why do you grow orchids....?

[Ray]

I suppose that I got my interest in plants from my mother, who grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan. I spent many summers there as a child (went there one winter too; too damn cold!) And really got in tune with agriculture. We always had tons of houseplants, and I continued that when I went to college.

While at Georgia Tech, I volunteered my time at the public greenhouses in Piedmont Park (now the Atlanta Botanical Gardens), and after I had been there about a year was given a big, floofy cattleya. It took me about 2 1/2 years, but I finally killed it through traditional root rot/desiccation torture, and that got me determined to learn how to grow them properly. After that, it was an obsession.

Now, some 45+ years later, I have gone from a few dozen on a windowsill, to 500 in a greenhouse, to zero after heater failure, to over 1000 in my own collection plus plants I sold, and now am down to about 15 – 20 on windowsills again.