Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Object of Affection: Lynell Miller, seen here with the award-winning breed of orchid called BLC Nacouchee 'Mission Valley,' received her first orchid from her daughter five years ago. The gift sparked a new passion for Miller, which has recently turned into a full-time career of raising and selling orchids from her home's greenhouse.
The Orchid Lady of Willow Glen loves her rare and exotic plants
Lynell Miller started her own business from a greenhouse
By Susan Wiedmann
Willow Glen resident Lynell Miller is addicted to orchids. The violinist and retired English teacher is so besotted by the exotic beauties that she had a large high-tech greenhouse built in her backyard just for them. It sits behind an eight-feet-high arched gate and is now home to her rapidly expanding collection of several hundred orchid plants and a couple hundred tiny seedlings. There is room for plenty more orchids because Miller planned it that way.
"I've been in love with exotic plants since I can remember, and I've wanted a greenhouse since I was 25," Miller explains. "I wanted all the bells and whistles, and one as big and tall as I could get it. If you have a dream, don't you want it to be perfect?"
It took a long time for her dream to come true. Miller successfully grew her first orchid a couple of decades ago, but went on to grow other plants instead. Five years ago one of her daughters presented her with three orchids in a pot as a surprise gift, and Miller became permanently hooked. She decided to learn about different orchid species and their environmental requirements by reading voraciously. But that was not an easy task since there are more than 25,000 species of orchids from all over the world, especially Asia and tropical countries, not including many thousands of hybrids created during the past century.
"I grow them because they are so beautiful," Miller says about her infatuation with the plants.
Orchids can be found in every color known to nature. They have three outer sepals and three inner petals, the lowest of which is called the "lip." Other than the flower's color, the lip is often the most eye-catching part of an orchid and can be large or tiny, spotted, striped, fringed, curled, flat or pouched. It lures pollinators to the orchid's sexual organs, which, unlike those of any other flower, are both part of one column just above the lip.
The orchids known to most people are the corsage orchids, or Cattleyas. But "catts" are now also grown frequently as hybrids and come in a spectacular variety of colors and sizes, including Brassolaeliocattleyas (BLC), with very heavily fringed lips. Miller has a BLC with multiple blooms in her greenhouse, and it is noticeable from across the room.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Lots to Learn: Willow Glen resident Lynell Miller is a member of the Santa Clara Valley Orchid Society, which meets monthly at Willow Glen's American Legion Hall on Minnesota Avenue.
Other popular orchids include Dendrobiums, ranging from tiny flowers to showy blooms on canes; Oncidiums with large ruffled lips; Phalaenopsis, or Moth Orchids, resembling the open wings of a moth; and Cymbidiums with multiple three-foot or longer spikes, each having a couple dozen long-lasting flowers. One of the most intriguing orchids, however, is the Paphiopedilum, or Lady Slipper orchid. With its prominent pouched lip and a variety of dramatic petal markings, it is the one orchid that people either love or find absolutely creepy.
The three orchids Miller's daughter gave her are now root-bound in their original pot. The stunning Dendrobium phalaenopsis, a long spray of white-edged fuschia flowers, has been blooming nonstop for the past 12 months. The maroon and white Oncidium Sharry Baby has bloomed twice this year, and the third orchid, a white Dendrobium, provides a stunning counterpart to its companions.
"They bloom better when they are root-bound," Miller advises. "And they die if you over-pot them."
A year after she received the trio, Miller joined the Santa Clara Valley Orchid Society, one of 500 affiliates of the American Orchid Society. The society has approximately 150 members and holds lively monthly meetings at the American Legion Hall on Minnesota Avenue. It brings in a highly regarded orchid expert each month to give a slideshow presentation about the orchid of his or her expertise. The speakers are individuals who have traveled extensively around the world and have often photographed rare or unusual orchids that the average person otherwise would never see. Following every presentation, a raffle is held for the orchids the speaker has brought, giving audience members a wonderful opportunity to add orchids to their home collections.
"They are a group of very knowledgeable, sharing individuals," Miller says of the society members. She was so impressed by the society's generosity with time and expertise that she became the secretary for its board of directors.
