Growing up near Shaw’s Garden, now the world-famous Missouri Botanic Garden in St. Louis, proved fortuitous for Don White. Outings with his father, Albert, to the garden’s greenhouses in the 1950s piqued the young White’s interest in tropical flowers, with their heady scents and bizarre shapes.
“It was one of the nicest things he did when I was young,” said White of the excursions.
His fond memories of the fragrant, exotic blossoms stayed with him, and in 1982 he purchased his first orchid, a white cattleya, for $10. “I kept it a few years and it bloomed again. I didn’t know it would become a hobby,” White said.
That it did.
“He took over my dining room table (with plants) and then constructed shelves so (the plants) were two layers deep,” said his wife, Phyllis. Six stands and 30 fluorescent lights nurtured a growing number of the exotic plants at their home in Will County’s Green Garden Township.
Bitten by the orchid bug, Phyllis began taking horticulture classes in greenhouse management and floral arrangement at Joliet Junior College. Then the couple and their two children, Donna and Phillip, now ages 20 and 16, moved to a 3-acre property in Frankfort in 1991.
“We moved out here to start the business,” Phyllis said.
They now raise nearly 4,000 orchids at their greenhouse, Anything Orchids and Plants, on Center Road.
The couple built the 22-by-96-foot polypropylene-covered greenhouse in 1992 from a mail-order kit and opened it the same year with three waist-high benches filled with orchids. “Now the whole place is filled,” said Don, whose full-time job is as a physical education teacher for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders at Centennial School in Orland Park. Phyllis is an associate minister at New Lenox United Methodist Church in New Lenox.
“We have a steady clientele and a lot of walk-ins, people who are intrigued by the sign. Others are word-of-mouth,” Phyllis said.
A part-time employee waters and checks every plant twice a week, a job that takes about five hours, and the Whites tend the orchids on weekends and evenings. They keep the greenhouse at a constant 50 degrees at night and 75 degrees during the day in winter. During a late-winter snowstorm earlier this year, the power failed, a calamity that could have cost them their entire stock, but a backup generator provided life-sustaining heat for the tropical beauties.
To cool the greenhouse and provide moisture in summer, water cascades over a vaporizing pad in front of a greenhouse fan. “We try to keep it under 90 degrees,” Don said.
Beneath the greenhouse is a 5,000-gallon cistern. “The best water (for orchids) is rainwater. Everything off the gutters goes to the cistern,” he explained.
Many customers visit the greenhouse after hearing one of Don White’s hour-long presentations at gatherings such as garden or seniors clubs. For demonstration and discussion purposes, he brings three baskets filled with different types of orchids, including phalaenopsis, dendrobiums, oncidiums — sometimes called dancing lady — and vanda, the moth orchid, so called for the shape of its flower.
During their first year in business, the couple made about 200 sales. Now they average about 600 sales per year, and the average sale has increased from $15 to about $30.
“Some people are buying bigger plants, while others are buying more plants,” said Phyllis of the business’ growth.
Plants are priced at $8 and higher, with the most expensive plant at $55.
Rae and Ron Ringhofer of Orland Hills have purchased several plants from the Whites.
“It’s heaven on earth, real tantalizing,” said Rae Ringhofer of the Whites’ greenhouse. “It’s like being in the tropics with the humid, scented air. I love orchids. They’re beautiful, and they’re not difficult to grow.”
At any given time, Ursula and Don Bruch have about 25 blooming orchids in their Frankfort home. She bought her first orchid from the Whites five years ago at one of White’s garden club presentations.
“An orchid is like a piece of art when it’s in bloom. They are one of the biggest flowers with the most variety (of color and shape),” Ursula Bruch said.
“With all orchids, people do best if they sort of neglect them. You can check the pot once a week. We tell customers to pick up the pot, and if it feels light, water. If it’s heavy, don’t,” Don White said.
“I’ve always loved flowers, but never touched orchids because I thought they’d be difficult,” Ursula Bruch said, “but they’re not.”
“There’s still the perception that they’re delicate (plants). We don’t let them sit in lots of water because the fastest way to kill an orchid is to overwater it,” Phyllis White added.
The couple primarily use organic methods to treat plants for insects such as scale and mealy bugs.
