Passion Plant : Delicate, Diverse Orchids Inspire Obsessive Devotion Among Collectors
Thousand Oaks resident Bill Bergstrom is proud to say he is addicted to orchids. He left his engineering job to make time for his flowers. His back yard, once like any other, is now criss-crossed with vines, packed from edge to edge with hundreds of the delicate blooms.
And soon, he will leave his Thousand Oaks home for good, driven by his orchid obsession to Hawaii, where he will have enough space to raise thousands of species for resale to collectors.
Bergstrom’s involvement is extreme, but a surprising number of the orchid collectors who meet every month in Thousand Oaks describe their interest as an addiction.
“It definitely grows on you,” said Betsy Seim, a leader of the Conejo Orchid Society. “Once you start, it’s tough to give it up because there’s always another species or another color that you want.”
While orchid aficionados may not be as common as autograph hounds or coin and stamp collectors, the hobby has become increasingly popular in recent years.
The small membership of the Conejo Valley chapter has swelled to about 50 and Bergstrom said new chapters of the American Orchid Society are springing up across the country.
The bounty of orchid enthusiasts is due in large part to advancements that now allow growers to clone the flowers, making them more common and less expensive.
Once the flower of royalty, available only to the wealthy, orchids are now accessible to just about anyone.
“You can buy an orchid for as much as $1,500 or as little as 50 cents,” Bergstrom said. “People still associate the flowers with the wealthy or the famous, but really anyone can grow them.”
Those who collect the plants need only a warm, humid place for growing. Deciding which flowers to collect depends on individual taste.
Some people are looking for certain colors, Seim explained. Others collect orchids for fragrance. Still others seek out orchids made famous by their famous owners.
Bergstrom, who now sells orchids, said one of his customers spent $17,000 to buy one each of the 167 flowers in actor Raymond Burr’s collection.
“Now you can see why I quit my job,” said Bergstrom, referring to his engineering career. “There are plenty of people out there who are more into this hobby than I am, and they’ll pay a lot of money to get just the right flower.”
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Many collectors, including Bergstrom, focus their interest on rare species.
They will search far and wide for peculiar plants--a flower that is blue while all others of that breed are white.
“It’s like a white rhino,” he said. “Collectors want the flower to be rare enough so they can claim ownership of the only one.”
And Bergstrom said the most sought-after orchids are those that do not exist.
“Everyone wants a black orchid,” he said. “But the closest anyone has seen is a really deep purple.”
How far will enthusiasts go to find such a flower?
Seim said some growers have turned to genetic engineering to create the bloom they’re after.
And until recently, avid collectors like Bergstrom spanned the globe in search of rare finds. They only stopped traveling abroad to find orchids when collecting them was restricted because species were vanishing.
The beauty of the hobby, said Thousand Oaks collector Arthur Fingerle, is that orchids are easy to grow.
Most of the 150,000 species of orchids can be found in humid areas and grow by attaching themselves to tree limbs. People who grow them at home plant them in bark, not soil. They take little water and feed mostly on sunlight.
The two major killers of orchids, Seim said, are over-watering and insects. To keep everything natural, Seim combats orchid-eating pests by keeping frogs and lizards in her greenhouse.
But she said most of the members of the Orchid Society grow their flowers indoors on flower stands. At the group’s monthly meetings, collectors get tips about raising orchids and hear from experts about different species. And, the group maintains a library of books and videos about growing the delicate flowers.
“It’s really an excellent hobby,” said Fingerle, who began collecting orchids more than 40 years ago. “Anybody who loves flowers should try it.”
FYI
Members of the Conejo Orchid Society gather in Thousand Oaks to discuss growing techniques, exchange ideas and socialize on the second Tuesday of every month. For more information or to sign up, call Betsy Seim at 498-8557.