By 2000, Miller decided it was finally time for her to take the greenhouse plunge. She had collected orchids to such an extent that they filled an entire room in her home, sitting on trays she filled with pebbles and water to create humidity.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
High-Tech Growing: Miller realized her dream of owning her own greenhouse last January after she retired from teaching high school English. The greenhouse is fully automated and monitored by a computer program that tells Miller the air temperature, humidity, propagation mat temperature, and what the fans are doing at any given moment.
"Orchids are an addiction, I think," Miller says. "They're as exotic as you can get. There is such a contradiction between what the flower looks like and the leaves."
Today her 16-foot-by-24-foot-by-11-foot-high "smart" greenhouse is definitely a perfect home sweet home for her orchids. Special electronic sensors are part of a state-of-the-art computer program that controls the critical environment of the structure. On cue, small misters create the necessary humidity, and they do the job so well that the greenhouse feels as humid as Hawaii after a brief summer shower. But the temperature in the greenhouse remains comfortably warm, never hot. To maintain that perfection in the summer, high wall-mounted fans pull through air from the outside at a moment's notice from a sensor. During the winter, a gas heater provides preset warmth, also via an electronic signal. At all times gently spinning ceiling fans circulate the greenhouse air like soft tropical breezes in many of the orchids' homelands, thereby keeping the plants healthy.
Miller can adjust all the settings, as needed, on her home office computer. At present she also has a couple hundred tiny Cattleyas and Dendrobiums growing like bean sprouts in glass vials. The seedlings will soon be ready for transplanting and will benefit from a computer-operated propagation mat she intends to buy as her next greenhouse gadget.
After the greenhouse was completed in August 2000, her lovingly tended indoor plants initially suffered from too much heat because no one told her she needed a shade cloth on the greenhouse walls in addition to one on the roof. But she managed to nurse all the plants back to health, a testament to the knowledge and skill she had developed in a relatively short time. But it is an ongoing education.
"I still read for an hour or two about orchids each day and dream about the ones I want," Miller says. "I also get on the Web and browse and decide which ones I want to order. It's a great way to get your spirits up."
Miller's spirits have had reason to plummet in recent years. One of her daughters died suddenly a few years ago, leaving a son whose father has since also died. Miller's best friend of more than 20 years died several years ago, giving a surprised, grief-stricken Miller the house in which she now lives. At about the time the foundation was being poured for the greenhouse last year, Miller had to have breast cancer surgery. She says she is now a breast cancer survivor and that her immediate plans are to deal with an ongoing painful disk problem in her back.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Home for a Year: Miller purchases new orchid seedlings in sterilized flasks where they will grow for a year before they are transferred to pots.
"I've fallen off horses, and gotten kicked by horses," she says, matter-of-factly. "But I am not a quitter, no matter what."
The former high school English teacher's advice to would-be orchid growers is simple: Learn by reading a lot about orchids and their varied requirements. She also highly recommends joining the orchid society to learn even more. In her opinion, Dendrobiums are the easiest orchids to grow in any room that has bright light, and she also highly recommends Brassocattleya Maikai Mayumi, a hybrid that resembles a Cattleya. She says it will bloom profusely anywhere.
"Over-watering kills orchids more than anything else," Miller says. "An orchid actually has a succulent leaf storing all that water, but people think, because it's tropical, it needs a lot of water. It doesn't."
An excellent way to determine if an orchid needs watering is to pay attention to the changing weight of its pot as it begins to dry out, with a lighter weight indicating it may be time to water again, she says.
Miller has just begun a business, Orchids From The Glen, through which customers will be able to buy orchid plants and corsages and rent orchids for special occasions, such as weddings. She wants to make certain that her customers will be successful with any orchids they receive from her.
"When they come to get an orchid, I would be glad to take my light meter and go to their house to make sure they have adequate light, because without that you will not get a bloom," she says.
Orchids tend to bloom in winter and spring in the San Jose area, depending on the species. Other than light, factors affecting bloom can include water quantity, temperature and, sometimes, a stubborn plant. With the increasing number of plants Miller now has, she says she isn't too concerned that problems will develop with some of them.
"Worrying about orchids is one of my favorite pastimes," she says.
Miller can be contacted at orchidsfromtheglen@earthlink.net. The Santa Clara Valley Orchid Society meets at 7:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month, except holidays, at the American Legion Hall, 1501 Minnesota Ave. The public is invited. The society's annual show and sale will be held the weekend of April 20, 2002, at Westgate Mall.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
