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Captivating beauties take stage

Orchid lovers can get their fill this weekend, but casual admirers beware: these plants are experts at drawing you in.

By BETH N. GRAY
Published April 15, 2005

SPRING HILL - Orchids effortlessly reach out and grab the heart. It doesn't take much to go from an introduction to a full blown love affair.

This weekend orchid lovers will have an opportunity to indulge their passion with the 10th annual show and sale sponsored by the Orchid Lovers Club of Spring Hill.

"It's like an addiction," said Jerry Hart of growing and collecting orchids as he helped finalize plans for the event at SNPJ Lodge, 133383 County Line Road.

The show will showcase 10 landscaped exhibits, five commercial grower-vendors, and displays by the Ridge Orchid Society of Lakeland, the Ocala Orchid Society and the Spring Hill club. Plants and supplies will be offered for sale.

"Whenever you go to a show, you always see one (orchid) you have to have," said Hart, who with his wife, Sarah, joined the Orchid Lovers Club of Spring Hill three or four years ago with six orchid plants. Now they have about 130.

Club president Ron Kilgore is even nuttier about orchids. He and his wife, Elwyn, had one or two plants when they got married 22 years ago. Elwyn bought another at a mall when they moved to Florida from Indiana in 1988.

"She dragged me to a show here 10 years ago and, of course, we came home with a half-dozen orchids," Kilgore recalled. Their collection grew to 250 plants.

"You get hooked," he said. "It's like a disease."

When an ailing society member, Ed Meier, saw the Kilgores' flourishing collection, Meier said he knew what to do with the orchids he could no longer care for. He gave his collection of 250 plants to the Kilgores. They built an addition to their home really just to accommodate the gift.

The variety is staggering.

"Everybody thinks an orchid is a big corsage," said Ron Kilgore. "There are 30,000 varieties, pinhead size to dinner plate size. Blooms last from hours to months.

There are healthier domesticated plants now than the plants in the wild, due to hybridization and breeding, Kilgore said.

"Most of what (collectors) are buying today are hybrid orchids," he said. "They're doing much better in captivity than in the rain forest."

For those who believe orchids are delicate and finicky about care, the Kilgores point to their mall purchase, a Jewel orchid now 17 years old.

"We've knocked it over and broken it and put it back in the pot and given away about 500 cuttings," Ron Kilgore said. They've cut out old growth and nurtured new. The offspring now fill three hanging baskets.

"There is some work involved" in growing orchids, he acknowledged. And cost.

The Kilgores installed a misting system to cool the plants in the summer.

"In winter, we have three different rooms that they go into with little electric heaters," he said.

During the show and sale, attendees can get tips to care for orchids.

"You don't have to grow orchids to come and listen to our speakers, or be a member of our club," Kilgore said. "We try to give out information. We feel we should be a community service."

Jim Duerstock and his wife, Trudy, founded the Orchid Lovers of Spring Hill in 1991. The group started with seven or eight members. It now numbers 97.

Over 10 years, the show has moved through four sites, beginning with the Enrichment Center at Spring Hill Regional Hospital to its new location.

"You have to envision going from 700 square feet to this weekend with 5,000 square feet," Duerstock said.

Attendance annually approaches 1,000. Duerstock hopes to top that since the location has more parking and the group has posted signs along the Pasco County side of County Line Road. Attendees are asked for an admission donation of $1. That entitles them to a raffle ticket. An orchid plant is awarded every hour.

-- Beth Gray may be contacted at graybethn@earthlink.net

WHAT: Orchid Lovers Club of Spring Hill 10th annual show and sale

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: SNPJ Lodge, 133383 County Line Road, Spring Hill

ADMISSION: $1; There is plenty of parking

[Last modified April 15, 2005, 00:49:17]