LYNNWOOD, Wash., March 6, 2024—The Lynnwood Event Center held its first-ever Northwest Orchid Society Indoor Plant Festival March 2 through March 3, featuring an array of plant displays and an awesome lineup of vendors.
At Seattle-based Northwest Orchid Society people from all over the region are united under a single hobby – a shared interest in the complex practice of growing, conserving, and propagating one of the most difficult species of plants to cultivate: the orchid.
“Our shows are a great way for people to engage a couple of times a year, show up, and meet some people or just enjoy the plants and see what the club is up to,” said Ben Johnson, Vice President of Events at Northwest Orchid Society. “We’ll find you a plant that will meet your price point and growing conditions. Give it a shot. We can make sure you find something that meets your needs and that’s what’s great about having a club nearby is you have an endless supply of people and plants that can work for you and beautify your home.”
Andy Wright, one of the exhibitors and member of the Northwest Orchid Society since he was 18, first got into his hobby at an early age. His father was a horticulture instructor at Garfield High School in Seattle granting him access to a greenhouse all his life. Wright, a Woodinville resident, has his own business called Age Tropical on Instagram where he specializes in carnivorous plants.
Wright began his hobby as an orchid collector and about 90% of his collection is still orchids in both warm and cool climates (his greenhouse is split in two). He got into carnivorous plants about 5 years ago and now grows primarily Nepenthes, which are a genus of plants with about 170 species with pitchers at the end of each leaf and digestive fluid inside meant to catch prey.
“It’s been a fun change in my hobby, going from orchids to carnivorous plants,” said Wright.
Another exhibitor, Lynnwood resident Denny Van Dorn, who specializes in Gesneriads and African Violets, and winner of the Best Gesneriad or African Violet at the Indoor Plant Festival, showcased his Cattleya orchids which hails from the highlands of Brazil and is also Brazil’s national flower.
“Coming to things like this we get to do connections, and talk with other people have plants that are on sale,” said Van Dorn who has been collecting plants since 1972. “It’s really handy for people to come in, make connections, get plants, buy a raffle ticket, and get one for free.”
Bob Merki and Fiori Cippoletti, exhibitors specializing in cacti and succulents, shared with the Lynnwood Times what draws them to their specific genus. Cippoletti said she loves a plant that she can propagate, “frankensteining” different plants into something new and cacti and succulents are the easiest plant to do that with. Though cacti may not be the first thing you think of when thinking of Washington State, Cippoletti shared that it’s more important than ever to practice growing them in Washington than anywhere else for conservation reasons.
“As the temperatures change on earth, unless we actually try to grow these plants in different environments, we will lose a lot of these plants because if it was left up to the growers we would only grow what grows really fast and ship really well,” said Cippoletti. “So all of these people who have these clubs all over the country, who try and grow plants in their bathrooms or their kitchens – because of the steam and stuff like that – are actually members of conservation.”
Cippoletti added that of all the succulents on earth 40% of them come from South Africa and all cacti are succulents but not all succulents are cacti, so it really pays to know what the weather in South Africa is like.
Li Huang, another exhibitor who has making a living off of African Violets, has been really into plants since she was a young girl growing up in China with a plant-loving, and gardening, family. When she entered high school, she knew she wanted to make a living with plants somehow but saw no future in it, so she entered the field of education instead – teaching Mandarin Chinese in Connecticut and eventually Chicago public schools. She moved to the Seattle area to teach Facebook employees Mandarin.
During her first year after relocating to the United States in 2008 she saw an African Violet in a grocery store for the first time and immediately started her collection, selling them on ebay on the weekends. In 2020 she realized she could make a living off selling plants so she quit her job as a teacher and now sells African Violets full-time.
“It was hard at the beginning but slowly, as my business started to grow, I can finally make it,” said Huang.
As an affiliate of the American Orchid Society (AOS) and the Orchid Digest Corporation (ODC), the Northwest Orchid Society is a non-profit organization founded in 1947 with the goal of creating a community for orchid growers while promoting and educating people about the hobby. The group welcomes both beginners and experienced orchid growers yearning to learn more about the hobby and meet other like-minded individuals through its monthly meetings, plant raffles, special events, and display tables where members show off their latest blooms.
Monthly meetings are held the second Monday of each month at the University of Washington Botanic Gardens Center for Urban Horticulture in the NHS hall, which often feature renown guest speakers giving lectures on different topics from culture; to breeding programs; to history. Meetings are free and open to anyone.
Also, during these meetings, the society holds an exhibition table where members can display their blooming plants. During the meeting a member does the “plant table walk,” points out unusual, interesting, or exceptionally well-grown plants and asks some of the growers for information about their plants and growing conditions. The society also holds a variety of community events from summer picnics, plant shows, giveaways, and more including maintaining a library of orchid books, videotapes, and periodicals.
The Society librarian brings a small selection of items from the library for check-out by members at monthly meetings, though all items are available by arrangement with the librarian. See what’s in the library here. If you’d like to check out a book or tape from our Library, please contact our librarian a minimum of two (2) weeks before the next meeting.
