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SALT LAKE CITY — Markus Ehrlich bought his first orchid more than 30 years ago because the flowers fascinated him.
Then he "promptly killed it because I didn't know what I was doing," he joked.
After hearing about the Utah Orchid Society, Ehrlich decided to try again. He got mentored by the orchid experts and quickly caught the "orchid disease."
"I was badly addicted to growing the plants. I now have gone from having a couple hundred plants in my apartment to having a greenhouse with 500 to 600 plants in it," he said. "That's a fairly common story. Once you get the orchid bug, you just want to grow more and more."
Ehrlich transformed his garage into a greenhouse, converting the roof to a polycarbonate that lets the light in and installing heating and misting capabilities.
"Now that I am retired, it has become my main day job," he said. "There's something really fun about having a sunny but very cold February day, and you're in the greenhouse, and it's 80 degrees, and it's tropical, humid, and you've got all these flowers around you. It's my idea of a good time."
Ehrlich is now the president of the Utah Orchid Society. The members of the society meet once a month in Sugar House to talk gardening tips, show off their blooms, listen to lectures from expert botanists and discuss all things concerning the beautiful plants.
"We help people who want to grow orchids," he said. "I have some plants in my collection that are 30 years old."
From the beauty to the science to the amazing diversity of the flowers that grow on every continent except Antarctica, Ehrlich's fascination with orchids has only continued to grow.
"There's flowers, of course, which range from being merely simply, stunningly beautiful to being almost architectural to being just bizarre. There's species from all over the world — orchids are the plants that have the most species," Ehrlich said.
In his greenhouse, Ehrlich uses misters to imitate humid conditions and adjusts his watering patterns to emulate monsoon seasons to ensure every flower gets what it needs. Orchids are air plants, meaning they aren't potted in soil but rather in pots with bark chunks and elements to mimic how they grow naturally on trees.
Orchids are also one of the most hybridizable plants out there, Ehrlich said. Orchids can be crossed with a variety of plants to create widely differing offspring.
"You can see a flower that most people will never see," he said. "The other thing that keeps me hooked, is orchids are amazing in their diversity and in their evolutionary biology."
The Utah Orchid Society was started in the 1970s by "five passionate orchid growers," Ehrlich said. Since then, the society has hosted two orchid shows a year to bring more people into the horticultural hobby.
This year's spring show will be at Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City, April 5-6. The "lovely venue" will be filled with hundreds of orchid plants in full bloom, and the American Orchid Society will be awarding various plants at the show.
The spring show is a "great place" for anyone interested in learning how to take care of orchids to come on down, buy one, and learn from the experts on how to care for the plant.
"I think it brings an opportunity to engage in a fascinating horticultural hobby, if that's your thing. I think we are a resource for people who want to learn how to grow orchids. Plus, I think we bring an extremely beautiful event for anyone that cares to attend," Ehrlich said.
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