“We’ll mix vegetable oil, detergent and water and spray the plants,” Phyllis said. When an order of poinsettias arrived a few years ago, it harbored a greenhouse operator’s nightmare — white flies, insects that can decimate plants in short notice.
“I’ll never order poinsettias again,” said Phyllis, who added that New Guinea impatiens also are capable of transferring a virus harmful to orchids.
Throughout the greenhouse are orchid blossoms that range in size from a quarter of an inch to the diameter of a dinner plate. One unusual specimen resembles a spider in a cockle shell; another looks like a dove sitting on a nest. In a one-inch pot, an oncidium orchid’s 50 diminutive blossoms cascade over the sides.
“They are wonderful plants,” Phyllis said.
The gongora, an orchid with long straplike leaves, looks like a hosta, its nondescript tiny blooms dangling over the pot.
“It stinks when it blooms,” Phyllis said with a chuckle. “You almost always grow orchids for the blooms, not the foliage,” Don said.
From pure white to purple to candy stripes and polka dots, there is an orchid here for anyone’s fancy, even a nearly black orchid called Dracula.
Most house plants require potting soil, but for orchids the Whites use a soil-free mixture.
“We use a generic mix of cypress mulch and red cedar nuggets. It’s much better for drainage,” Phyllis said.
The Bruchs rotate their orchids between their house and the Whites’ greenhouse. Most orchids bloom for several weeks to two months or longer, but when they stop blooming the Bruchs send them on a mini-vacation to the greenhouse, where they rest, soak up fertilizer and prepare for their next flurry of blooms. The Whites also offer a free annual repotting for any orchid purchased from them for the life of the plant.
For pots 7 inches and smaller, the Whites charge a fee of $1 per month per plant for the revitalizing service.
“Once you get a love for orchids, you start collecting different ones. That’s where the Whites come in handy (with plants and suggestions),” Ursula Bruch said.
“The thing that’s different from us and other growers is that we give advice. Customers get an instruction sheet too,” Don White said.
Rae Ringhofer, who is president of the Orland Park Garden Club, said, “So many garden clubs want to go up to visit and buy from the big orchid growers (in the northern suburbs). We like to support the local growers. He’s the only one in this area who specializes in orchids.”
The couple spend time with customers, educating them about the different types of orchids, explaining care requirements and touting the benefits of orchids over other house plants.
“They don’t have (airborne) pollen, which can cause allergies, and they’re in bloom for a long period,” Phyllis said.
Many species do not require direct light, a boon for people with windows facing north or east.
Mary Weiss of Geneva is a member of the Batavia Orchid Society and a judge for the American Orchid Society.
“There are thousands of species of orchids. They’re all so different and varied, every color you can imagine,” Weiss said.
She travels over a 17-state area to help judge orchid shows and often brings some of the Whites’ plants along to exhibit.
“The amateurs and pros compete against one another. It’s very difficult showing in the Midwest. We have the largest number of growers here, and the judges are very particular,” Phyllis said.
Nevertheless, along the Whites’ checkout counter are numerous ribbons, garnered at last year’s shows.
“Don is so unassuming. His pleasure in orchids comes so genuinely. His real passion is breeding new ones,” Rae Ringhofer said.
To create new varieties, White carefully opens the flower to remove tiny structures called pollinia, which contain reproductive cells. He attaches the pollinia to the reproductive structure of a different orchid to cross-breed and possibly create new types of orchids. After the seeds develop, usually a six-month wait, White removes them from the pod and places them in a petri dish with a gelatin-like nutrient. If the nutrient turns green, signifying that the seeds have germinated, he places the mixture in a fertile growing medium in a sterile bottle.
“The bottles are sealed because if even one speck of mold gets into the flask, that’s it,” White said.
The process from pollination to a plant capable of blooming takes up to three years and a large dose of patience.
Don recently completed his 26th year of teaching and is looking to the future.
“We have so much fun with the greenhouse,” he said. “When I retire, I’d like to do this full time.”
“We’d like to offer classes in selecting, growing, potting and orchid arranging,” Phyllis added.
Looking at a Dracula orchid, Don White said, “They really make you smile.”
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Anything Orchids and Plants is at 23027 Center Rd. in Frankfort. For information, call 815-469-3774.
