January 17, 2002

Simply Orchidaceous

By KELLY FENLEY
For The Register-Guard

If it feels like you're going out on a limb trying to grow orchids at home, relax. Only nature can do that.

In the wild, many orchids are little "E.T.s" - extra-terrestrials. Rather than rooting into the earth like normal flowers, they strut their otherworldly beauty by growing above ground - typically on the trunks and branches of trees.

The orchid family, considered the largest in the plant kingdom with nearly 800 genera and more than 17,000 species, is a spellbinding lot. Plants range in size from microscopic to more than 10 feet tall, and their captivating blooms seem as varied as sea life. That's why flowers like this Brassolaelioc 'Hebrita' can easily leave the home gardener orchid obsessed. These radiant Epidendrums with "bearded little faces" thrive in Morris Ostrofsky's greenhouse, but the hardy orchid also does well in most home environments. Master Gardener Morris Ostrofsky is growing Epidendrum orchids for the Lane County Extension Service's plant sale Saturday, April 20, at 950 W. 13th St. in Eugene. Masdevallia Veitchiana 'Prince de Galle,' grown at Briggs Hill Orchids. Phragmipedium Noirmont 'Red Ropes' crossed with Mem. Dick Clements 'Red Bird' (Briggs Hill). Phalaenopsis Gallant Beau 'George Vasquez' from Briggs Hill. Photos: BRYAN WESEL The Register-Guard

Such monkeying around classifies these orchids as epiphytes, a Greek word for "upon trees." Though many other orchids around the world are soilbound terrestrials, including the lady's slipper, epiphytes intensify the orchid's mystique.

What other flower family has such whisper-soft blossoms in a rainforest spectrum of color, or keeps the world waiting so long before unfolding into a dumbfounding array of shapes, sizes and designs?

"I love them for the fact they occupy such an unusual niche in life," effuses Morris Ostrofsky, who grows orchids in a small greenhouse on his 6.25-acre property west of Eugene. "Other plants live in trees, too, but these guys seem really adept at it. Imagine living in the fork of a tree. There's not a lot of humus there, but they find a place to live without getting blown away."

Yet it's usually not orchids trembling in the balance. It's rather the home gardener, who's often jittery about trying to keep the delicate plant blooming indoors.

Even Ostrofsky, a volunteer Master Gardener, doesn't venture far into the jungle of orchid varieties. Indeed, while living in Southern California and teaching biology at Santa Anna College, he couldn't seem to keep an orchid in bloom. But then his sister sent him an Epidendrum, a native tree hugger with bearded little blossoms.

"She said, 'I've got an orchid for you. You cannot miss with this orchid.' So I said, 'All right, I'll give it a try.' Sure enough, she was right. It started blooming immediately."

A growing obsession

Ostrofsky calls his Epidendrum "an orchid for the common man. You have to try to kill it."

Yet, countless other orchid varieties can be grown indoors and made to bloom year after year if matched to a home's temperature, humidity and window light, says Bart Gendel, who, along with his wife, Helene, owns the homey Briggs Hill Orchids Inc. at 27936 Briggs Hill Road west of Eugene.

Ironically, once matched to the right home environment, an orchid's greatest foe is too much attention.

"People are concerned the orchid is so finicky - it comes from the rainforest, so how do I create a jungle environment and keep it alive in my house?" Gendel says. "So people have this fear they can't grow orchids, period. Number two, if they do get them, people tend to overcare for them."

The Gendels learned that the hard way.

Long before becoming nursery owners, they were just another couple who dearly loved growing plants. While living in Long Island, NY, Helene once worked in a nursery, and Bart was raised in a blossom-blithe household. "We had hundreds and thousands of plants," he says.

Nonetheless, when Bart bought his first orchid for Helene about seven years ago, they overwatered and overpotted what they hadn't already overdone. "Everything you could do wrong, we did," admits Bart, who by day is a pharmacist at the Safeway store at 40th and Donald in Eugene.

But today, not many orchid enthusiasts feed their fevers like the Gendels. Their Briggs Hill Orchids greenhouses, built about five years ago, now contain some 6,000 plants in a couple dozen genera. The fairly small commercial nursery sells both retail and wholesale, but is foremost a labor of love, in Bart's words.

"After awhile your tastes grow, because you see the vast assortment of genera and species out there," he explains. "It becomes an obsession."

More than grandma's corsage

Orchids can be microscopic or stand more than 10 feet tall, and the blooms and foliage can vary like a chest of jewels.

But look closely and similarities emerge, including an outer ring of three sepals and an inner ring of three delicate petals. Two of the petals look the same, but the third - usually the lower one - has a modified lip, or labellum. Here's where it gets fun, because the lip may be as bellowed as a bullfrog, fluttery as a butterfly's wings, hooded as a bandit or weird as a space invader.

Like any masterpiece, orchids take their own sweet time to develop. A nursery with laboratory conditions needs at least five years to grow an orchid from seed, and that's for early bloomers.

"An orchid is not like a tomato seed that you put in the ground and a month later you have a tomato," says Gendel.

Most orchids cost $18-$60 per plant, though collectors will pay hundreds of dollars for award winners and exotics.

At any price, orchids can't be rushed into annual blooming. Master Gardener Ostrofsky loves his Epidendrums because "they're in bloom more often than not." Some bloom several months of the year; others may bloom one or two days. "Blink and you miss it," Gendel says.

Breathe deeply when you can. While some orchids smell putrid or have little scent of any kind, others may perfume the home with whiffs of cinnamon, chocolate, vanilla, lemon or citrus, to name a few.

Yet while orchid blossoms steal the show, the plant's foliage - perhaps speckled, spotted, variegated or simply thick and waxy - provides year-round greenery. Even if you don't go out on a limb to grow them.