My Humble Orchid Beginnings...or How I Grew Amazing Green Things In My Basement

This orchid disease began in 1970....and it was all Bob's fault. He taught at Glenview Middle School and one of the faculty members was attempting to grow orchids...she offered to give Bob a couple of plants to see if I could bring them back from a certain death. Well, I did. And they bloomed, much to my amazement. I remember sitting on a chair, watching a phalaenopsis bud open...well, not exactly...but every couple of hours or so I would sit myself down and be mesmerized by the unfolding flower....and I became an orchid addict.


The few plants I reclaimed from death quickly multiplied into 20 or so plants...from ads in the back of a magazine. My windowsills filled, the African violets began to show neglect, and soon they found new homes because the expanding orchid collection seemed to take over everything. Then, on a snowy Sunday afternoon as Bob snoozed away on the sofa, I picked up a book about fluorescent light culture and read the whole thing before dinner. That evening I reevaluated our basement...aha!..the fruit cellar with all those lovely shelves. Who needs jars of tomatoes, beans, and pickles anyway....when one can grow orchids....by the dozens!!


The next day I was off to the hardware store for semigloss interior white paint and a list of supplies needed to hang four 4 bulb fluorescent light units...and Bob...never knowing what this addiction would amount to...began wiring the shelves. He probably thought that he might get to see out the dining room windows again if all those plants retired to the fruit cellar. My new plantroom was not insulated against the unforeseen humidity of the future and this would become a problem in the years to come. But with the cellar's newly brightened walls and one set of glowing shelves, all seemed good and wonderful in my little orchid world.


A year passed...more plants, then another year...and yet, more plants and more lights....I had discovered Orchids by Hausermanns and Oakhill Gardens. The fruit cellar was beginning to glow and could be seen by passing motorists. Then I heard about the Illowa Orchid Society and I attended a meeting. To my delight and utter amazement the president that year was none other than Dr. Pete Beckman...my respected Religion professor at Augustana College of years before. I joined and soon could hardly wait for the first Wednesday of each month to learn all I could from these amazing kindred spirits who also grew orchids.


Illowa's first orchid show was held at the Riverside Conservatory in Moline, Illinois in the mid 70's. It was not an approved show but, wow..., was it wonderful to see all those plants arranged and displayed so "professionally." A year later Illowa had its first approved AOS show at Southpark Mall in Moline. I did a display and was so proud of my phalaenopsis, phragmipediums, and miltonias...all grown in "The Swamp"...the name given to my beloved plantroom by my now concerned husband. He had begun to notice an uncommon amount of moisture that collected on windowsills upstairs...and then there was that problem of the subtle warping of the stairway.....hmmmmm....and then the little stream that seemed to trickle from the plantroom to the drain in another room, the whirring of the fans, and the gentle fog from the humidifiers wafting around the basement. The plants loved it and were just beautiful....fans and humidiers humming away so merrily.


In the spring of 1984 my father in law offered to loan me money for a greenhouse..probably in response to Bob's rather constant warnings that the upstairs was about to fall into the downstairs and soon, one late night we would find ourselves slowly dropping in our bed into "The Swamp." I immediately took my father-in-law up on the offer and ordered the greenhouse...a Janco 14' X 17' fully "automated" glasshouse. It was completed late that summer. Bob and a friend did most of the work which included a small "mud" room. Our old farmhouse has a large roof overhang which would have allowed ice to drop on the greenhouse and demolish it the first winter. This mudroom put the greenhouse 10' away from the main house and added a good place for us to enter with our muddy, barn boots and not clutter up the backporch, which we had been forced to do over the years. The greenhouse was also meant to have an above-the-ground foundation which we sunk into the ground. As the years have gone by with our harsh, strong winds out in the country this has been a perfect decision. I step down into the greenhouse and the atmosphere inside is buffered by the surrounding earth.


I moved all my plants from the basement in one weekend and said goodbye to "The Swamp."...well, at least for the time being. The plants were not delighted. The phalaenopsis could be heard complaining immediately..."it's too bright, too cool, too cloudy, too dry"...yadayadayada. And they died. The miltonias sulked for awhile and then sprang to life. The paphs and phrags were very happy and proceeded to grow like never before. And I had more room than I could have ever imagined...so more buying, trading, and adding to the collection. Masdevallias and pleurothallids appeared, a couple of oncidiums moved in, other strange botanicals found plenty of room to grow. And I began doing my own displays at orchid shows. My first American Orchid Society award was received on April 13, 1985 for Miltonia Lycaena 'Stamperland' with a CCM of 82 points at our Illowa show. My most recent AOS award was given this past April to Masdevallia Elgar 'Timberlane' HCC/AOS with a score of 79 points. And this time I got to name the cross (angulata X aenigma 'Variations'...what else other than Elgar!!) and register the plant. In between there have been 20 other awards including other CCM's, AM's, HCC's, and CBR's. There have also been several AOS show trophies and Orchid Digest Corporation awards. And as the years passed I enjoyed... and the club tolerated me in each of Illowa's offices....except treasurer....thank heaven for that!


Now that the greenhouse has been a permanent fixture around here for along time, I realized two years ago that in order to do justice to the pleurothallids, "The Swamp" needed to be revitalized. This time 1/3rd of the swamp is growing and enclosed in clear plastic...top, sides, walls...and a carefully overlapped "door" to allow admittance. The environment is near perfect...sonic vaporizer steaming away, oscillating fan blowing cool mountain breezes, and muffin fans dispelling fluorescent ballast heat. And there are two HID lights in boxes...somehow Bob is not enthused about filling the room with plants again...he reminds me occasionally of the "horrors" of the first "Swamp"!

My Orchids
The Orchid Mall
Return to Homepage

Marcia Whitmore