Willow Glen Resident

Cover Story

Photographs by Vicki Thompson

Summoning Courage: Cris Constantino (above) has enjoyed a backyard garden in her Willow Glen home, but didn't work up the courage to try orchids until five years ago--after she had read some books and joined the Santa Clara Valley Orchid Society.

Earthly Delight

Tropical and dramatic, orchids capture the imagination of hobbyists

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

With its unique shape, the shadows it casts as the sun's rays filter through, and its colorful "lips" that entice insects to come closer to spread their pollen, the orchid has captured the imagination of millions.

Yet this mysterious creature of nature that inhabits every continent except Antarctica is much more grounded than some may think.

Willow Glen resident and owner of the Willow Glen Collective, Cris Constantino says she's no expert on orchids. Still, she has learned enough to make orchids a hobby and to inspire others to do the same.

"It took me a long time to try orchids," Constantino says. "For a long time, it felt like no one could grow them except for orchid growers. There's something about them ... they are from far-away places. There's an exclusivity to them."

Constantino has always loved flowers and has kept a garden in her back yard for the past 15 years, but was intimidated by this particular flora family.

There are approximately 25,000 identified orchid species around the world, 32 of which are native to California. 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.

"I felt like they were these rare, delicate creatures that I would never be able to keep alive," she says.

She would see the flowers in the grocery stores and at the nurseries, but would always hold back.

In reality, orchids are part of the largest group of flowering plants in the natural world. Many are also deceptively easy to grow and maintain, as Constantino soon found out.

Five years ago, she bought two books on orchids and joined the Santa Clara Valley Orchid Society.

"I found that the books were down-to-earth and helped demystify the flowers," she says. "They have taken the fear out of me."

The orchid society also played a part in helping her become comfortable with the flowers.

The Santa Clara Valley Orchid Society, one of 500 affiliates of the American Orchid Society, holds 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 the average person otherwise would never see.

Since her orchid revelation, Constantino has become more willing to try her hand at varied orchid species.

"They aren't as delicate as I thought," she says. "They just take a little patience. You can't force them to bloom. They take their time."

Along with patience, Constantino says perseverance is necessary.

"They won't all live for you," she says.

There is a type of orchid for every temperament, temperature and lifestyle, she says. The most important thing to keep in mind when growing orchids is respect, she says.

"It's not a blanket thing," she says. "Just respect the plant."

Constantino began her efforts with cymbidiums, a popular orchid hybrid that grows in soil rather than on other plants or in tanbark as do most orchids.

"They take a little neglect and are much hardier than other plants like ferns," she says. "They're a beginner's orchid."

Gradually, she began accumulating a sizeable collection. She would buy plants, receive them as gifts from friends or be given them as a last hope for a dying or non-flowering plant.

Constantino says her attraction to orchids is hard to explain, but the best she can do is say it compares to Georgia O'Keefe's watercolors.

"I just want them all," she says. "I want to sit and look at them and just enjoy their beauty."

Trailing beauty

Multiple flowers on a single stem spill from a vase atop Constantino's cash register at her Willow Glen antiques store. The pale green flowers serve as something to brighten up the shop, she says, as well as conversation pieces. All those around the orchid enthusiast have become captivated as well.

Constantino's daughter, Willow Glen resident Cristi Toro, says she didn't know anything about orchids, but her mother got her hooked.

"I just thought that they were pretty, kind of dramatic," Toro says. "I didn't want them, but she insisted I have one."

If it weren't for her mother's encouragement, Toro says she would never have decided on her own to have orchids.

"They are known to be temperamental," she says.

This belief was soon disproved as she saw her first plant bloom.

"It's like a surprise every year," Toro says. "They've been dormant all year, and all of a sudden they have buds and then they bloom."

Now that she has grown orchids in her home, she says it is a misconception that they are hard to keep in the house.

"I don't think they are as high-maintenance as people may think," she says. "Depending on what type, they can be very easy to take care of."

Constantino's green thumb not only affected her daughter but also rekindled employee Josie Lugo's infatuation with the exotic plant.

"Cris is my mentor when it comes to this flower," Lugo says. "Hearing her talk about it made me feel like I could do it, too."

The thought of raising orchids tempted her for many years.

"My mother used to raise orchids in the bathroom of our home," she says. "The flowers would take up the steam from the room. It was magic and so unusual."

Lugo and her siblings would look forward to seeing the flowers every day.

"We would come into the bathroom, and there were always different ones blooming," she says. "We would say, 'look, that one is different' or 'I never saw that one before.' It's just a flower to admire. It's a beautiful part of nature."

Lugo was discouraged from attempting what came so naturally to her mother. Then, as she got older, she lost track of the flower, what with her studies, her work as a teacher and then her marriage and family.

It was Constantino's enthusiasm about orchids that finally helped her take the next step.

"I read a few books and talked to Cris," she says. "Now I know that I can grow them and I love them."

Many orchid enthusiasts can trace their love affairs with the mysterious flowers to their childhood. One such person is Willow Glen resident Alvin Cachaper, owner of Kubo House.

"My first brush with an orchid was at 10 years old growing up in the Philippines," Cachaper says. "I saw a plant growing from a tree and thought it was pretty. It was different. I had never seen a plant grow on a tree."

The majority of orchids, such as the one described by Cachaper, are perennial epiphytes. They are found mostly in tropical forests and derive physical support but not nutrition from their host. Although they can be found growing from trees and shrubs, they are not parasites.

He was so taken by the flower that he decided to climb the tree.

"I grabbed the plant and took it home," he says. "We had that orchid for two years, but at that point, I had no idea what it was."

As he got older, Cachaper would spend more time in the provinces and would collect different flowers growing on trees. Once college came around, however, he had no more time.

After college, he immigrated to the United States. Ten years ago, he fell back in love with that flower and two years ago opened his Willow Glen store, Kubo House, to sell chocolates and orchids.

"They are simple, yet elegant," he says. "They are calming. And no matter how many flowers it has, it never looks busy."