Greetings from the PNW, Oregon
Ok, I'm finally doing it--1. Joining the Orchid Board, and 2. Introducing myself!
I'm just gonna start right off by blaming my Great Grandfather for my obsession with orchids (and plants in general). He essentially lived in a greenhouse, with a pond inside and everything, and I remember being so fascinated by it all as a child. He grew orchids, and though I don't remember them specifically, my mom salvaged one of them when he passed. Her and I together, over the course of 15 years (because we had no idea what we were doing) have been able to rehab it, and even bloom it once (pictured). More on that rocky road later...
I, of course, dabbled in the gateway grocery store phals just like all of us did, and I got hooked. That went on for about 10 years, but it's been the last 3 that I really amped up my obsessiveness of this hobby. I was really starting to get into terrarium-friendly orchids, like Lepanthes and Sophronitis, and Dendrobiums were earning a spot high on my list (and still are).
And then.
In Feb of this year (2021) I joined the Oregon Orchid Society, attending the meetings remotely, as they're based in Portland, but I'm in Southern Oregon. One week into my membership, and the VP calls me and says that someone in the area passed away, and would I want to adopt the collection? They estimated about 50 plants. We got a break in the weather one Sunday, and my mom and I took her fancy show horse trailer up some remote mountain road and ended up at the property. Three hours later and 250 orchids later, we were headed back down the hill, coughing and wheezing from the mold and dust, nearly in a full blown linear panic over what we had just done. We had about 3 hours of daylight left and freezing temps in the forecast and had to figure out how to get them all in non-freezing areas in that amount of time. It was a wild ride, but we did it. The next month was dedicated to repotting and making sense of it all.
It was such an overwhelming task, but it has been such an adventure. I'll post a more in-depth telling of it some time, but the long and short of it is--I went from thinking I was pretty hot stuff with my 30-some orchids...and now I own over 200!!! (There have been losses, RIP)
Talk about a steep learning curve!
I've always been fascinated by orchids, and I'm afraid the fascination only gets deeper with age.
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