Sophie Annan – Special to the Record-Bee
There must be nearly as many reasons for growing orchids as there are species ? about 25,000 naturally occurring and 100,000 hybrids, spread over every continent of the world except Antarctica. For some it”s their fragile or flamboyant beauty or the lure of the exotic and a desire to have something unique.
For Dorothee Bach of Lucerne”s Orchids for You, it”s simpler. As she says of her favorite Miltonias, “They make me smile.” And when you join her in the greenhouse with its effervescent display of Miltonias glowing vermilion, white and gold, looking as if they”re about to burst into song and dance, you understand why.
Dorothee and her husband Craig moved from Potter Valley to Lucerne less than a year ago ? with 800 orchids and truckloads of other plants. The orchids lived on every spare surface until they got their greenhouse up, and they”re still just about everywhere, some waiting on a shady table in the garden for the new greenhouse.
The Bachs, like many people, had just a few orchids before a trip to Hawaii in 2001. Then, on Maui, they found the Io Valley Nursery and had a few more plants shipped home. They”d caught the fever and were “bitten and smitten,” he said. In the smaller Potter Valley house, they had an orchid per square foot.
“By the time we had a hundred plants, I thought, we ought to be making a living at this,” says Craig, an electrical contractor and president of Lucerne Community Water Organization.
Dorothee, who was a registered nurse in her native Germany, obviously has the caring traits the plants need. She watches them faithfully for signs of problems like insects, over- or under-watering and for welcome new spikes which will become blooms. Recently she had to lower a hanging plant with a 21-inch spike that was about to hit the roof.
Mendocino County has a dozen native orchids. You find them in moist and not incredibly cold places, around redwoods, and in the same spots where you”re likely to find mushrooms. “The myth of orchids being incredibly sensitive, delicate and tender is just that, a myth,” says Craig.
The lady”s slipper orchid is the state flower of Minnesota, and grows from Newfoundland to Manitoba, hardly tropical environments.
Considering the payoff ? dramatic blooms that can last two months, constant growth of offshoots and sometimes compelling fragrance ? the Bachs say orchids are remarkably easy.
They”re happiest in bright light, but not direct sunlight. Dorothee suggests sheer curtains on a window can soften the light just enough. They love humidity of 50-70 percent, which can be a problem in our 20-25 percent summers. Supply it by placing them on rocks or grates over trays of water ? never with the pots directly in water, she warns. Regular misting, of the foliage only, not the blooms, helps keep them happy.
Greenhouse windows are good environments, especially if they face east and don”t get direct sunlight. North facing windows can get too cold in our winters, south can get too hot, and west gets too much strong afternoon sun. Full spectrum fluorescent lights also work well, and warm a huge white Cymbidium in the Bach living room.
The biggest mistakes most beginning orchid growers make are over-watering and over-feeding. The rule for feeding is “weekly, weakly.” Dorothee notes she”s experimented with many fertilizers and settled on Dyna Grow, using just a half teaspoon per gallon.
Another common mistake is buying the wrong orchid, one which has been forced into bloom with heavy feeding, but is likely to die from root rot after one bloom. The best way to spot these is they”re very, very inexpensive ? but no bargain. Wrinkled leaves are another tipoff that they haven”t had the best of care, Dorothee noted.
If a single gorgeous potted orchid isn”t enough display for you, she recommends placing them among companion plants with the same growing requirements. “Bromeliads, Tillandsia, African violets, most ferns,” she suggests.
A nice combination would be the small and exuberant Oncidium Psychopsis Kalihi, a rarity from Hawaii in a brilliant tiger lily guise, and a spidery Tillandsia, an other-worldly air plant that grows mounted on wood. The deceptively fragile asparagus fern is earth-bound, but should work in this combination.
If you have the space and a taste for big and bold, you might combine a hardy terrestrial Cymbidium with large ferns and the normally epiphytic bromeliads, which grow quite happily in pots. (Beware: this orchid path has many branches.)
The Bach orchids sell mostly through nurseries, but they”re also licensed to sell from their home on Highland Avenue. Their prices per plant range from $28 to about $50.
They”ll happily fill special orders ? with one exception, the Bulbophyllums, many of which are infamous for their odor of rotting meat. The stench of Bulbophyllum beccarii is so foul that it has been said to smell like “a herd of dead elephants.” Why would anyone grow them? Craig shrugs and grins. “They”re different.”
If you yearn for a sweeter fragrance, like vanilla, cinnamon, violets, even chocolate, that can be arranged. Fragrance is one of the many ways orchids attract their pollinators, so you won”t be surprised to learn the Bulbophyllums are pollinated by flies.
Orchids that get to live with people are more likely to mimic their pollinator”s general appearance and reproductive organs. They often fool the insect into thinking it”s found a new love partner when all the orchid wants is to spread its pollen. They”re seducers, no question about that. Craig jokes “Orchids invented people as a way to move themselves around.”
He”s especially interested in a Chinese ground orchid, the Bletilla, which spreads by sending out runners from its rhizomes. But then, he”s interested in all things Chinese after studying Chinese language and culture at San Francisco State.
Terrestrial orchids, which grow in soil, are the easiest. This group includes nearly all temperate orchids. The others get their nutrients in varied ways:
* Perennial epiphytes from tropical moist broadleaf forests or mountains and subtropics are anchored on other plants, mostly trees, sometimes shrubs.
* Lithophytes are similar to epiphytes but grow naturally on rocks or on very rocky soil. They feed on nutrients from the atmosphere, rain water, litter, humus, and even their own dead tissue.
* Myco-heterotrophs (formerly incorrectly called saprophytes) lack chlorophyll. These are completely dependent on soil fungi feeding on decaying plant matter, usually fallen leaves.
The sometimes bizarre behavior of the profoundly orchid obsessed is detailed in Eric Hansen”s “Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust and Lunacy,” from Vintage Books. One of those tales is of the Englishman William Cattley, who discovered an orchid being used as packing material in shipments from South America.
His namesake Cattleya now graces millions of prom dresses yearly.
To learn more about the Bachs” orchids, call 274-9928 for an appointment.
