A lot of people wouldn't have the patience to devote their life to a plant that may take up to two years to bloom, but for this orchid lover, it's worth the wait.
By KAREN STEEN
Published May 30, 2003
[Times photos: Mike Pease]
Louis Del Favero, who specializes in orchids at his nursery off Gunn Highway in Citrus Park, stops to smell one of his thousands of orchids.
This variety of orchid is a Vanda Cindy Banks, also known as "Bills Choice."
Bonnie Del Favero sprays orchid fertilizer.
CITRUS PARK - He held a green pod the size of a stick of chewing gum between his index finger and thumb. He pulled it apart with his right hand and released a puff of yellow particles barely visible to the naked eye. In his hand lay 5,000 seeds of potential splendor.
Louis Del Favero, lover of orchids, was surrounded by his life's work.
Del Favero, who sells orchids from a nursery on Gant Avenue, specializes in natural orchids found in the wild. Many of the species are treasures he unearthed in his orchid-hunting travels from South America, Central America and the Caribbean, then across the Gulf to Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
He has made 50 trips to 15 countries in search of orchids, he says. Now he propagates the species locally and sells to collectors, home decorators and flower lovers here and around the country.
"Orchids are the largest family of flowering plants in the world," says Del Favero, 50. "With 30,000 different species and 100,000 hybrids, there is something for everyone."
Del Favero shares an 11-acre plot in Citrus Park with six peacocks, 75-year-old oaks, a serene lake and his 40,000 orchids. A dirt road leads to five tiered greenhouses surrounded by palms, impatiens and scrub. Inside, woodsy scents fill the air while orchids hang from overhead wires or crowd together on wooden tables. The muted sunlight falls on velvety blooms of yellow, white and fuchsia.
"Each orchid is like a person," he says. "It's individual and unique."
Del Favero says his interest in orchids started at an early age.
He received a Vanda orchid from a family friend for his 12th birthday. Not far from his home in Miami was an import nursery called Jungle Orchids. He began hanging around the nursery on weekends and after school. He'd pick up scraps or buy orchid pieces for 25 or 50 cents each.
Before long, the owner, Mary Jenkins (known as Jungle Mary), asked him if he'd like a job. By age 14, he was doing the grunt work - watering, unloading orchids from cargo planes that had arrived from Guatemala and cleaning up.
Then customers started asking him to repot their mature plants.
By the time he was 16, he had multiple contacts in the industry, and he began buying orchids from Jenkins and shipping them to customers across the United States.
He began traveling and collecting native orchids from around the world.
On one trip to the Dominican Republic in the 1980s, Del Favero found a rare miniature orchid while walking near the coast in a habitat similar to the Florida Keys. He'd never seen that type in the wild. The orchid, Oncidium calochilum, looked like tiny pine needles. He and his friend Fred Fuchs, of Fuchs Orchids in Naranja, started collecting these tiny gems every two or three months.
"We literally found thousands of them," Del Favero says.
Another trip took him to the Yucatan near the little village of Del Carmen, south of Cancun. It was in the late 1980s, and there was no electricity, no indoor plumbing and no hotels. One day when he was walking a few miles from the ruins of the Mayan temple of Tulum, he stumbled on a humus-rich habitat with orchids growing on the rocks and ground. Hundreds of them surrounded him and he was able to collect 500 plants.
"It was just unbelievable - a real surprise," he says.
In 1985 Del Favero put an end to his collecting. Collecting was becoming increasingly difficult under the Convention of International Trade and Endangered Species, which originated to protect animals and then came to include plants. Scientists could no longer exchange specimens across borders. Collectors could no longer harvest and propagate wild specimens. Del Favero fumes that even as development was destroying the habitats, bureaucracy made it impossible to save the orchids.
He was one of the last legal orchid hunters.
Del Favero needed to change his focus and expand his retail business. Twenty-two years ago he moved to Tampa Bay and established his orchid business in a tract of pastureland. Since then, he has seen the area develop into busy subdivisions, malls and a four-lane highway. But he says he doesn't mind - so far. It's made him more accessible to his customers.
