Carrying on a tradition: Everything’s coming up orchids

Kristen Uthus with one of her showier orchid plants in the greenhouse.

Kristen Uthus was a professor of Ecology and Biology at the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University, when she happened to meet Dr. Glenn Lehr in 2012 at the Farmer’s Market in Manchester.

“He had a small display of his orchids at the market, and I was fascinated,” she explains. “So, he invited me to come and see his greenhouses.”

She was immediately taken with the amazing flowering plants and began visiting the Dr. Lehr regularly. “When my husband’s co-worker was retiring, he asked me if Dr. Lehr had anything ‘special’ that he could give as a gift,” she recalls. “I told him, ‘Everything he has is special!'”

As they were selecting just the right specimen, knowing that she had a six-week break coming up from her classes at Eastern, Kristen blurted out, “Hey, do you need any help?”

And so it began. She started getting immersed in the world of orchids, even traveling with Lehr to Japan to attend one of the world’s largest orchid shows. With this introduction to a whole new world and culture, she was hooked. In 2014, she acquired Lehr’s collection, but continued to keep the plants in his greenhouses on Sandborn Road until they were able to build their own greenhouse a year or so later.

Although Lehr had originally started his orchid collection with Ecuadoran orchids, he eventually switched to strictly Japanese … a tradition that Kristen has kept with her own collection.

“We are now one of three orchid growers in the US that specializes in Japanese orchids,” she says. “And I think we are the second-largest of those three.”

Orchids are one of the two largest and the most diverse family of flowering plants, ranging from tiny plants of just a couple inches, to the enormous, elegant, and showy flowers with which most people are more familiar. The flowers are often fragrant … and usually, Kristen says with a laugh, in a good way. Some, however, do have a rather unpleasant aroma. Some varieties are fragrant only during the day; others during the night only. “You can come into the greenhouse as evening falls, and it is just heavenly,” she says.

Spanish moss grows in the greenhouse as well, which helps maintain humidity for the orchids, who require a lot of watering. Kristen collects water in 21 rain barrels to irrigate the greenhouse; their well water is not friendly to orchids and a reverse-osmosis system that provides backup to the rain barrels is obviously more expensive and sometimes can’t keep up with the demand.

Japanese orchids are ranked and judged by very specialized sets of standards. Those that are slower growing or have unique patterns are considered far more precious (and valuable) by judges. And the process for becoming an orchid judge is very lengthy and specialized in itself. Kristen says it can take at least six or seven years to get certified as a judge, and even then, some species are so unique that it can be hard to classify. All of which makes orchid growing challenging and interesting. It’s a lifelong learning process, which is something Kristen finds fulfilling.

Over the last few years, Kristen has retired from teaching at the university level and has a rather “more than full time” job caring for her orchids. “I loved teaching,” she says. “Having the orchids, and attending shows, allows me to teach others about them … and when you’re talking orchids with someone the conversation can sometimes go on for hours. I enjoy teaching to a receptive audience like that.”

And although it’s “endless work,” she loves what she’s doing now. She finds it rewarding and fun, and loves how the greenhouse changes every day and with each season.

If you are interested in seeing the orchids, Kristen would love to share her joy in her collection. Contact her at 734-369-1776 to make an appointment.

A very tiny dendrobium specimen, only a couple of inches square, grows in cork in Kristen’s greenhouse. She is specializing in miniature orchids, but has dozens of varieties of all sizes.

This beautiful bloom is just one of hundreds of different varieties of orchids.

Spanish moss surrounds most of the orchid plants in the greenhouse, keeping the atmosphere humid enough for optimal growth.

For as little as $1 a month, you can keep Manchester-focused news coverage alive.

by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.