A Ghostly Pursuit Developing a Passion for the Ghost Orchid BY KEITH DAVIS

IN AUTUMN 1980, THIS MISPLACED winning touchdown of the Super Bowl, bachelor cruised down one street after then carried my 10-pound (4.5-kg) prize another, looking for yard sales in the to Red. uppercrust neighborhoods of Corpus Locking the book in the car, I Christi. Sitting barely 6 inches (15 cm) decided to go back to look at the off the pavement in my 1968 Triumph strange that filled such a huge GT-6 named “Red,” I saw hordes of portion of the lawn. Some plants had people converging on the front lawn tall canes, sort of bamboolike, some of a stately southern Texas home. This had large fan-shaped leaves not unlike particular sale had folding tables a palm seedling, some had flat leaves packed with every imaginable dust like two ranks of beaver tails, and others collector known to man as well as rack had fat clublike stems with one or two after rack stocked with once-stylish large stiff leaves on top. Many were in clothes. The 100-plus people crowding large 8- to 12-inch (20- to 30-cm) clay the yard were gathering around a large pots, while others were in baskets made section that had loosely organized of wood. Strangest of all were the ones rows of books and magazines. The left mounted on cork bark and something side of the yard was completely that looked to me like little bits of black covered with hundreds of odd-looking sticks glued together. Each had plants. Always the book fancier, I one or more name tags. Meaningless gravitated toward the “lawnbrary” to writing on the tags baffled me. The see what bargains could be had. Many names, such as Cattlianthe (syn. of the magazines and books were Laeliocattleya) Molly Tyler (Ctt. [syn. totally unfamiliar, with titles such as Lc.] Mrs. W.N. Elkins × C. Leda), Bulletin, Orchid Digest, Awards Zelenkoa (syn. Oncidium) onusta, Quarterly. There were stacks of Phalaenopsis bellina (syn. violacea), catalogs with names like Jones & Scully, Lycaste skinneri and Dendrobium Stewart, Armacost, Alberts & Merkel, spectabile, must have been the plants’ Hausermann and Vacherrot and pet names like my car named Red. Other Leucouffle. Why in the world did so tags had secret codes, such as “Pc 2 many people want these? Even to this Joe”, “Hld 4 Mac” and “FCC/AOS.” college graduate of forestry, ornamental Every one of the perhaps 1,000 plants horticulture and fruit production, these had the uni-price of $1. I could get a publications were unfamiliar. As the dozen of these beautiful but odd crowd frenzy intensified, I spied a large specimen plants into old Red if I drove book right at my feet. It had a familiar with the rear hatch open, put plants on title, Exotica. I leaned over to pick up the seat beside me, sat on the Exotica, this pristine volume, thinking it would and held one plant in my lap. As I drove be nice to have as a reference for my fledgling high school horticulture [1] The award-winning flower of class. As I grabbed the 6-inch- (15-cm-) lindenii ‘Glade Spirit’, thick book, I was tackled by a portly woman who tried to rip the Exotica out FCC/AOS. “The clonal name comes of my hands. I spotted the book’s price from my imagination of the ‘ghost’ or of $20 and held on even tighter, ‘spirit’ and one of places they can be knowing it normally sold for well over found ... the Everglades ... spirit of the $100. Clutching the book, I took off in Glades ... or Glade Spirit,” says the the direction of the money table as if author. Grower of all plants shown in article: Keith Davis. headed toward the end zone for the KEITH DAVIS

