‘Orchids are for everyone’
Flowers will be on display during annual show
Orchids are for … well, everyone. That’s the message from the Orchid Society of Western Pennsylvania (OSWP) as it prepares for its annual orchid show April 11 and 12 at the Crown Plaza Hotel, 164 Fort Couch Road in Upper St. Clair.
Orchids grow almost everywhere, on nearly every continent. The delicate blooms are the largest species of plants on the earth.
With more than 30,000 species and 200,000 hybrids, there is presumably an orchid out there for everyone.
“Truly, orchids are for everyone. You will find one that speaks to you, and the barriers to entry for growing orchids are much lower than what a person might think,” said OSWP member Brian Powell of Monroeville.
The orchid show has become a Pittsburgh tradition, Powell believes. “It’s becoming more and more well known, generally by word of mouth.”
“They have what I consider to be world-class displays of orchids … elaborate, in all shapes, colors and sizes of flowers. There are orchids that look like a slipper, almost as if you had tiny feet you could put your feet in these orchids. You have orchids that are non-fragrant and some that are wonderfully fragrant,” Powell said. Some orchids grow without media, like the epiphytic orchids that grow seemingly in mid-air and others that grow in coarse media (like tree bark).
Powell’s favorite?
“The ones that I don’t kill,” said Powell. “I love the Vanda. It’s an epiphytic orchid and generally grows without any media.” These types of orchids have aerial roots and need to be watered or misted daily.
The two-day show will include lectures on orchid care, re-potting services for a small fee, orchid sales from vendors as far away as Ecuador as well as local vendors, crafts and raffles.
Sheila Nathanson of Mt. Lebanon joined OSWP more than 10 years ago after several years of buying orchids at the orchid show.
“There are things you can’t find anywhere else,” she said. “And when you first start out growing orchids, you have no idea really if you can grow something or not, but it hits your eye and you just have to have it.”
For some time, she grew orchids in an empty hot tub in the four season room attached to her home. After she and her husband refurbished the room and made it a proper greenhouse, she began accumulating more plant life. She now has close to 500 orchids.
“A lot of them are small, not all of them are monsters. I spend a lot of time watering. But it’s good. In the winter time, when you come into the greenhouse, it’s sunny and there’s living things and there is snow and cold outside and you are in your little oasis,” Nathanson said.
Nancy Kline of Pine Township is a longtime OSWP member and lecturer.
“For most people, an orchid is a phalaenopsis, the ones you can get at the grocery store and Home Depot,” which she says can be “little devils,” she said. “You have to keep it healthy. Phaleanopsis have to have a cooldown in the fall, kind of like our perennials. Orchids are just tropical perennials. You have certain plants that bloom when certain conditions are met,” she explained.
She has led sessions on the history of orchids, how not to kill your orchids, caring for phalaenopsis orchids and sessions focused simply on questions about orchids.
She’s cultivated orchids for years, “but I’m on the downhill run. At one point I had 300 orchids; now I have about 60,” Kline said. On a recent trip into her basement where she grows orchids under LED lights, she found her Brassavola Glauca had opened two blooms with three more to open. She placed it on the windowsill upstairs and told her son and daughter-in-law who stopped by, “This is why you grow orchids.”
Kline has been an OSWP member since 2003 and applauds the organization. “We are a great group of men and women, young and old,” said Kline. “Our vice president is in high school … and we have members in their 80s and 90s.”
The orchid society meets monthly at the Spartan Community Center of Hazelwood.
The orchid show exhibits are open from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, and vendors will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Both exhibits and vendors are open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5 (members and those under 18 are free). For more information, go to https://www.oswp.org/.