and vandas on our lychee tree and several other trees and on top of the rock pond. In Kowloon he was known as the 'Orchid King' and local ppl will come to our yard to look at orchids.

Every weekend when my brother and I were play outside; he will work on this orchids and I guess he will just talk about them. When they are in bloom he will bring them in the house for us to enjoy. I remember Oncidium lemon drop was the one he had in bloom with like 200+ flowers. Some weekends we would wake up in the morning and he will take us to Orchid Street, which is a street in HK where people only sell orchid for 3 to 4 blocks; we would walk around, he will buy a cymbidium or two and then we will have dim sum. Then once or twice a year he will take us to plant convention and we would look at plants and flowers.

What stuck out to me always was he said "Slipper orchids are the hardest orchid he had encountered. I have never managed to bloom any of them and most die from rot" And I think it was purely due to environment - Hong Kong is humid with has tons of scattered rain and the droplets get into the crown and they would take a whole week to dry off. He probably just need more air flow honestly.

Anyways, when we moved to the US in 2003, my dad had to sell/give up 95% of his orchid collection. And I think that was super devastating for him because it was a culmination of 15 to 20 years of his life. He only had 10 orchids that survived the transit to US, out of those 10 only 1 survived till today. I don't think mentally he fully recovered from that. Then 2008 - 2010 financial tsunami hit our family really hard and I guess my dad probably had minor depression and just lost touch with his hobby. By 2012, my dad had brain cancer and had a brain tumor taken out and he has completely lot touch of his past interest and hobby; he would buy orchids, but swiftly, in a month or two, stopped taking care of his orchids.

By 2016, I started living on my own, and seeing the poor conditions of my dad's orchids, whatever is left, there are only around 10 total. I decided to take care of them for him. Several Oncidium, Phals, and 2 cymbidiums. I managed to kill all the Cymbidiums, but nursed the oncidiums and phals back. By 2019, I had much larger place, so I started learning about slipper orchids. I bought from Seattleorchid - Paph Barbatum var nigritum, then Paphiopedilum Ernie Barham (Berenice album x Kolosand 'QF Green Dragon' FCC/AOS), Paphiopedilum philippinense x Lady Mirabel (Transvaal x stonei), Paphiopedilum Carolines Hands (moquetteanum x rothschildianum).

These were the 4 I started with in 2019 and 2020. Since then the Paph Philippinese x Lady Mirabel died from crown rot, but the rest has bloomed like 4 times. And I have collected close to 175 plants, around 200 more seedlings, and currently waiting on 2 seed pods.

Whenever a Paph blooms, I will take it to my dad's place and let him borrow it for 2 weeks, before I take them back home. Mostly let him enjoy the flowers and to show him; he had an impact on my hobby.

I think the orchid bug bite me long ago when I was a kid, I just didn't notice until much later in life.

 

[Phragper]

My husband got me my first orchid in 1977. i was sick and he went to Lager and Hurrell, who at that time was just around the corner. it was a phal. i was working at the time and then had our son. So it took a while for the orchid bug to really bite. over the years , i went to small orchid shows st the mall and started learning more about these amazing plants. we built a sunroom at our first house and i got more orchids . Then we moved to our current hone , where i had orchids at every window. then to the basement under grow lights. Outgrew basement so we put up a 8’ x 10’ greenhouse. it lasted 2years and we then built a 18’x24’ greenhouse . it is now home to over 1000 orchids ; phals , catts, phrags, paphs and of course others. every minute I spend in there is never work. always always joy and a feeling of peace. so yes the bug took a huge bite!

 

[Morja]

When I used to live in Hong Kong we have a decent sized yard 1000sq foot and a rock pond. HK is pretty warm and humid being pretty close to the equator and very suitable for orchids. My dad had an outdoor tent with around several hundred orchids in it, all different types. Then he would hang and place catteleyas and vandas on our lychee tree and several other trees and on top of the rock pond. In Kowloon he was known as the 'Orchid King' and local ppl will come to our yard to look at orchids.

Every weekend when my brother and I were play outside; he will work on this orchids and I guess he will just talk about them. When they are in bloom he will bring them in the house for us to enjoy. I remember Oncidium lemon drop was the one he had in bloom with like 200+ flowers. Some weekends we would wake up in the morning and he will take us to Orchid Street, which is a street in HK where people only sell orchid for 3 to 4 blocks; we would walk around, he will buy a cymbidium or two and then we will have dim sum. Then once or twice a year he will take us to plant convention and we would look at plants and flowers.

What stuck out to me always was he said "Slipper orchids are the hardest orchid he had encountered. I have never managed to bloom any of them and most die from rot" And I think it was purely due to environment - Hong Kong is humid with has tons of scattered rain and the droplets get into the crown and they would take a whole week to dry off. He probably just need more air flow honestly.

Anyways, when we moved to the US in 2003, my dad had to sell/give up 95% of his orchid collection. And I think that was super devastating for him because it was a culmination of 15 to 20 years of his life. He only had 10 orchids that survived the transit to US, out of those 10 only 1 survived till today. I don't think mentally he fully recovered from that. Then 2008 - 2010 financial tsunami hit our family really hard and I guess my dad probably had minor depression and just lost touch with his hobby. By 2012, my dad had brain cancer and had a brain tumor taken out and he has completely lot touch of his past interest and hobby; he would buy orchids, but swiftly, in a month or two, stopped taking care of his orchids.

