Minn. orchid collectors consumed by exotic bloom

By WILL ASHENMACHER, St. Paul Pioneer Press

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) - For Kim Livingston, orchids began as ornamentation - a decoration for a windowsill, say, or a way to add color to her kitchen and dining room.

Now they're something much more.

"We call it 'The Addiction,'" Livingston said with a laugh. "My husband and I started out with one or two about 15 years ago. Now we have like 400."

Livington's collection runs the gamut from an orchid produced in mass quantities for local flower chain Bachman's to a rarer species that blooms only at night and smells "heavenly." It long ago outgrew available windowsills and side tables and now has its own greenhouse, which is attached to Livingston's Bloomington home.

Orchid growers like Livingston might forgive you for branding them as "obsessed." Some spend thousands of dollars collecting rare orchids and thousands more providing them with special growing environments. Some growers become attached to the rarest and most desirable or longest-living specimens in their collections.

But orchid aficionados have something year-round the rest of us pine for in these last throes of winter - a breath of spring at a time when warm weather and tulips seem far away. Kurt Rusterholz of St. Paul likens his collection of about 25 orchid species to having "a little bit of the tropics or summer in your living room."

"Looking around the country, we really put some top-quality plants on the table, said Joe Acebo of Apple Valley, who estimates he has 300 orchids. "I don't know if it's a Minnesota thing, but we are really into growing things. People are really into things that take them out of the cold weather. In Florida, you can walk outside and see orchids whenever. They become part of the landscape. Here, we appreciate them much more."

Orchids have a way of beguiling people. In the 1800s, wealthy Britons paid explorers handsome sums to bring new species back from Indonesia and South America so they could stock their hothouses with the most exotic blossoms.

In her book "The Orchid Thief," Susan Orlean provided an account of people who risk stiff penalties, to say nothing of snakes and treacherous conditions, to steal rare orchids from swampy Florida wildlife preserves.

The Minnesota Orchid Society, of which Livingston is president and Acebo a member, represents the 250 Minnesotans who carry on this tradition of orchid fever. On a recent field trip to tour Chicago-area greenhouses society members filled a Greyhound bus and came home with a total of 1,081 plants.

"Once you get into it, to have less than 50 plants is rare," Livingston said.

"Usually, you can't have just one," said Jerry Fischer, who runs Orchids Limited, a greenhouse in Plymouth. "Sometimes you get people who want to buy one just for decoration, but most of our customers have a real interest in growing them. They're what we call windowsill collectors. And then you have the real serious ones, the ones who have special rooms or a greenhouse just for their orchids."

Matt Pfeiffer of Minneapolis became interested in orchids about five years ago when he bought an Oncidium Sweet Sugar, an orchid with small, bright yellow petals flecked with russet spots. Eventually, the hobby consumed him so much he left carpentry to work at Orchids Limited.

"As soon as I discovered my very first orchid, that was it," Pfeiffer said. "It was orchids from then on."

Serious orchid growers can invest a lot in their hobby. Pfeiffer estimates his collection of 300 orchids represents an investment of $5,000. He's spent about $2,500 on special growing supplies, like artificial lighting and fertilizer.

Even if their passion for orchids is evident, orchid lovers have trouble articulating why the plants are so bewitching.

"They're just so different from any other plant," Livingston said. "They're very exotic and the flowers are incredible."

Orchids' exoticism is a large part of their allure. Their blossoms are a kaleidoscope of almost endless variety; frilled or smooth petals, subdued colors or bold hues, unadorned flowers to ones spattered with spots or stripes. Their fragrances also pinwheel into the fantastic.

Some smell natural, like vanilla, coriander, anise or cinnamon, but others have a more surprising perfume, like banana popsicles or grape candy.

"Some of these fragrances, you just wonder how they evolved this way," Pfeiffer said.

The challenge of growing orchids also appeals to serious collectors. The plants in floral departments at Home Depot and Cub Foods tend to be hybrids, prized for their reliability and comparative un-fussiness. Real enthusiasts go after purebred species, which can demand special fertilizers, humidity levels, lights and an abundance of care and attention.

"You spend your first three years killing stuff. After that, you can really start growing your own," Acebo said. "It kind of starts with `Oh, that's cool. That's pretty. I want one of those.' Then people's focus shifts from 'That's pretty' to 'I want to try growing that.'"

"There's a bit of snobbery appeal with them because they're perceived to be harder to grow than regular houseplants," said Christopher Currey, an orchid enthusiast who wrote about phalaenopsis orchids as a graduate student studying horticulture at the University of Minnesota.

Fischer opened Orchids Limited 33 years ago. The greenhouse has weathered the ebb and flow of orchid growing as a hobby, diseases - including one that killed $50,000 worth of plants - and the onslaught of inexpensive hybrid orchids available in large quantities from chain stores.

"They're like living art to me," he said. "I did a lot of hobbies, and this is the ultimate hobby. You will never get bored with it. With other hobbies, you can hit a wall, but with orchids, you never get tired of it."

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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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