"We have our own niche," he says. "We're a specialty organization. We carry more than what's found in stores."
He says he loves to introduce novices to the orchid culture and sometimes he gets a little help from the media.
When the book Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean, came out, people started calling or coming to the nursery to see if he carried the "ghost orchid" mentioned in the book. They didn't realize it was rare and illegal to collect them in Florida.
Del Favero describes their attitude as "a new designer car outlook. They didn't really know what they were asking for."
Customers as varied as the species
For those intent on cultivating orchids, Del Favero has this advice:
"Grow what you'll enjoy. There's no such thing as an ugly flower. Don't get caught up in what everybody else thinks is cool. Have fun with it. Use it to escape from your day-to-day stresses."
His customers are as varied as the hundreds of species he sells. Iron workers, lawyers, school teachers, construction workers, all clamor for orchids.
"He knows all the technical names of all his orchids," says Debbie Baldwin, executive assistant for First Floridian Insurance and a frequent customer. "Pretty amazing!"
Del Favero's wife agrees he's the expert. Bonnie Del Favero, who has worked with her husband in the business for the past seven years, still feels like a novice at times. "I help customers as I can, but I'm the plant manager," she says. "The hard core collectors I refer to Louis."
Baldwin said Del Favero has helped her pick out some of her favorite orchids. She has accumulated 70, which she keeps on her screened-in pool patio. Like Del Favero, Baldwin said she developed a passion for orchids after a chance encounter with the flower when she was young.
She received an orchid corsage and was struck by its beauty.
Later she visited a friend's house and noticed an orchid sitting on an end table that wasn't in bloom yet. She was told it would be another two years before it flowered.
She was intrigued with the idea of caring for a plant that took so long to bloom.
Then she went on a trip to Venezuela and fell in love with the orchids there. She wanted to bring them all home with her. Baldwin was hooked.
"I like challenges and enjoy something that's different or exotic," she says. Like all novices, Baldwin thought orchids were temperamental and hard to grow. But she found that to be a misconception. Orchids are hardy. With the right amount of light, they thrive. Orchids die chiefly of drowning. People water them too much.
Baldwin likes her orchids for their bright colors and showy sprays. Her favorites include Oncidium sharry baby and Brassavola nodosa (lady of the night). Sharry baby, which has a rich chocolate scent, perfumes her patio during the day. Lady of the night scents the area at night.
"They're beautiful and exotic-looking, but if they fragrance too, it's like a bonus!" Baldwin says.
"Tip of the iceberg'
Different hobbyists look for different things.
Jim Clarkson, retired from the military, oversees the orchid collection at USF's botanical gardens. When he moved to Florida he became interested in orchids and visited Del Favero. Sixteen years later he has a collection of more than 1,000 orchids, which he houses in his personal greenhouse and patio deck.
Clarkson said his passion is spurred by "seeing a new plant bloom for the very first time." And he enjoys the challenge of learning about his subject. "It's such a fascinating hobby. So many orchids, hybrids, and discovery of new species. It doesn't get stale."
Wanting to learn more about orchids in a structured environment, Clarkson turned to show judging. It is a rigorous program that requires a huge time investment.
First, the person must demonstrate a depth of knowledge already acquired through personal experience. Then, if chosen, he is mentored for three years as a student judge. Another three years are required as a probationary judge. Finally the person is qualified to be recognized as a judge.
"The more you learn, the more you realize it's just the tip of the iceberg," said Clarkson, who enjoys this disciplined way of learning.
Del Favero said he doesn't have time to pursue judging, but might someday when he retires. For now, he's content to watch his Labrador, Buddy, roll in the sun while he meanders the aisles of Cattleyas, Vandas and Species, adjusting a stalk here, cupping a bloom to his nose, making his way back to his laboratory.
That's where the magic begins. That is where, year after year, he coaxes tiny seedlings into splendor.
