While ponds may be my passion, orchids are my addiction. An innocent Christmas gift years ago has spiraled out of control to a full blown obsession. Now my collection houses over 120 different species from all over the world. In 2003 after a trip to Central America, U.S. customs stopped me in Miami with a backpack full of the things. Orchids stuffed into my rolled up socks, orchids in empty soda bottles, orchids everywhere. The jig was up. To be fair I didn't poach them. I collected them from off the ground and on fallen tree stumps where clear-cutting was to doom their survival any how. I was a liberator! Customs didn't see it that way and now I content myself to trading among the orchid community and the occasional mail-order plant.
My wife, Lily, thinks that I am nuts. Some plants I dote over year round only to see them bloom for a few days before fading away for another 51 weeks. She can only really appreciate the flowers themselves and not the labor involved in coaxing these rare and delicate plants to bloom. Getting them to bloom is most of the fun for me. Yet when they do bud out and unfurl wild and exotic flowers, out comes Lily's camera. She is a gifted photographer and her talent truly shows in these amazing photographs of these amazing plants. Enjoy!
