A few years ago Gerard de Puit got fascinated by orchids, esspecially the species called Dracula. He cultures them in the cold greenhouse behind his house.Gerard belongs to the eight super breeders of Orchideeën association Noord-Oost Brabant.
After he bought an orchid at the Orchideeën Hoeve, Gerard visited this association to see what was going on there. After two more visits he became a board member and started working on this own orchid collection. He cultures the socalled cold species since they do not need a tropical environment. “Because that would lead to a staggering electricity bill” according to Gerard.
First, he put his orchids in one of the bedrooms in his house but that was not an ideal situation, to use an understatement. “Everything became damp”. So thats when he decided to build the greenhouse in his backyard. In addition to air conditioning, the greenhouse also contains a vaporizing system, so the conditions for the plants remain ideal.
Gerard spends quite some time on this hobby “Ah, what shall I say? About 10 hours a week and you can find me in the greenhouse every day,” I’m in the greenhouse as well and wonder “Don’t they all really look alike?”, I see mainly green leaves and hardly any flowers. Gerard just sighs …
He is now frantically trying to complete his Dracula collection, there are about 130 different species in total. This Dracula does not look at all like the orchid we usually see in a living room. In fact, it looks like a little monkey. But I must admit, it’s beautiful.
Gerard mixes the soil himself and he said he just learned by trial and error what is the best blend. Sometimes the orchid just dies on you and well, then you obviously did something wrong! Also, if you’re not careful while handling it, the flower just might fall off and then it might take a year before a new one shows. But according to Gerard that’s all in the game! He also has his own website.