Orchid Ardor
Orchids Limited specializes in beauties from Minnesota and around the globe
By Alyssa Ford
Photo by Eric Moore
Once a tiny Greenhouse, Orchids Limited celebrates 30 years in business this spring as a Plymouth operation that stretches more than 15,000 square feet, with four greenhouses, a generous hybridizing lab, and an outdoor shade house where native lady’s slippers are grown. Founded in 1978 by Jerry Fischer, then an underemployed artist, the company now sells orchids and helps orchid aficionados set up their own orchidariums. But its heart remains the greenhouse, where Jerry, his oldest son Jason, wife Yoko, and a few employees hand-fertilize and water more than 100,000 orchid plants, including endangered varieties from India, Thailand, Japan, and China. “Part of our mission is to propagate plants that may be under stress from deforestation,” says Jason Fischer, 31, the store manager. The Fischers also strive to make orchids both joyful and personal. Case in point: Now customers can buy naming rights for new hybrid orchids developed on site.
Left to Right:
BORNEO BEAUTY Paphiopedilum ‘King Cobra’, $35, a bestseller, grows wild in the wet rainforest of Borneo. •
LIVING LAB The greenhouse hybridizes dozens of new orchid varieties each year. •
PRIZE SPECIMEN Phragmipedium Jason Fischer, hybridized by Jerry and named for his son, is prized for its symmetry and intense color. It has won many national orchid awards.
Orchids Limited, 4630 Fernbrook Ln. N., Plymouth, 763-559-6425, www.orchidweb.com.
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