Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

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.


      "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."

Gallery

Lifestyle

Minnesota News

Greater Minnesota

Orchid aficionados might forgive you for calling them "obsessed." They can spend thousands of dollars collecting rare orchids and thousands more providing them with special growing
environments. But they also enjoy a little bit of the tropics in their living room.

Minn. orchid collectors consumed by exotic bloom

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox