THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411120020
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E01 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
PICTURE YOURSELF in one of Dr. Arthur S. Kaplan's three orchid greenhouses, where the only sound is the hum of fans sweeping humid air over trembling pastel blossoms of exquisite color and form.
Stand quietly among the hundreds of orchids soaking light from the glass panes overhead. Sniff the cloyingly sweet fragrance.
Notice how the blood pressure is lowered. And observe how the curiosity is raised. Why do they look so different?
``They have an almost infinite variety and it is a continual learning process,'' Kaplan said, leading me to an orchid with yellow blooms splotched with purple, a Catasetum from Brazil.
``Put your finger there,'' he suggested, pointing to a curved white prong of tissue inside the bloom that was the length of a sharpened pencil point.
I pressed on the prong. It reacted like a spring device, immediately plopping a gluey substance on my finger with a white thing not much larger than a small pin embedded in the sticky white mass. A husk fell away from the head of the white thing, revealing two gleaming prongs.
``The prongs are called pollinia,'' Kaplan said. ``They resemble male testicles. Did you know, by the way, that the word `orchid' comes from the Greek word for testes? That spring-like device is used to implant the pollinia on the back of insects. It's the only plant in nature with such a device.''
Kaplan noted that there are more than 35,000 orchid species in nature. ``More varieties than any blooming plant,'' he said. ``And they are found on every continent except the Antarctic.''
Virginia has 51 species. Orchids grow in deserts, bogs, mountains, rain forests and in local greenhouses. And you can see hundreds of varieties this weekend in Pembroke Mall at the Tidewater Orchid Society's fall show, the society's first ever. Most of the orchids will be blooming. And there's no charge, Kaplan reminded.
Kaplan grows orchids, photographs and writes about them, and has served as both a president of the Tidewater Orchid Society and the Eastern Orchid Congress, which includes orchid societies from Florida to Canada.
Years ago, when Kaplan was a rose nut, the late Fred Huette, the horticulturalist who developed the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, gave the doctor three orchids (Cymbidiums) that had been grown in the greenhouses of Chicago millionaire Marshall Field as a gift. He was hooked.
It is the challenge of growing the orchids that keeps Kaplan interested. ``If you can grow one rose, you can grow all roses,'' the former president of the Tidewater Rose Society said.
Kaplan is impressed by the ability of orchids to adapt to their environment. Some varieties grow beneath the icy surface of the Arctic, others can be found thousands of feet above sea level in the Himalaya Mountains. In the Himilayas, they endure strangling monsoon rains for many months and survive without water during the winter.
And while some orchids are deliciously fragrant, a few have unpleasant odors - like rotting meat - which attract carrion flies necessary for the species' fertilization.
Orchid growers must reproduce conditions in nature. That means the orchids mentioned earlier that grow in the Himalayas (Dendrobium nobile) must be given full sun and large doses of water in summer. Kaplan hangs them high near the glass panes in the greenhouse in winter and doesn't water them. Then they bloom in the spring.
``Orchids are not parasites but epiphytes,'' Kaplan explained. That means the plants draw their nutrients from air and rain, like the familiar Spanish moss, which beards cypress trees in local swamps.
Orchids tend to be more hardy than delicate, but they require continuous care outside their native environment. Kaplan's orchids are found in baskets and pots, bedded in soil, rocks or tree bark. And in summers, they often hang outside.
Kaplan would probably agree that his obsession with orchids has strengthened since his recent retirement from a 40-year practice of internal medicine.
He is a sometime contributor to the American Orchid Society Bulletin. One his articles had a fascinating title: ``Murder He Wrote - Orchids I Have Killed.'' And a variety of Paphiopedilum - an orchid that is the Southeast Asian equivalent of our Lady Slipper - has been named for him.
His wife, Phyllis, apparently shares her husband's interest.
I was surprised to see a pair of garden hoses - looking like jungle snakes - tracking down a carpeted hallway inside the home and disappearing in the bathroom. ``They supply water to the indoor greenhouse,'' Kaplan said.
``Almost every orchid grower has a spouse who shares in the enjoyment of orchids,'' Kaplan added.
His wife, making coffee, glanced his way, a bemused smile curling her lip.
``They need someone to do the work,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA
Dr. Arthur Kaplan grows orchids, photographs and writes about them,
and has been president of the Tidewater Orchid Society.
by CNB