Flowering ambitions: Stan Harper and Jeff Walker from the Australasian National Orchid Society are inviting people to their spring show. Picture: Rob Carew
Picture Rob Carew> 10 September 2012. Stan Harper (left) holding a "Dendrobium Lynette Banks" and Jeff Walker holding a "Dendrobium Wonga".
Growing orchids is like a disease, according to Jeff Walker.
"They're an interesting plant and they hook you," he says.
The 80-year-old joined the Australasian National Orchid Society about a decade ago and has been taken with the flowers ever since he bought his first green cymbidium.
Mr Walker will be only one of the people displaying their orchids at the society's spring show in the Mount Waverley Community Centre on September 29-30.
"The display this year's particularly good," he says.
The show will feature a range of natural and potted orchids in addition to art and photography. There will be plants for sale and members will be patrolling the show, ready for any questions to be fired at them.
Mr Walker started growing orchids after he retired and it's the challenge of getting the plant to flower that keeps him getting out of bed.
"They usually flower regularly every year. Some years are better than others."
So what happens if things go awry? "You live with it."
He has about 100 orchids at the moment and spends about an hour a week nurturing them and several more hours thinking about them.
"We've got thousands of species of native orchids in our forests. It was those that I got interested in and there's a tremendous range of them."
Of his orchids, Mr Walker says it's the natural ones that need the least attention. "As you can imagine, they grow out in the forest and nobody ever does anything with them."
He encouraged locals interested in growing orchids to come along to the show.
"Come along and buy one or two and see how you go. And come along next year and buy some more," he says with a laugh.
The Australasian Native Orchid Society's Spring Show will be held on September 29 and 30 at the Mount Waverley Community Centre, 47 Miller Crescent, Mount Waverley. Doors open from 9am. Cost: $4, concessions available. Free for children 16 or under. Details: anosvic.org.au.