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WWW.AOS.ORG JULY 2009 ORCHIDS 409 4 miles (6.5 km) back to the school’s story to go with it; where it came from, of wings, a green head with two red greenhouse, I wondered if I would be what award it received, who wanted a eyes, and a long arching tail. What in able to identify my plants from my new division and who got a division and the world was Nature thinking when book. I ignored strange stares from what divisions of it were traded for. If this thing was designed? At the time, I passing motorists as I drove down you really love your plants, there is a had several hundred orchids in my South Padre Island Drive with plants story behind each one. Out of the 12 collection, mostly in the Cattleya poking out the rear and both sides of plants I purchased that day, the only alliance. I loved every plant, but this old Red. Little did I realize that I had one that did not die from “death by flower before me was more beautiful just taken the first step to becoming an dirt” was Cattlianthe Molly Tyler. That and mysterious than anything I had orchid nut. plant still thrives in my collection and ever witnessed. I determined right then That was my first year out of college blooms every Thanksgiving. I have and there that I would find and learn as a teacher of horticulture at W.B. Ray wondered so many times what stories how to grow this plant. Questioning High School in Corpus Christi, Texas. that owner could have shared. Now my the greenhouse curator, I was told that Our new Atlas greenhouse was plant has stories of its own. they had tried to grow the plants over sparsely populated with plants, so Over the years as I refined my many years, and this single plant was these new monsters really made things collection and skills as a grower, I the only one that survived to bloom. look more official. Over the next few realized that cork was indeed good for The other note of interest was that of weeks, I learned from the Exotica that growing some orchids, that tree-fern all the many orchid growers I knew, some of the gibberish on the tags was plaques (the little black sticks) were none had ever grown one. Something the and of various perhaps even better, and that no so beautiful would surely be of interest orchids. The book said nothing about epiphytic orchid should be grown in to orchid growers; we are always how to grow the plants and I knew that rich, black soil. I had also heard about looking for the weird and wonderful. no plant could survive on cork bark or the legendary ghost orchid. However, Somehow I knew this was not going to the plaque of little black sticks or in I never found a photograph, much less be an easy challenge. those wooden baskets. I ripped the ran into a person who grew this My quest began by digging out plants off their mounts and put them in mysterious plant. I falsely concluded every catalog I owned. Besides pots of the richest, darkest, organic soil that this plant, if it existed, was not a collecting orchids, I saved orchid that I could find. I was sure that any real orchid. The thought of an orchid catalogs and had hundreds of them. plant in such luxurious soil would with a flower that looked like a ghost Most companies sold species by their explode in new growth and shower me kept me searching. One day while Latin names, and I discovered that the with blooms. As you might guess, the thumbing through a nonorchid plant I was looking for had undergone only thing that exploded was rot, and magazine, I saw a painting of a flower multiple name changes. I was taught in lots of it. In just a few short weeks, all suspended in mid air on a thin stalk. college that giving a Latin name to a but one of those 12 plants had gone to The bloom looked like a cross between plant was supposed to simplify and compost heaven. an albino frog and a ghost. I could unify the naming process. But this During the next few weeks, I met barely make out the caption at the orchid has had an identity crisis. With two wonderful people who helped bottom of the painting, but it read its uniqueness among flowering plants, change my life: Dr. C.L. (Sony) Norrell “Ghost Orchid.” I wasn’t sure if the the simple name of ghost orchid would and Mrs. Rosa Mueller. Before long, I painting was someone’s imagination of let everyone know exactly what you are was an active member in local orchid, what a ghost orchid should look like, talking about. Taxonomists thought that bromeliad, African violet, cactus and or if the painting was from a real flower. was too easy though, so it has been succulent and bonsai societies. It was intriguing and deepened my assigned to the various genera of Mueller took me to see her backyard desire to know more about this plant. , Aeranthes, Polyrrhiza, collection of orchids and bromeliads. Several years later, while visiting Polyradicion, and for now, Dendro- Norrell showed me how to divide a the McMillan Greenhouses on the phylax. After days of searching, I found cattleya and interpret name tags. I went campus of the University of North that an orchid nursery named Oak Hill home with boxes of divisions that read Carolina in Charlotte, I nearly fell over Gardens had seedlings at one time. I like a who’s-who list of heritage when I came face to face with a called, but they no longer offered them. cattleyas. Strangely, Norrell wrote on blooming plant that looked exactly like A few years later, I received their his keeper plant tags things such as the painting I had seen in that catalog and they had the plants listed “Pc 2 Keith.” Bingo! I realized that the magazine. I stood there studying that again. I purchased several and they person from whom I purchased those flower and every detail of the plant for came attached to small pieces of cedar. first 12 plants was not so crazy after 30 minutes. It really did have a ghostly The plants were small, no larger than all. The main thing I learned over the look. I scrutinized every inch of the 1½ inches (3.75 cm) in diameter, but the next few months from my many new plant, but found no hint of a leaf. The looked good and had new green society friends was how little I knew. roots were long and wiry, greenish tips. I mounted each plant on MY GHOSTLY PURSUIT Now, 28 silver in color, and there was a mound something different knowing from years later, I am just as crazy as that in the center from which all the roots some sparse literature that the plants person who once owned that orchid originated. From this mound the grew on limbs or on the side of tree collection that sold for $1 per plant. I threadlike stem came outward and trunks. I tried tree-fern plaque, cork, wish I could have known him or her. arched over, suspending a single pure tree limbs, slabs of various woods, and Now, as an orchid collector, I bet nearly white bloom. The bloom looked like a one piece of mockernut hickory bark every single plant on that lawn had a frog’s ghost with bowed legs, two sets (Carya tomentosa). All the plants were

