How I Became an Expert Orchid Doctor
While a student at Harvard in 1941 and preparing for medical school, I wrote a thesis on the plant growth hormones that occur naturally.
My laboratory was just down the hall from the office of Oakes Ames, a legendary figure in the botany and taxonomy of orchids. My interest was piqued in the orchid family when Professor Ames suggested I go to several orchid shows in Boston.
A large chunk of history --- Harvard Medical School, World War II, two years in the Navy Medical Corps, a residency in surgery and then the birth pangs of the new Medical School at
the University of California at Los Angeles California --- all had transpired before I found myself
ten years later living not far from Evans and Reeves Nursery, famous for its
orchid collection.
My first orchid plant, Epidendrum atropurpureum, started its life with me in a window box in an easterly facing dining room window in our own home.
My growing collection of orchids offered relief from the tensions of long days and nights as Professor of Surgery at UCLA with the demands of professional and academic life.
Armacost and Royston and Stewart’s Orchids were also close. Here plants, information and advice were always available. Much of the knowledge and lore of orchids was absorbed by me through contacts with
giants in the field such as Ernest Hetherington, Leo Holguin and Frank Fordyce.
I have been a member of the American Orchid Society and read its
journal for over fifty years.
I enjoy my orchids almost as much as I enjoy sharing my expertise with you at info@caringfororchids.com.
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