Alan Porter, of Rupert, photographed this wild lady slipper orchid, a rare find in Idaho, in a Wood River Valley farmer's field. Far from the steamy tropics where exotic flowers flourish, rare orchids grow wild in the Wood River Valley. Alan Porter is one of the few people who knows exactly where.
The Rupert resident was working at his monthly consulting job at Webb Garden Center in Ketchum when a farmer walked in and said he had some yellow flowers, which he thought could be orchids, growing behind his barley field. The farmer asked Porter, a self-taught orchid expert, to come out and take a look.
Just after a June rainstorm, Porter hiked a half mile through "a hundred billion mosquitoes" and found about 20 groups of lady slipper orchids. Suddenly, the itching insect bites didn't matter; Porter began to take pictures to document the find. Further research determined that the flowers are Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens, a species prevalent in the northeastern United States but rare in Idaho.
The farmer and Porter won't disclose exactly where the flowers grow. They're afraid thieves will steal into the field and dig up the orchids. Even with this protection, the lady slippers are ultimately doomed. They haven't produced seed pods, which means their pollinator has been killed off, probably by pesticides, Porter said. The flower's construction prohibits hand-pollinating, so the plants will never reproduce where they grow, and wild orchids do not transplant. They end up dying, Porter said.
Even greenhouse orchids tended by experts can wither away. In the 28 years since he received his first mail-order cattleyas as a 4-H project, Porter estimates he's killed off 1,000 plants while learning to care properly for the 600 or so thriving orchids in the sunroom of his home on the Idaho Youth Ranch, where he works. The collection includes 30 different types of orchids. "I have just about everything from the most extremely rare to the everyday," he said. His collection includes phalaenopsis, a common species with showy flowers that requires little more care than ordinary houseplants. These plants can be found at retail outlets, Porter said.
Another species he has tried his hand at is an Australian wild terrestrial orchid. "It's a little more difficult (than phalaenopsis)," he said. "I can get it up to the dormant period and then it just doesn't come back." Among his prize possessions is a hybrid of which there are fewer than 10 in the world because no one has been able to successfully reproduce it.
The variety of 35,000 known species of orchids fascinates Porter. Some have flowers that are almost microscopic, while the largest blooms are 12 inches wide.
"They go from flowers that look like bugs to the really elegant," and the fragrance can range from floral to spicy to "something that died three weeks ago," he said.
It's a subject he knows well enough that his business card identifies him as the Orchid Doctor. President of the Magic Valley Orchid Society, Porter frequently gives talks on the flowers. He also is a resource for local nurseries, which call on him to help their customers with orchid questions.
"He's very open and willing to share," said Teresa Roach, an owner of Kimberly Nurseries in Twin Falls. Although her nursery stocks the exotic plants, "Orchids aren't our speciality. We have a lot of people that ask 'how much light' or 'how much water' and...'does this like the heat or the cold.' I just basically just refer all of those types of questions to Alan. We have his business cards here. He just has a passion for what he does with the orchids."
Porter enjoys debunking the orchid's mystique. Ordinary green thumbs can grow plants that produce beautiful flowers in fanciful shapes and flashy colors.
"People give them a status they don't need," he said. "I have people who are successful now but at first they thought they couldn't grow this thing. I worked with them and...a couple years later they bring in their plants and they're doing great."
Such success does take time, he cautioned. From seed, an orchid takes three to 10 years, or longer, to flower.