When Brian Truong was 9 years old and living in Vietnam, an uncle came to visit bearing a gift that would change Truong's life forever. It was a beautiful orchid that Truong hung from a branch of a small shade tree in front of his house. He tended the plant with care and fell in love with its regal beauty.
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One day, the plant began to wither. The leaves fell off, leaving a dead-looking husk.
"Doggone it, I guess I just killed it. Man, my orchid plant died,” he recalls thinking.
He tried to forget about his beloved orchid. Then, about a month later, a bunch of blooms burst forth from the orchid.
The boy was amazed at his plant's seemingly miraculous rebirth. Since that day, his fascination with orchids has been a driving force in his life.
After moving to Oklahoma in 1981, Truong learned about the Oklahoma Orchid Society and joined in 1987, thrilled to share his love of orchids with a new circle of enthusiasts.
Today, he and his wife, Dieu, are raising two teenage boys and thousands of orchids. They have two greenhouses in their backyard, where hundreds of the exotic orchids bloom year-round. The Truongs decided to turn their love of orchids into a way to make extra money and started Okie Orchids, a business through which they sell orchid plants, primarily at farmers markets.
Johnita Turner of Oklahoma City bought her first orchid from Truong. Since then, she has developed what she calls a fever for orchids.
"If you're a collector of anything, you understand what I mean,” she said. "You get the fever. Pretty soon, you're driving long distances to go to orchid shows.”
Last year, she and her husband, Lionel Turner, flew to Florida for the World Orchid Conference.
Truong recruited Turner to the Oklahoma Orchid Society, and she is now one of several society members spearheading an attempt to bring the American Orchid Society's annual show to Oklahoma City in 2010.
For people interested in learning more about growing orchids, the Oklahoma Orchid Society offers free instructional workshops the third Sunday of each month. At 1 p.m., a beginner class is offered and at 2 p.m., an intermediate to advanced class takes place at Oklahoma County Extension Center, 400 N Portland.
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"If you're a collector of anything, you understand what I mean. You get the fever. Pretty soon, you're driving long distances to go to orchid shows.” — Johnita Turner of Oklahoma City, who bought her first orchid from Brian Truong
Orchid facts
•Orchids range dramatically in size from tiny flowers on plants only an inch tall to stems that can stretch as long as 50 feet with blooms a foot across.
•More than 30,000 species of orchids have been described.
•The most unusual and exotic-looking orchids can be found in the tropics. Orchids range in color from pure white to vivid pinks, lavenders, reds, golden yellows, oranges, browns and blackish purple.
•Orchids' odors vary from flower to flower. Some have a vanilla scent, some have no scent, and some smell downright offensive. Some blooms are only scented at certain times of day or night.
Source: Romantic Homes magazine, September 2008.
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