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growing side by side in a fairly bright haven for mounting orchids. The [2] Keith Davis with his plant of Dlax. section of the greenhouse. I had them question was, how long would it last lindenii ‘Glade Spirit’, FCC/AOS, placed about 15 feet (4.5 m) from the before rotting? I had used barks of surrounded by part of his collection of evaporative cooling pads thinking they various species before, but frequent several thousand cattleyas in his 36 × needed the higher humidity. I noticed watering and fertilizing turned them to 96-foot (11 × 29-m) orchid greenhouse. that within a few months all the plants mush in two or three years. As it turned Davis still cannot get over the fact that were trying to put out new roots, but out, the hickory bark was different. The only one plant was attaching its roots wood itself is hard and dense, but it rots with his thousands of orchids, the plant to the substrate on which it was quickly because it has no natural that doesn’t even grow leaves — the mounted, that being the hickory bark. preservatives. The bark has some sort of ghost orchid — receives an FCC. With the other plants’ roots sticking natural component that is not out in the air, they dried out quickly antagonistic to orchids yet is very and it was difficult to keep them resistant to fungi and bacteria action. As it was just not possible with my collection hydrated. The plant with its roots firmly I write this, I have had various orchid of mostly cattleyas. I seldom water attaching to the hickory bark was species growing on hickory bark for more more than once or twice per week. That better able to maintain hydration. than 15 years and it still maintains its is not enough for the ghost orchids The mockernut hickory bark was integrity. The mosses and lichens on the unless the roots can get moisture from something I discovered while cutting bark add to the enjoyment of the orchid. elsewhere, such as the moss and lichen firewood to heat our home and I have noticed that the roots dig down on the hickory bark. There are long greenhouse. I had cut some sections and often bury under the thin living periods of dry weather where they grow but left them out in the open for about patina. It absorbs moisture and holds it naturally. The plants survive because a year. During that time, bugs had for hours longer than cork or other roots are buried in the moss and lichen tunneled between the thick bark and mounting substrate. As a result, none of on the host tree. I later discovered that the sap wood and when I later split the the ghost orchid seedlings survived this dry period is vital to getting the wood into sections for burning, I beyond the first year except the one on plants to bloom. noticed the bark came off intact. Its the hickory bark. Had I been able to SUCCESS AT LAST After several rough texture, long furrows and patina possibly water all of them once every day years of prolific growing, the plant of moss and lichens looked to me like a or more, others may have survived. But finally achieved the mound in the

