A fascination with orchids

Young Chang

When Phyllis Richford was very young, she brought home stray puppies

and kittens. She fed them and watched them grow.

In the last six years, Richford has housed about 25 foster children,

giving them a place to stay both emotionally and physically.

“I’m a nester,” the 63-year-old admits.

She loves to help anything that’s alive grow, especially when it comes

to that which others don’t want -- including orchids.

Richford, who is president of the Newport Harbor Orchid Society, has

more than 500 orchids growing at home, not including the 200 baby

epidendrums she just bought. Epidendrums are a type of orchid found in

tropical America.

She grows them from seeds, buys new ones and, of course, brings home

the plants that others want to throw away.When asked why she can’t just

have one, or even just 100, Richford explains it’s a collector’s thing.

“There are so many different species and flowers and names and kinds,”

she said. “We might have 25 or 30 white ones, but then there are the

white ones with pink lips, white with lavender lips, then the yellows

with red lips or purple with red lips. Each flower comes out

differently.”

Richford is not alone in her passion. Walk into South Coast Plaza’s

Crate & Barrel/Macy’s Home Wing today and meet her brethren. More than 65

vendors and far more than 100 orchid displays line the mall’s floors for

three stories around a 25-foot orchid centerpiece.

The retail stores have taken a backseat for the last three days,

letting the sight and smell of literally thousands of orchids at the

Fascination of Orchids overtake their customers and space.

Sponsored by the Orange County Branch Cymbidium Society of America,

the four-day 21st annual show and sale has drawn vendors and visitors

from around the world.

Tony Glinskas, chairman of the show, said organizers expect more than

100,000 people to have visited by the end of today. Last year’s event

attracted 92,000, but the show keeps getting bigger and bigger.

“It has grown to a point where it’s the largest orchid show in the

United States,” he said. “People come from California, across the U.S.,

from Central and South America. We have a company coming from Hawaii, a

company coming from Taiwan, and we have orchids coming from Thailand and

the Philippines.”

To these growers, orchids aren’t just pretty plants. They are exotic

creatures deserving special attention.

“I got addicted about 10 to 12 years ago,” Glinskas said. “I guess the

first time I saw orchids was in a corsage or something. But when I walked

into a flower shop and there was the orchid plant, I was amazed because

this is what the rest of it looks like.”

When he realized orchids were something he could grow himself, he

tried it. Today he has between 700 and 800 orchids at his Huntington

Beach home.

Glinskas said that Southern California -- especially the area between

Santa Barbara and San Diego -- offers the perfect climate for growing the

flowers. They thrive along a wide range of temperatures, from as low as

28 degrees to as high as 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Some species require an

approximately 30-degree temperature drop in the Fall to start their

flower-spiking.

“We have this normally [in Southern California],” he said. “So we

essentially don’t have to do anything special with them.”

Richford, who also has a display at the South Coast Plaza show, spends

about three hours a day taking care of her orchids.

She waters them, checks for bugs and pests, examines each plant to see

if it needs repotting and cleans the windows and floors of her

greenhouse. She cares about using the proper type of water, the best

fertilizer and controls the temperature in her greenhouse.

“I enjoy seeing the plant from a tiny baby in the flask until you grow

them up to blooming size,” Richford said. “Depending on the species of

orchids, they can be so teeny tiny that you need a magnifying glass, or

they can be very large ones.”

Some epidendrums that grow outside can grow 400 flowers on a single

plant, she added.

When a 2-inch orchid blooms, in about two year’s time, to a 12- to

16-inch pot-needing specimen, Richford keeps it whole or splits up the

flowers -- which are every color you can think of except black.

Merilee Huth, who will be selling orchids at the show with her

husband, Larry Moskovitz, said it is the orchid’s many changing faces

that intrigues her.

“The reason I got so hooked on orchids is there’s such a tremendous

variety of colors, shapes and sizes,” she said. “The flowers usually have

a very good substance to them, very bright rich colors, interesting

markings and there are ones that have very interesting shapes.”

Huth started growing the plants on her windowsill years ago. She said

they were the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen. She joined an

orchid group, where she learned about orchid upkeep and met her future

husband.

“When you buy an orchid and you get it to bloom for the first time,

it’s really really gratifying,” she said.

FYI

WHAT: Fascination of Orchids International Show & Sale

WHEN: 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. today

WHERE: South Coast Plaza’s Crate & Barrel/Macy’s Home Wing, 3333

Bristol St., Costa Mesa

COST: Free

CALL: (800) 782-8888