Educating the public - your thoughts and opinions please

[Paul Mc]

Having been on this forum a lot in the past and actively seeing the general publics response to various orchid events, I have discovered what appears to be a general disconnect. I've seen and heard from many that friends/family do not understand the Orchid Folk, nor the events held. Of course, this observation is general in nature and the reasons for not understanding are numerous.

So here is a general question that I would like to hear your experience and thoughts on: "If you were to educate the general public, friends or family on why orchids are important to us, what would be your talking points and reasoning?"

Let me give one possible experience/example. A Society holds an Orchid Auction and some general public were observing. Before they left, the commentary was akin to "All of this over a plant?!" Personally, there are two things that would pop into my mind: 1.) It is a plant, but an Orchid specifically so why choose the general word "plant", 2.) These are plants you will not find at your big box stores. The general question I asked would seek to address the possible disconnect and educate the general public on our perceived importance of the Orchid and the event.

I hope that was clear. If you have questions, please let me know so I can clarify a bit. Mainly, I just want to know what your experience and opinions would be when it comes to general education.

Thanks in advance!


Paul McMahon
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Subrosa]

My experience educating the public has taught me two things. #1 You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. #2 I don't like horses very much.

[orchidsarefun]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

My experience educating the public has taught me two things. #1 You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. #2 I don't like horses very much.

educating the public is a breeze compared to reasoning with an experienced ( in years ) orchid grower who has done the same thing for decades.....

I have found that the "public" are most receptive when they are interested, not cynical. At our Orchid Show I had long chats with bonsai growers and gesneriad growers as they were interested in companion plants. It helps too when the public make the effort to come to the shows - they are thus already a little interested !

[fotofashion]

A person who makes that kind of comment is not a plant person and would probably make such a comment about any kind of plant. Not worth worrying about IMHO. To some people education is something they left behind after high school (or before).
Beverly A.

[RosieC]

I find friends/family are interested in asking me for advice on their supermarket orchid and how to keep it alive, and sometimes make a point of saying months later "It's flowering again" or "It's still alive".

However people think I'm crazy with the number I grow and that my house is so full of them.

The vast majority of people I speak to don't realise that Phalaenopsis is not the only sort of orchid there is. I was the same when I was given my first Phal. I thought it was an orchid and when I saw the tag saying Phalaenopsis I thought maybe it was a 'fake' orchid... something that looked like one but wasn't. I had no clue that Phalaenopsis was a type of orchid, and even after I knew I still presumed that they all looked roughly the same until a few years later when I found this board and the vast variety there was.

This observation that most people don't realise that orchids are so varied is held up by a lot of newbies here on the board. Many come here with "I have a problem with my orchid", completely not comprehending that "Orchid" actually tells us very little about what plant they have (though you can often guess it's a Phal or one of the other common ones).

So, I guess in answer to your question, what I'm always trying to get over to people how varied this hobby is, that orchids are so interesting because of how vast the family is. I try to explain that I don't have 130+ phals in my house, that my plant collection is actually very varied. I'm sure when I tell hold up my fingers to show the size of my tiniest plant as an example of how they vary most people still imagine a tiny Phal that size though

Photos of a range from tiny to massive ones are I think one of the few ways people will come to realise that. I did through pictures here, but my interest had been caught by excitement of having re-bloomed the one Phal I had, then needing help as I almost killed it when re-potting. Pictures that can catch the interest quickly without the person needing to spend a long time reading about them are perhaps the key

(I often have different, and as stunning as possible, pictures on my laptop desktop background. When people stand at my desk they sometimes notice them and say "Wow, is that another orchid" or sometimes I have to give internal presentations at work, and as I'm getting ready my laptop background appears on the projector for a few minutes... and I almost always get comments and/or questions about it. That's when colleagues really start to realise what I mean when I have told them "They are not all the same".)

[Subrosa]

Unlearning is always harder than simply learning! To someone who already enjoys gardening of any kind orchids are an easy sell. But trying to educate someone who can't understand fuss over any plant is a waste of my time. I attend a native plant sale each year at a local nature center and overhear comments from folks just visiting the center to the same effect as "why all the fuss?". And these folks are into living things enough to visit a nature center!