WWW.AOS.ORG JULY 2009 ORCHIDS 411 3 4 DAVID A. MCADOO KEITH DAVIS center that I had heard was necessary The plant naturally displays the [3] in nature. before they would bloom. But still, my flower perfectly, presenting it for the [4] A close-up view of Dlax. lindenii plant would not flower. I was world to see and of course for the showing three old inflorescences from discussing this issue with a good friend to find it. At night, the bloom 2008 that produced four flowers. The gives off a subtle yet intoxicating of mine, Dr. Courtney Hackney, a native white pointers show the base of three Floridian. He told me that in its natural fragrance. I quickly took photographs new spikes emerging early May 2009. habitat, there is usually a pronounced galore, thinking that such a delicate dry period for a couple of months flower would not last long in the heat preceding floral initiation. I was and high humidity of that exceptionally date of our next AOS judging in watering the plant along with all my hot June 2006. I was surprised and Greensboro, North Carolina. I was hoping other orchids and had not allowed this pleased that the bloom lasted for five that since the flowers seem to last a fairly to happen. The following year, I hung weeks in perfect condition. When it long time in good condition, one of the the plant up higher so it would be less finally says goodbye, it does so quickly. two flowers might make it for judging. I likely to get wet unless I purposely In less than six hours it goes from looking also knew that in 2006, there had been a wanted it to. At the same time, I draped perfect to turning yellow and falling off. plant of this species awarded an 89-point live Spanish moss over its roots to There was what appeared to be a second AM/AOS in Florida. I decided that create a small microenvironment to bud, but it never matured. On several unless ‘Glade Spirit’ produced blooms keep the plant hydrated during the inflorescences that I have observed larger than the AM-awarded plant there “drought” I was about to create. I since, the vestigial buds never would be no need to take it in. watered it only about three times for developed. When a second bud flowers, The first bloom opened on May 12, the month of January and the same in it does so just a few days after the initial one week from judging. That allowed February. In March, I resumed regular bloom opens. For judging purposes, I am time for the bloom to fully expand for watering. By the end of March, I saw not sure these vestigial buds should be seven days. I just kept hoping and the first inflorescence emerge from the counted. praying that nothing would happen to center of the mound. It was a painfully After the dry treatment in January it for that one week — no bugs biting slow development, especially when I and February 2007, the plant produced it, no moth pollinating it, no mouse had waited so many years to witness two spikes that again developed ever so eating it, and no Keith doing something this event in my own greenhouse. slowly. I decided it was time to name my stupid. Finally, Saturday morning of Finally around June 20, the bud started plant, so with a sprinkle of water, I May 19 arrived. I went over to the to crack open and things began to move christened it Dendrophylax lindenii greenhouse and the bloom looked so quickly. I was amazed at how fast the ‘Glade Spirit’. As the buds got closer to beautiful swaying gently in the breeze parts were expanding. opening, I checked the calendar for the of the fans. I got my ruler out and

412 ORCHIDS JULY 2009 WWW.AOS.ORG measured the best I could without touching the bloom. I was pleased with what I saw and decided to go for it. It took about an hour to carefully pack it for the 40-minute drive down the bouncy North Carolina roads to the judging center. I left ‘Glade Spirit’ and Sophronitis (syn. Laelia) milleri ‘Carolina Ruby’ with the judges and went about my regular Saturday chores. About mid afternoon, one of the judges called on my cell phone wanting to verify my mailing address. I knew they would not call unless there was some sort of award, but the judge sounded rather calm and said nothing about the award. I figured there was an award on the ‘Carolina Ruby’ (which there was, a HCC/AOS) because it was a rare plant and had such a good blooming. When I returned to the judging center, several judges immediately came up and congratulated me with big smiles on their faces. “Come here and look Keith, look at what you got, an FCC!” The judge that called me said it was hard to restrain herself on the phone, but wanted me to be surprised when I got back to the center and discovered the ghost orchid had received the award. I hardly could contain myself for the joy of having an orchid finally garner a coveted FCC/AOS. On the drive home, I am not sure my butt ever touched the van’s seat. It was an unbelievable feeling of elation, joy and satisfaction to realize that it all started that crisp Saturday morning 28 years ago at a yard sale. Out of all the thousands of cattleyas I have grown and dozens shown for awards, I received my first FCC on a plant that doesn’t even grow leaves. But that’s okay with me. The ghostly pursuit was worth it.

Keith Davis was born in California but moved to Mexico with his missionary parents when he was eight years old. In 1974, he attended North 5 KEITH DAVIS Carolina State University where he obtained degrees in forestry, hor- Chinqua-Penn. In August 2002, a [5] The author’s plant of Dlax. lindenii ticulture and agricultural education. disaster struck his orchid collection ‘Glade Spirit’, FCC/AOS, measures After school, he moved to Corpus when the power went off at the 16 inches (40 cm) tall and 10 inches Christi, Texas, where he taught greenhouse he was leasing. The (25 cm) wide. Roots encircle the bark horticulture. After moving to Reidsville temperature soared to over 140 F (60 on the reverse side as well. in 1984, he worked for North Carolina C) and about 90 percent of his large State University as the grounds and collection of mainly Cattleya alliance greenhouse superintendent at Chinqua- orchids was lost. Thanks to many a host of orchid growers throughout Penn Plantation and taught high friends and the generosity of orchid the years. He enjoys the hunt for those school. In 1997, he and his wife, Dixie, growers, he is well on his way back to rare and hard to find plants and gladly adopted their only child, April. Keith having a respectable collection. Much helps other hobbyists. 6767 Highway then became a full-time stay-at-home of Keith’s knowledge comes from 29, Reidsville, North Carolina 27320 dad but also continued part time with personal experience and visiting with (e-mail [email protected]).

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