| People often look at me strangely when I tell them I collect orchids. One pictures old ladies with pruning shears tending her roses and munching scones. But when you consider that that are 25,000 naturally occurring species of Orchids, with perhaps another 5000 species yet to be discovered, it's easy to see why someone would become obsessed. They are by far the largest plant family and grow everywhere in the world except Antarctica, and the largest orchid in the world grows to be over 20 metres. You could spend your life collecting orchids and never get them all.
Which is why, once you get bitten, you are forever hooked. For most orchid-philes, it starts with just one; a phalaeonopis, dendrobuim, or onicidum, and it goes from there. For me, it started with a purple phal I picked up at Home Depot for 20 bucks. I fell instantly in love with her wide blooms and deep purple color. A few weeks later I acquired my dendrobium and after some light reading and serious drooling, realized that I hadn't even started with my orchid obsession. There were thousands of species to be had, each more beautiful than the last, and I wasn't going to stop until I had a fair sampling of what there was... |