[Paul Mc]

Some great thoughts this far! Thanks!

It's not that I am concerned with any commentary, and the example I gave was not a real event. We certainly can't force interested where it doesn't exist. Just seems to be a disconnect and the need to educate some people on why we do what we do with Orchids. I am only seeking to find out what you all have experience and your thoughts and opinions on how you would approach the subject.

In reality, I suppose this is a survey. I would like to learn more about how various people perceive the Orchid Folk and the disconnects they have with what we do.


Paul McMahon
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[orchidsarefun]

thinking about this further, I used the following "sell" ideas on my folks last year. My mom already has 3, from 0 !
- cheaper than and last longer than cut flowers
- treat them right and they will rebloom. Always a pleasant challenge to someone who appreciates plants and has a garden.
- easy to grow on window-sill
- great companion plants to violets and others

and another, not to my folks but a selling point anyway -
- they are so cheap ( and thus disposable ) at big box stores that you can have flowers all year round. Point is to reel them in with that one !

[NYCorchidman]

I don't think I can come up with any significance of orchids that would appeal to the general public other than their beauty.

There are also many other beautiful flowering plants that are not orchids. Orchids are not that important really. It's just one of many.

With that said, I think the key is to find a way to generate interest in orchids.

People like me and many others on this website already love orchids, so they are important to us.

I think the same can be said about basically anything.

When there is enough interest in something, that something becomes important to those that have interest in them. simple!

After talking to many people around me, including some that have interest in plants, I realized that there is still a huge misconception that orchids can only be grown in a greenhouse setting, and they are hard to grow. This seems to scare people away from buying and growing orchids.

Second, it is the price. For many, orchids are just plants. Even potted phal sold for $20 is just too much for many considering many houseplants and flowering plants of the similar size (4 inch pot) are much cheaper usually.

Orchids used to be just another "show off" of the super rich in Europe who were wealthy enough to have heated greenhouse and personal gardener.

Now that orchids are so common, it is mainly only alive through hobbyists plus general public who buy orchids for decorations or gifts. We can help increase the number of hobbysts, but I don't think it will ever get huge.

People you mentioned who left a comment like "all this for plants?", well, they are just the wrong group of people I guess. Again, it's all about having interest or not. They apparently don't. and no appreciation.

I wonder if they are aware or have been to things like dog training competitions, car shows, antique exhibition and auction, horse racing, betta fighting competition or their hybrid exhibition,,,so many to list...If one has no interest in things list in above and see some enthusiasm and money involved (especially cars and antique), not only will they not understand but they may get sick. lol

---------- Post added at 12:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:11 PM ----------

Originally Posted by fotofashion

A person who makes that kind of comment is not a plant person and would probably make such a comment about any kind of plant. Not worth worrying about IMHO. To some people education is something they left behind after high school (or before).
Beverly A.

I love this comment!

[RosieC]

I think people do need a bit of interest in plants or even supermarket orchids to get them more involved and interested. However I think some folks who like plants may still not be able to comprehend why you would get excited about an auction for particular plants... "I can just pick up an orchid at the supermarket, why all this fuss".

To be honest I'm that way about non-orchids. I don't keep the tags of non-orchids and I would never consider going somewhere specifically to see show of non-orchids, or to buy special plants of a non-orchid. I would just buy what my garden centre put in front of me.

I've specifically chosen that I wanted to make a hobby out of orchids and so I choose to take more of an interest. I like gardening in general, I like plants in general, but not with the same interest in knowing all about the ins-and-outs of their parentage, their growth patterns, their enviroment for best care etc. I put plants in the garden and just hope they grow, and if they don't I try something else.

I'm not sure you can say someone has no interest in plants if they don't want that deep interest, and don't see why you would care about getting some unusual orchid, when there are plenty of others available

All we can hope to do is share why we enjoy the hobby and hope just a few others pick up that same interest/excitement.