Ever Green
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Wilbur Chang says he hasn't done anything special to
help his giant Coelogyne burfordense reach its size.
FORTY-TWO years ago, Wilbur Chang bought his wife an orchid plant for her birthday. Then he bought another and still another until she said, "You know, you aren't buying these plants for me, you're buying them for you." Now that the orchid count is up beyond 1,000 at the Changs' house near Kaneohe Bay, Wilbur Chang has admitted she was right. Deep-rooted
passion for orchidsLike other orchid growers, Chang has realized what he has developed isn't merely a hobby. It is a vocation, and a membership in an international fraternity. "Orchid growers are welcomed all around the world by other orchid growers. I've met growers in northern Canada who cultivate their plants in the basement under grow-lights. You can go just about anywhere and find somebody with a similar interest, and they are particularly interested in meeting people from Hawaii."
That's because we are much more casual about our orchids since they grow so easily in our climate. In Tokyo or Minneapolis, it is a production to cultivate a flowering orchid -- requiring a heated green house in the winter and almost constant attention. You can't drop by your neighborhood garden shop and pay $6 for a two-foot blooming plant.
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Chang holds an orchid bloom, Sobralia, that only lasts
one day. In the background are empty flower pots.
Chang started out with a vanda plant, which actually isn't a good choice for the novice, he said. "You need a little more experience for vandas. Dendrobiums are better for the beginner. I grew them, and when I learned more, I started growing cattleyas. After years went by, I started with lady slippers. I like the challenge, I like to grow something new."His choice of "something new" for the past several years has actually been something old, very old. Chang is growing species orchids, "the original jungle flowers, the very first orchids," he said. The Greeks were cultivating wild orchids 2300 years ago, and even before that, Confucius commented on the beauty of the flowers.
"The first orchids brought by collectors out of the jungle were showy and easy to find. Then as the years went by, all the good ones were collected," he said. In the early years of this century, enthusiasts collected tens of thousands of specimens of an individual species, exhausting the source and cornering the market, just as stock market investors did with corporate shares, and prices soared.
There is also an element of luck in collecting. William Cattley, a 19th-century British horticulturist, started the orchid mania with the spectacular bloom named for him. He didn't locate it on a trip into the South American jungle, but by recognizing the specimen used as packing material in a shipment of plants from Brazil. That orchid, by the way, is properly pronounced "CATT-lee-ah" for its discoverer.
The majority of the plants sold today are hybrids of these original orchids, crossed among themselves to create bigger, brighter flowers and new forms and colors. There are now more than 70,000 registered hybrids, all created from those original wild orchids.
"Now the species orchids are less showy, smaller, but they are fascinating," Chang said. "Indonesia was one of the new, unexplored areas for finding these orchids, but millions of acres burned last year. We have no idea of what species may have been lost."
A current favorite of Chang's is the dendrochilum, a form of chain orchid with 20 tiny flowers densely packed on each small curved spike. As many as eight spikes flower on plants in a 5-inch pot. His collection of bulbophyllum has drawn interest from growers as far away as Florida. The lip of the flower is on a tiny hinge and the least air movement causes it to flutter. "It looks alive," he said.
Chang grows most of his orchids under shade in a screened area. This lowers but does not entirely do away with insect problems. "I don't like to use the sprays you have to suit up for. I have close neighbors with children, and I use only the common, over-the-counter sprays from the garden shops. But the best and safest spray is one I make myself.
"I buy rubbing alcohol (70 percent isopropyl alcohol) at Long's, two bottles for a dollar. I use it straight out of the bottle, and squirt it on the affected plants. I work in shorts, so it's safe to people, and it is also safe to the plants. It works as well as malathion without the awful smell."
Chang will be entering several of his orchids in the Aiea Orchid Club show next weekend, but he isn't sure of which ones they will be. Last week, he had a gorgeous epidendrum with creamy white flowers that were unfortunately beginning to fade, and others just coming into bud that might or might not be in full flower for the show. The judges aren't interested in what a plant looked like a week ago, or what it might look like next Tuesday -- they work in the here and now. "You can't plan on an orchid blooming at the exact time for a show, and that adds to the interest," Chang said.
"Everybody's hoping his own prized plant will be at its best, and sometimes you get lucky."
Aiea Orchid Club Show
and Plant SaleWhen: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. June 11 and 12, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 13. Demonstrations at 11 a.m. and 2 and 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. Sunday
Gardening Calendar in Do It Electric!
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