Deb Boersma waits until her husband is out of earshot before divulging she spent $325 on an orchid from Colombia two years ago.
It’s not that much considering orchid aficionados can pay $5,000 for one tropical beauty.
“It just becomes an obsession, I guess,” said Boersma, president of the Windsor Orchid Society which is hosting its annual show and sale this weekend. “Some people refer it to being like cocaine.”
The St. Clair College chemistry teacher said her orchid obsession started with a store-bought plant about 20 years ago. That grew to more orchids in a sun room and then four years ago the Amherstburg couple added a greenhouse which now is bursting with about 300 plants.
Orchids on the floor, orchids crammed on tables and the four-foot roots of orchids hanging by her head.
The greenhouse will be at its flowering best in January and February but there are blooms that look like slippers and spiders, and pops of orange, yellow, purple and pinks. She admits she has too many orchids but there’s room enough for her to sit inside with a glass of homemade wine.
“You walk into the greenhouse and it’s your own little paradise,” Boersma said.
It’s easy to get sucked in, she said. There are 30,000 different species of orchids and, unlike roses that pretty much look the same but come in different colours, orchids are all different. Some look like monkey faces. Some, like her favourite Cattleya or corsage orchid, have brilliant blooms eight inches wide. Some are fragrant while others smell like rotting flesh.
Thank the Victorians for the orchid craze, Boersma said.
Orchid explorers collected plants out of jungles. The plants rarely survived the trip or their care in England which made orchids for the elite.
“I think that was the mystique and the fascination with orchids is they’re from the jungle,” she said. “We sent out these orchid hunters.”
Now they’re affordable. Most of the orchids for sale this weekend will be in the $20 to $40 range.
The fourth annual Windsor Orchid Society Show and Sale is Saturday and Sunday at the Columbus Centre at 2401 Columbus Dr., off Northwood Street. The cost is $6 for adults and children 12 and under get in free. The show runs 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Windsor Orchid Society president Deb Boersma looks over her orchids in her greenhouse near Harrow on Monday, Oct. 17, 2016. The society is hosting its annual orchid show this weekend.
You’ve probably bought a phalaenopsis or moth orchid at the store and the biggest mistake is to over water or give up on it when it’s not flowering, Boersma said. Water it and let it dry out completely before watering again. Don’t put three ice cubes on the roots, as some directions suggest, since the tropical plants wouldn’t see ice in the wild, she said.
Add fertilizer every week but only at a quarter of what is recommended, she said. Don’t put your plant in direct sun and if possible move it somewhere cooler at night so it gets a temperature difference between day and night. You can get these orchids to flower nine months out of the year, she said.
Windsor Orchid Society president Deb Boersma looks over her orchids in her greenhouse near Harrow on Monday, Oct. 17, 2016.
