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 Of all the flowering plants that can be grown in the home or garden, none have quite such an aura as orchids. Ever since Victorian days, when rich gardeners paid small fortunes for rare spec-imens brought from the mountains and jungles of far-distant lands, they have represented the summit of gardening luxury. And even today the orchid houses of the world's great botanical gardens attract admiration and awe. As a result of this attitude, very many people are afraid to grow orchids indoors, believing them to be difficult and ex-pensive. In fact, just the opposite can be the case. Many kinds do admittedly need hot, steamy, jungle-like conditions, but many others are as easy to cultivate as plenty of the plants sold specifically as houseplants. They have their own partic-ular likes and dislikes, certainly; and these are often different from the needs of other houseplants. But there is no great difficulty in meeting their require-ments in most homes. Equally, the idea that orchids are expensive has elements of both truth and myth. A unique and beautiful hybrid may cost many hundreds of dollars, but there are plenty of beautiful subjects available for a tiny fraction of this price. One reason is new methods of propagation, which have made it possible to grow liter-ally thousands of plants from a single small cutting.
The diversity of orchids
Making up one in seven of all the world's flowering plant species, it is not really surprising that the orchid family con-tains some fascinating subjects. There are minute blooms that need studying with a magnifying glass, and others a foot across. There are some with solitary blooms on single stems, some with tall spikes of flowers, and some with dozens of clustered tiny blooms. Some live natur-ally thousands of feet above sea level, while others inhabit low-lying steamy swamps. There are hardy wild orchids in most parts of Europe and North America, while an Australian type lives totally underground. Some orchid blooms are beautifully scented, while others have no fragrance at all and some stink foully. In all there are probably some 25,000 distinct orchid species, and as a result of their unique ability to hybridize, both in the wild and in cultivation, more than 50,000 hybrids are known. Even among members of the same species there may be wide variation.
What makes orchids different
Part of the mystique of orchids un-doubtedly arises from the odd appearance of the plants. Very many have thick, fleshy swollen parts at the base of the stems. These are known as pseudo-bulbs, and act as food and water storage organs for periods of drought. Perhaps the greatest single character-istic that makes orchids different from all other plants, however, lies in the way the flower is built. There are always three sepals and three petals, but one of the petals is always modified in a particular way. In the Cypripediums and Paphiopedilums, for example, it is a shoe-shaped pouch - hence the common name slipper orchid. Or it may be in the form of an apron (as in Miltonias, or pansy orchids) or a lip (as in the Odonto-glossums, Cymbidiums and - most flam-boyant of all - the Cattleyas). Usually this third petal has a different color pattern from the others, and may even be the largest part of the flower (as in Bras-savola digbyana). The reproductive mechanism of the orchid flower is also unique. In place of the normal separate male and female parts - the stamens and pistil - there is a single structure called the column. So different is this from the arrangement in other flowers that it was not until the middle of the last century that orchids' method of reproduction was properly understood - a vital first step to produc-ing hybrids. In fact, the first successful orchid hybridization was performed only in 1854, and by the end of the century there were a mere 90 or so known hybrids.
The orchid hunters
By this time, orchid-collecting had be-come a big business. Long before - as early as the seventeenth century orchids had been brought into Europe from the tropics by seamen and others. But the then 'methods' of cultivation were often lethal. It was only when cast iron pipes became available - allowing greenhouses to be heated with hot water from boilers - that the commercial cultivation of orchids developed. During the 1850s, a stream of collectors poured into the tropics of Asia and the Americas, working for nurserymen in various Euro-pean countries. The stream became a torrent in the 1890s - the hey-day of Frederick Sander, the giant among Vic-torian orchid dealers. In some cases, the collectors were brutally ruthless, taking every sample of particular plants that they could find -tens of thousands in some cases - or taking just a few and destroying all others to preserve their rarity. At one auction, Sander offered 40,000 specimens of Paphiopedilum spicerianum. At others, a single specimen of an extreme rarity might fetch thousands of pounds. This, the golden age of orchid hunting, came to an end with the start of World War I. But it was just after the war - in 1922 - that an American scientist called Lewis Knudson discovered how to grow orchid plants from seed in sterile flasks of nutrient jelly without the fungal growth usually needed. This enabled orchid seed-lings to be grown by the thousand - and, with mass production, prices began to tumble. Then, after World War II, George Morel, a French scientist, discovered how to propagate hundreds of plants from a tiny cutting taken from the tip of a growing shoot. This method of propagation means that 'copies' of new and beautiful hybrids can be produced in unlimited numbers - far more than by old methods of dividing whole plants.
Living with orchids
If propagating methods have advanced, the cultivation of orchid plants in a living room is no modern development. These exciting plants were cultivated success-fully well over a hundred years ago in numerous European and North Ameri-can homes. Even in those days, when home heating was mostly by open coal fires, enthusiasts grew and flowered their orchid plants with as much success as today's home gardeners. There were fewer varieties to be tried, of course, and a preponderance of the easiest-to-grow plants. There were very few hybrids, in particular, but the species were much more numerous. With the advent of centrally heated homes, thermostatically controlled, and modern methods of lighting, many kinds of orchid thrive at least as well in a living room as a home garden. Even with easy types, you need to choose the growing position carefully, of course, and provide the conditions your plants enjoy. In fact, having your plants close at hand rather than in a possibly remote gardening greenhouse makes con-trol over the conditions- particularly the vital factor of lighting - easier. And, of course, you have the supreme advantage of having your collection of unique and beautiful plants close at hand to admire.
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