Orchid business growing in a cave!! - Orchid Board

Dr. Dave 4u · #1 02-19-2021, 07:21 PM

Hi all,
I was browsing the forum and came across a post by a member about a guy who grew orchids in a cave. I found some interesting links to this...might be of interest to anyone who had not seen it.

links:

After A Fire Destroyed 7,000 Of His Plants, Kansas City'''s Orchid Grower Comes Out Of His Cave | KCUR 89.3 - NPR in Kansas City. Local news, entertainment and podcasts.

here are pics in the cave

Most People Have No Idea This Stunning Orchid Cave Deep Below Missouri Exists | Only In Your State

more pics

Bird's Botanicals (Kansas City) - 2021 All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos) - Tripadvisor
Kansas_City_Missouri.html#photos;aggregationId=101 &albumid=101&filter=7

Pretty Kewl right?!!!

Who would have thought..!!!!

Selmo · #2 02-19-2021, 09:48 PM

Yes, this was a great loss to the Kansas City area. We used to take the Hort Club from the local college there every year.
His landlord at the caves, is who started the fire outside, the smoke from the fire was sucked in by ventilation and did a lot of damage to most of the businesses located in that part of the caves. In the caves he could grow many cool growing mountain orchids. He lost most of those to smoke damage. He does still sell his orchids and other odd plants (carnivorous plants and succulents) down at the City Market.

Orchidtinkerer · #3 02-19-2021, 10:26 PM

yeah I think most of us knew of that place and that it burnt down but I'd never actually seen pictures of what it looked like inside.

I did have to smile at his tips and tricks, he doesn't mention anywhere not to grow in a cave...

Since he tried and failed (big time) I think that should be his number one tip.

Apart from the fire incident he admits that his cave struggled to get all his orchids to flower down there.

Interestingly over the years I think I have heard of far more failures growing orchids than success stories.

And the best quote had to be "they only take 7 years to bloom so not as fragile as people think"

Leafmite · #4 02-20-2021, 03:23 AM

Plants, in general, like many living things, are fragile.

Ray · #5 02-20-2021, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orchidtinkerer

Interestingly over the years I think I have heard of far more failures growing orchids than success stories.

That’s human nature though, isn’t it?

I worked at a Volvo dealership summers and breaks during college. All you see there are cars with issues, so I pretty much concluded they were terrible cars...

Selmo · #6 02-20-2021, 11:19 AM

I did have to smile at his tips and tricks, he doesn't mention anywhere not to grow in a cave...

Since he tried and failed (big time) I think that should be his number one tip.

Apart from the fire incident he admits that his cave struggled to get all his orchids to flower down there.

His business did not burn down, it is made of rock. The smoke and toxic fumes from the fire is what killed his plants, not fire. In side the ‘caves’ there is a constant flow of moist 62 degree air. He grew many high altitude, cool, cloud forest type orchids that here in Missouri, would not be your first choice. Now he is growing the more high light, warm orchids that a traditional greenhouse would support. I wouldn’t say he failed at what he was doing, he was growing the type of orchids that where best suited for his growing conditions and when that was compromised by the smoke and fumes, he was no longer able to grow these types of orchid. Not his failure, he would still be in the ‘caves’ doing his thing, and doing it well

SouthPark · #7 02-20-2021, 08:19 PM

What we would also like to learn from this is ------- if assuming the owner had been burning the rubbish/trash many times before ----- just assuming ----- then what was the main difference between this time and the previous times? This is also assuming that it wasn't the first time that the trash was getting burned.

Selmo · #8 02-20-2021, 09:45 PM

The ‘caves’ are a old limestone quarries used in the building of Kansas City. Now they are underground storage and warehouse space. Used by all kinds of businesses to store their products in a enviromently stable climate. This ‘cave’, there are several in the KC area, is owned by the Interstate Underground Storage Company and they are the ones who started the fire. They did not think about the where the smoke was going or not aware of where the intakes for the ventilation system were. This was the first time that they had burned trash while he was a tenant. They where burning pallets, tires, plastic, and other bulk trash that they could not take to the landfill or to cheap to pay to have it hauled off.
There is no lesson to learn here, the man, David Bird, was doing something outside the box and because of the nearsightedness of a few individuals. His business and other businesses in that ‘cave’ suffered greatly.

SouthPark · #9 02-20-2021, 11:08 PM

Thanks Selmo for mentioning that. The news article was a bit vague or misleading - as when I was flicking through it - I assumed that that the owner of the 'cave' was David Bird.

This was based on their words "All of that changed in the fall when the cave's owner burned a large pile of trash that had accumulated on top of the cave."

Now it is clear that the owner of the cave is somebody that David Bird was renting the cave from. Thanks for mentioning that all this wasn't the orchid business owner's fault in any way.

WaterWitchin · #10 02-21-2021, 12:48 PM

David Bird is a good friend of mine, and the one who provided the gateways to my addiction. He and his daughter Vashti are a wealth of information. He lost a huge amount of inventory, but also had his own collection in the cave. Fortunately, most of his personal collection survived. Not only is he a respected and knowledgeable grower and breeder, he's a real hoot with a great personality.