AOS CORNER
By Melba Butler, AOS Representative
Orchid trivia: “Orchids occupy almost every conceivable habitat type except the oceans, from tropical cloud forests to seashore scrub, from tundra to semi-deserts. You can find them in the Andes and Himalayas, the Everglades, ancient Roman and Mayan ruins, even your own back yard.” Pridgeon, Alec. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids; Lansdowne Publishing Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia, 1992, Reprinted 1994; p. 7.
Orchids currently seem to be more important and more rampant than ever.
If you grow them, as we do, as hobbyists, you probably have them all over house, your desk at work, on the patio, in the greenhouse, on the fence, in flower beds, maybe even on the front porch or entrance. We all see orchids everywhere: they are in the grocery store, hardware store, home repair store, orchid society meetings, shows, and workshops. All the magazines use them in their ads from furniture to jewelry and scented candles and room fresheners. Their beauty attracts attention and accents bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms, and virtually any landscape looks better with orchids.
For the beginning hobbyist, orchids probably seem mostly mysterious. In the beginning, there is so much to learn and so many directions to take, like which ones to grow, how to grow them, where to find another one because the ones you have aren’t blooming now. You have concerns and questions and your fascination goes on and on…
If you judge them, you are probably trying to keep up with the continuous and challenging name changes. You think you can remember what it was before it became what it is now and then you get an e-mail or read in a bulletin that it has changed again.
Many years ago, people died trying to retrieve them from dark jungles and rain forests and delivering them across oceans or continents for the rewards they would be paid by wealthy horticulturalists. The orchid fever goes on even today as some become so possessed with orchids that they break the law to buy and sell them. We read in the news that some are being prosecuted, pay fines, and even go to jail because they became foolish and greedy.
In some countries, orchids are the livelihood of many people. They provide work for thousands who propagate, cultivate, market, and ship orchids across oceans and around the world for more people to continue their distribution, for orchid vendors, hobbyists, households and offices to enjoy.
For us, orchids began with just wanting a few orchids for our own enjoyment in our home. How could we know they would become so important? Now we even write about them.
Whatever your reason for being involved with orchids, by now you know that the variety, vastness and even the mystery of orchids is endless. Let’s continue to enjoy their beauty, read about them, study them, grow them, go to meetings, workshops and shows, and join even more societies! Let’s share them with friends and family. Surely their main purpose in this world is to be admired and shared.
Find loads of orchid information on the AOS Web site at www.aos.org. Join the AOS and receive Orchids magazine each month…it’s for orchid lovers!
Susan Taylor
Orchids Editor, BellaOnline.com