By 2016, I started living on my own, and seeing the poor conditions of my dad's orchids, whatever is left, there are only around 10 total. I decided to take care of them for him. Several Oncidium, Phals, and 2 cymbidiums. I managed to kill all the Cymbidiums, but nursed the oncidiums and phals back. By 2019, I had much larger place, so I started learning about slipper orchids. I bought from Seattleorchid - Paph Barbatum var nigritum, then Paphiopedilum Ernie Barham (Berenice album x Kolosand 'QF Green Dragon' FCC/AOS), Paphiopedilum philippinense x Lady Mirabel (Transvaal x stonei), Paphiopedilum Carolines Hands (moquetteanum x rothschildianum).

These were the 4 I started with in 2019 and 2020. Since then the Paph Philippinese x Lady Mirabel died from crown rot, but the rest has bloomed like 4 times. And I have collected close to 175 plants, around 200 more seedlings, and currently waiting on 2 seed pods.

Whenever a Paph blooms, I will take it to my dad's place and let him borrow it for 2 weeks, before I take them back home. Mostly let him enjoy the flowers and to show him; he had an impact on my hobby.

I think the orchid bug bite me long ago when I was a kid, I just didn't notice until much later in life.

This story brought a tear to my eye. Your poor dad, losing his collection on top of a move that had to be shocking already in so many ways. I'm so glad you can share your blooms with him still. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Morja]

My husband got me my first orchid in 1977. i was sick and he went to Lager and Hurrell, who at that time was just around the corner. it was a phal. i was working at the time and then had our son. So it took a while for the orchid bug to really bite. over the years , i went to small orchid shows st the mall and started learning more about these amazing plants. we built a sunroom at our first house and i got more orchids . Then we moved to our current hone , where i had orchids at every window. then to the basement under grow lights. Outgrew basement so we put up a 8’ x 10’ greenhouse. it lasted 2years and we then built a 18’x24’ greenhouse . it is now home to over 1000 orchids ; phals , catts, phrags, paphs and of course others. every minute I spend in there is never work. always always joy and a feeling of peace. so yes the bug took a huge bite!

I can relate, caring for my own orchids gets me into a peaceful flow state almost immediately and feeds my soul!

 

[Rob in Puyallup]

I got The Bug way back in 1975, when I was 15. I had a pen-pal in Singapore. We'd been writing each other for several years by then. One day I received a post card from her, a montage of "Vanda Miss Joaquim" which eventually became the National Flower of my pen-pal's homeland. In the photo was a closeup of one of the flowers and in another shot, rows of these plants growing in a field. That's what set me off. Before long I was checking out books and reading articles in my junior high school's library. One day I finally checked out the Yellow Pages in our phone book and found that we had three orchid companies nearby. Cascade Orchids, Orchids Unlimited and Beall's Orchid Company on Vashon Island. Cascade Orchids was just several miles from home. The next weekend my mother gave me a ride there. It's where I got formally introduced to orchids. Three greenhouses chuck full of cattleyas, miltonias (which later became "miltoniopsis") and paphiopedilums. I ended up buying my first plant, a Paph James Fischer (P. glucophyllum x P callosum). It was in low bud at the time, in several weeks it's first flower opened.. I was fascinated... and hooked!

 

[Nelson Wong]

I can relate, caring for my own orchids gets me into a peaceful flow state almost immediately and feeds my soul!

Yea. My mom says having all my orchids must give me stress. I always tell her not really. It just becomes a habit and habit where the flowers reward you. The only hassle is repotting.

 

[Morja]

Yea. My mom says having all my orchids must give me stress. I always tell her not really. It just becomes a habit and habit where the flowers reward you. The only hassle is repotting.

Yes, it's meditative!

 

[Tom-DE]

It is good for mental health.

 

[Paphluvr]

About 50yrs ago a did business with a shop in a small mini-mall. Across the way was a Christian Science Reading Room. One day there were a number of orchid plants displayed in the window. I asked the owner of the business I was visiting what was up with the orchid display. He replied that they were owned by proprietor of another store in the mall and took me down the hall to introduce me.
The owner of the orchids invited me to his place to see his greenhouse (a free-standing Lord & Burnham with attached potting shed, bathroom and phone). While there he demonstrated how to divide and repot. Unbeknownst to me, when I was ready to leave he gifted me three of the divisions that he had repotted. The only one I remember was Epi. radiatum. Love that fragrance. Up until that point I had been growing primarily bromeliads, but when I realized how many orchids I could grow in the same amount of space I was hooked. And that’s how I caught the bug.

 

[Rockbend]

National Geographic, April 1971

 

[Roots]

This was a great question! I am glad you asked it Morja. I have really enjoyed reading everyone's responses. I shared my own experience in my introduction to the forum so I won't repeat it here. But thanks to all for sharing.

 

[Djthomp28]

A present from my now husband. It was a purple miniature phal. There was a growing dark spot on one of its leaves. Despite my efforts, it died. That sent me on a mission to understand why. The following year we went to Cleveland Botanical Gardens Orchid exhibition and the Greater Akron Orchid Show. That was it for me.

 

[Ray]

Thinking back, I’m surprised I didn’t get the bug sooner.

As a kid, I lived in Linwood NJ, a few blocks from Waldor Orchids. I knew there were greenhouses, but….

We moved to England from there, and my school bus passed Black & Flory every day to and from school. I recall lots of color.

We moved back to the house in Linwood for 4 months before moving to Washington DC. The NW suburbs, including Kensington MD, where Kensington Orchids was, was part of my high school stomping ground.

I had a friend from the dorms in college named Roger. I happened to see him at the public greenhouses and I commented, “Roger, I didn’t know you were into orchids”. When everyone stopped laughing, they showed me an AOS Bulletin. Roger’s father, Merritt Huntington, owner of Kensington Orchids, was the current president of the AOS.