Patience is a Necessary Virtue for Growing Orchids

Can you afford to wait 9 or 10 years before you get a return for your capital, your work and your care? Well, that's what Mr and Mrs Era Bradley of Songer Street have had to do. They are orchid growers and they have been growing them in Nelson now for about nine years, and only now are they getting a return for their efforts. How come, you ask? Because it takes 9 years and sometimes more for the orchids to bloom. The first nine years, all they do is grow. The Bradleys obtained the seed for the orchids from Assam, India, Malaya, Central American States and the United States, and they have cultivated their own plants. But it is a long process and one that is fraught with danger, for the plants, especially in the very early stages, are susceptible to disease and every precaution must be exercised to see they are nurtured in sterile conditions. But although they take years to reach the blooming stage, the plants have an extremely long life. Nobody knows just how long - they' ve never lived long enough to find out. A plant 20 or 30 years of age is still considered a baby. So far the Bradleys have been selling their blooms within New Zealand, but they hope later to find good markets overseas.

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Blooms in profusion in one of the glasshouses

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Mr Bradley shows the special sterile apparatus used for transferring the seed from a test tube to a flask where it will remain, in agar solution, for 12 months.

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But blooms like these are worth waiting for