January 28, 2001

Greenhouse effect: Lane County couple ventures into orchid growing

By JODY ROLNICK
For The Register-Guard

HELENE GENDEL loves all things green and growing, so she was thrilled the day her husband, Bart, brought home an orchid from the Safeway in South Eugene, where he works as a pharmacist.

But the cymbidium (as it's known) came with few instructions. Despite the Eugene couple's best efforts - they repotted the orchid in fresh soil and kept it in the house - the plant eventually died.

In its stead, a business bloomed. The Gendels, frustrated by the lack of information available on growing and caring for the graceful, fragrant plants, bought another half dozen orchids, joined associations of orchid growers, breeders and fanciers, and began attending trade shows.

These

Bart and Helene Gendel cultivated their business, Briggs Hill Orchids, from their home until they built a special greenhouse. The "lalia tenbrosa" orchid (center) and the "phal Bill Freeman" grow at Briggs Hills. Photos: NICOLE DeVITO The Register-Guard

days, from their 1,400-square-foot Briggs Hill Orchids greenhouse south of Eugene, they sell more than $100,000 worth of orchids a year to some 450 retail customers and two dozen or so wholesale accounts.

The couple is among a growing roster of entrepreneurs nationwide who have turned their orchid passions into viable for-profit ventures, courtesy of the apparently rapidly growing demand for orchids. American consumers, nesting in their grand, new homes, are on the lookout for novel colorful plants, and orchids seem to fit the bill. Also, there's increasing corporate interest in having fancy blooms in the executive suite.

The Gendels are keen to share what they have learned since owning their first orchid in 1994 - that the plants grow best in bark, prefer air to pots, and even like cool outdoor temperatures.

"I never want someone else to have to go through what I did," said Helene. "I had no idea what to do and where to go. So, we tell people that if they think their plant is dying and want us to take a look at it, or if they just want to know what they should do with an orchid, please call and ask."

A $70,000-start-up

Starting the business, the Gendels spent two years collecting plants and data. Their 1,500-square-foot house became so crammed with orchids that they built a $70,000 greenhouse for storing the plants when they were not in bloom.

Sales have gone so well that Helene Gendel two years ago was able to quit her day job and work full time on the orchid business. Since moving to Oregon from New York in 1987, she had worked as a project coordinator for Eugene printer IP/Koke. After two years of making orchid deliveries before and after work and on her lunch hour, the Gendels decided that she should resign and devote herself full time to selling orchids (with detailed care sheets) to fellow hobbyists and local retailers.

Now, she works amid hundreds of orchids, aided by her husband and by Linda Krahn, who is a friend, neighbor and part-time employee.

The company's success thus far is not surprising, given the surge in popularity of orchids since the mid-1990s. It was at that time, said Jim Watson, manager of publications for the American Orchid Society in Delray Beach, Fla., that growers hit upon simpler methods to propagate orchids and get them to flower quicker and longer.

Robert Griesbach, an official with the U.S. Agriculture Department's arboretum in Maryland, agreed, saying mass-market growers have learned that orchids aren't difficult to produce. At the same time, he said, the public has discovered that orchids are neither difficult to care for nor particularly expensive. Also, he said, they've learned that orchids have a floral life exceeding that of all other potted plants.

Still, orchids can be spendy.

The process of growing an orchid is not short. Each stage of the plant's life, from seedling to flowering, can take one to four years. Nearly all orchids are sold when they are in bloom. So the rest of the time, someone has to store and care for them, pushing up their cost. The Gendels' orchids range in price from $20 to $150.

The No. 2 potted plant

Orchids have become big business. In 1999, orchids were the No. 2 floral potted plant in sales ($79 million), behind poinsettias ($228 million), the Agriculture Department reports. Orchid sales were greater than those of the chrysanthemum ($72 million), Easter lily ($32 million) and African violet ($25 million).

Orchid sales nearly doubled from 1996, the agency said.

The plants come in almost endless varieties, with 35,000 native species and some 700,000 registered hybrids.

They are bred just about everywhere from India, Thailand and the Philippines to many parts of the United States.

In recent years, many U.S. horticultural entrepreneurs, from Florida to California and up the Pacific Northwest coast, have built orchid greenhouses. In Oregon, the Gendels are one of perhaps 10 commercial greenhouses specializing in orchids.

The orchid craze has bred its share of controversy and even ridicule.

Virtually all orchids for sale these days are commercially bred, and vast effort is expended developing hybrids.

Rare orchids that exist in the wild are typically protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna, an agreement that is enforced by signatory nations, including the United States. The pact was created to halt the mass plundering of rare plant species in exotic locales.

San Francisco journalist Eric Hansen recently came out with a book on the topic of orchids, orchid hunters and government regulators, titled "Orchid Fever: a horticultural tale of lust and lunacy."

Yuppies and captives

The British media have taken pleasure in poking fun at the fascination of U.S. consumers with orchids.

American rock star Jennifer Lopez, in a tour of Britain last year, insisted on having her dressing room at the British Broadcasting Corp. studios filled with white orchids. Staid BBC workers expressed disgust at the extravagance.

An item last year in The Times of London snickered at "overpaid yuppies" in California who buy orchids, then don't have time to look after them and send them away to orchid "spas" for recuperation.

But the Brits themselves have long been fascinated by orchids. Last March, two British horticulturists from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, near London, went to Panama to search for rare orchids.

In the jungle, they were kidnapped by a militant group, which held them hostage for nine months before releasing them.

The Gendels, like many orchid enthusiasts, say the interest in the plants is infectious. "The more you learn, the more you're hooked," Helene Gendel said.

That appears to be true for many Briggs Hill Orchids customers.

Tana Wiley of Eugene has been shopping at the nursery for two years, since meeting an orchid-bearing Bart Gendel on a plane trip.

Wiley, who owned no orchids and knew nothing about them, decided to visit Briggs Hill Orchids.

"It was just such a charming place and a wonderful place," she said.

Today, Wiley owns more than two dozen orchids and has even attended orchid auctions.

"It just becomes an obsession, you know," she said.

Briggs Hill Orchids, say the Gendels, is one-stop orchid shopping. In addition to plants - both blooming and non - they sell books, fertilizer, and pots specifically designed for orchids.

And they dispense (for free) advice and care sheets.

Jody Rolnick is a Cottage Grove-based free-lance writer.

Albany orchid show today

WANT TO KNOW more about orchids?

The Briggs Hills Orchids nursery is at 27936 Briggs Hill Road. Owners Helene and Bart Gendel welcome visitors on weekdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A telephone call in advance (431-3886) is a good idea. Their orchids are on sale at local retail outlets such as Indoor Garden, Jerry's Home Improvement Center and PassionFlower Design.

Orchid show season is approaching. The Mary's Peak Show is at the Heritage Mall in Albany today during mall hours. The Portland Home and Garden Show at the Portland Expo Center has plenty of orchids. It runs Feb. 21-25. The Willamette Valley Orchid Society show will run March 31 and April 1 at the Valley River Center in Eugene.

The American Orchid Society web page is: www.orchidweb.org