Orchids: The Most Extravagant Flower on Earth

It's impossible not to be amazed by plants anytime but when you are at the biggest orchid show in the southern hemisphere it is absolutely fantastic. It is such a diverse and beautiful plant family and the people that grow these plants are just as amazing. So come and meet a few with me. There have been around 28,000 species of orchid described which are broken into about 850 genera. For the orchid obsessive there is so much to choose from. I've just gone to orchids recently. My auntie got me into them a couple years ago. I thought why not? Right I can see the way your eyes are going a little bit wide that you might be on this one-way pathway of orchid obsession right? Once you start you just keep going. Unreal. What is it do you think about orchids that bring so many people here? They are easy to grow and also the flower they last very long not like the other flowers it can last like two to three months. We just thought oh everything yeah every flower is so beautiful. Michael Coker of the Orchid Society's Council of Victoria has been growing orchids since he was eight years old. Orchids come from all over the planet. Yeah well every continent except Antarctica and you're right in terms of climates from absolutely freezing conditions to boiling hot so you've got to be very careful what orchid you think about purchasing but I think if you get the fundamental conditions for growing orchids correct you can grow a lot more than you think. I like growing particularly Paphiopedilums which are the slipper orchids. Paphiopedilums are the Asian slipper orchids. Phragmopediums are the American slipper orchids. What is it about orchid people? I think a lot of orchid people are fairly obsessed with the hobby and there's nothing wrong with that. I certainly am particularly obsessed by it and there is such variety in orchids in terms of colours, shapes, sizes, flowering seasons, climatic conditions, even the foliage of some of them is really attractive that there is always going to be something new and different that you can add to your collection because 28,000 species you can't have all of them. Hundreds of thousands of hybrids you can't have all of them either and with all the breeding going on there will always be new and interesting things and challenging things that people can add to their collections. Now Millie this is one of my favourite plants in the show here. I've had this for about 12 years. It's Cellogyne usatana, comes from Southeast Asia and the most interesting thing about it is that on the flower stems you'll see the zigzags on them and each one of those little nodes is a previous flower. It's about one flower per month on each stem so it's a beautiful looking plant, very sculptural and even the flowers themselves have that lovely dark labellum which I think is certainly one of the nicest of the Cellogynes. It's so incredible. I've seen Cellogynes before but always with flowers up amongst the foliage. And this is the Pathio pedulum am I saying it right? Yes you are absolutely right. They're unbelievable really I mean the size of that flower is almost the size of a hand isn't it? Absolutely yes they've been breeding these since the late 1890s and they've got generation upon generation upon generation and they're getting up to ones that actually don't resemble the underlying species at all. Right it's like dogs they they end up looking quite amazing. Well Bulldogs is the other name for this type of Pathio pedulum. It is. That makes complete sense the bulldog of the orchid world I love it. And while the exotics grab the limelight there are also many native Australian orchids including these gorgeous epiphytes grown by Fran Byrne Demos. I like to grow the Dendox the bridal veils because they're easy. So Dendox I love the way that we get all of these little shortenings. Dendrobium. Dendrobium, Docrillia. And Docrillias. So there's some of the epiphytic kind of tree dwelling species. Yes coastal you'll see them down at sea level and they occur anywhere from southern New South Wales all the way up north to Cape York. I can see as well as these amazing epiphytic orchids there's also lots of those terrestrial ones but they're harder to grow. They're a lot harder to grow they need to be repotted every couple of years. They need a microlysis of fungi to help them flower. That's something I prefer to go visit in the wild. They're hard work. Right so if you want to have a go at some Australian native orchids look up. Yeah look up and you'll see these. They're gorgeous. Yeah give one a go. They don't take up that much room. Give one a go you'll end up with a hundred. A thousand. The colour of this, it is an absolute outrage. You think so yeah. Clive Halls grows rare cool climate Mazdavalia orchids at his nursery in Victoria's Yarra Valley. Have you seen these before? I've seen a handful before but not this variety of colour. Yeah this variety here is bred from one called Macapichu that comes from up in the Andes. So they're a high altitude orchid. Does that mean they can take cooler temperatures? Yeah it does. They grow very well in Victoria, Tasmania. Not so happy when you get them up into a warmer climate. But generally speaking they're quite an adaptable little plant. And what is it that you personally love about them? I mean you went in looking for something as a nurseryman that was a bit different but it's gone past that hasn't it? Yes it has. Yeah orchids are definitely a bit of a disease anyway. Once you catch it you've caught it. How long have you been breeding orchids? Well I started growing orchids when I was 16. I'm 77. Wow. When you breed Mazdavalias you've got no idea really what you're gonna get. You cross this red one with a yellow one and you don't get orange ones. You get a whole mix of colours and you actually can produce this colour one. Now what do you think of that Millie? That is quite incredible. Do you like it? It's lovely. Would you like me to name it after you? This one's looking for a name. It's looking for a name. I only have the parents there on that label. So Millie Ross we'd name this Mazdavalia after you. Wow that is that's quite humbling I've got to say. We've had lots of purples, oranges but this colour with this sort of blush pink, the little bit of a stripe up the middle is something completely different. And you're something completely different. The orchid that might make you blush. Wow I'll take that. Thank you Clive. That's very lovely. Margaret Thomas is one of the judges tasked with choosing the best of the bunch. This is extremely special. This is the grand champion of the whole show. Of the whole show. Out of all the orchids all well done, beautifully presented but this one is the grand champion. It makes you get goosebumps I think. It competes against all the others. All the others, all the genera as well not just cymbidiums. And it's name Karaki Glowing it absolutely is glowing. That's correct so good name good choice. The colour contrast I think it's just fabulous. The red with the yellow knocks it off. I think it's beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Why do you keep coming back to orchid shows? Like what is it about orchids for you? I just love them. They make me feel good. I've got something to do every day. Yeah they just give you a life balance I think too as well. Yeah they really do. I think they're lovely and I just I'd be lost without them. I really would be lost without them. What an absolute treat to spend a day amongst such passionate plant people. There's no doubt that orchids are completely intoxicating. Whether it's these beautiful big flowering stems, those gorgeous little natives or this Mazdavilia Millie, they are all truly unique.