I knew I would need to provide more info - so here it is.
The Ball State University Alumni Association publication, "
Ball State Alumnus", Summer 2013 edition has the article I referenced - "A Flowering Affair" written by Kate Elliott. It is about a man named Al Thanhauser and his wife Yvonne and how he impressed her by giving her an orchid upon their first date. That one started a love of orchids and then he spent the next 57 years giving her orchids to build up a huge collection, of which he gave 400 - 600 orchids to Ball State University. Since that time (era-1970's) the collection has been added to and eventually led to the Ball State Orchid Greenhouse, filled with orchids, other flowering tropical plants and tanks of poison-dart frogs. This collection is now named the Wheeler-Thanhauser Orchid Collection and Species Bank, "to conserve rare and endangered species of orchids and foster research and education about the worlds most diverse plant species". It is soon to be moved to a new home, the Dr. Joe R. and Alice Pursley Rinard Greenhouse, to "preserve the largest collegiate orchid collection in the United States".
Mr. Thanhauser and his wife visited the current Orchid Greenhouse in mid-May, 2013 and the comment at the heading of the second page states that "Al shared a few of his secrets to growing healthy, vibrant orchids, including watering them with tea [the tannic acid in tea helps protect the plants and foster growth]." End quote. I am guessing he shared these tips with the greenhouse curator Cheryl LeBlanc who led them on a guided tour of the collection - either that or directly to the author of the article. That is all it says concerning the tea, but it got me to thinking as I had never heard of this.
This man, who traveled the world for his business and did a lot of collecting (from the wild it sounds), has been growing orchids since approximately the 1950's I am guessing. He spoke of bringing home orchids from various locals to present to his wife, leading to their initial collection that represented each genus, species and variety within the Cattleya family.
I am not going to comment on his initial gathering of orchids "through the jungles" and how the collection now stands "to conserve and preserve endangered species of orchids...." - oops - perhaps I just did!
But again, the use of tea was new to me -
So this is where and how I got the info. Just thought you would like to know.
Have not been to the Greenhouse, but do plan on a trip soon.
If you are interested and in the area (Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana) you may want to also plan a trip - for info on visiting hours and guided tours, call 765-285-8839 or visit
The Orchid Greenhouse - Ball State University.
Steve
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