ABOUT KOKIN
How I Got Started Growing and Collecting Orchids
By Monroe Kokin
It was June of 1986 and Linda (my wife) and I went to a wonderful garden in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania known as Longwood Botanical Gardens. It was owned and operated by the DuPont family. We were ambling around the grounds and finally wound up in the large glass conservatory. Once inside with my trusty camera at my side, my eyes came across the most remarkable collection of orchids I had ever seen. I started shooting pictures immediately, and before walking out had at least six rolls of film of orchids alone.
When Linda and I were leaving the gardens, we stopped at the gift shop. I noticed orchids for sale. I told Linda I wanted to by an orchid but she said “No, we’re leaving on a cruise soon and have no one to take care of it.” So we left with no orchid.
Linda and I took our cruise and met some wonderful people with whom we made plans to meet in a month or two. We went to South Jersey to meet our new friends and had lunch. We then took a ride around the Atlantic City area and our friends had arranged with Linda to stop at Waldor Orchids in Linwood, NJ. Linda said, “Ok now go buy your orchid” (little did she know what a mistake that was).
After about an hour of going through the greenhouses with Walter Off the owner and being completely ignorant about orchids, I had collected two Cattleya’s (in bud) and one Phalaenopsis in bloom, and a book about growing orchids. That was 1986. A couple of weeks after, I happened to notice that the Cattleya orchids where in bloom and the Phalaenopsis was as beautful as ever. The Cattleya's stayed in bloom for about five weeks. Then I had only the Phalaenopsis left in bloom so off I went to buy more orchids. I then joined the Central New Jersey Orchid Society. After many meetings, auctions and sales I was on my way to collecting my first 150 in approximately two years. It wasn’t easy to maintain the 150 plants because it was hard to bring them into the house from September (Labor day) to May (Memorial Day). Every window in the house had orchids. Because of space limitations and not being able to afford a greenhouse, I was limited to the 150 that I had collected.
In 1995 I retired and moved to Orlando. When packing the house in New Jersey, the last thing on the moving truck were the 150 orchids and plant stands that I had constructed while the plants where outside (May through September).
The first thing off the truck were - guess what - the orchids and plant stands. As you can imagine, most of the cool growing orchids began to fade away. Therefore, you guessed it, out I went replacing the ones that died. I then joined three new orchid societies - Central Florida Orchid Society, Greater Orlando Orchid Society and Volusia County Orchid Society.
In July of 1995 I went to an Orchid Sale at Krull-Smith
Orchids in Apopka and met Frank Smith. I asked if he needed some help (a
job). His answer was “yes,” but
he couldn’t afford to pay me in cash. I then told him I would work
for orchids, and he agreed. That following Monday I reported for work. My
first job was to get familiar with the greenhouse and then to start pulling
weeds. After four days of pulling weeds, I got the job of watering the seedling
plants that had just come out of compots. I became an expert at watering.
Frank would come in every morning and check on my performance. He would
give me tips on what I was doing wrong. My next task was repotting mini-cats.
After about 1,000 pots of mini-cats (it sure looked like 1,000), I graduated to dividing large cats.
As time went on, my collecting started to grow by leaps and bounds. I now had close to 250 orchids and winter was coming. I knew my plant stands with no protection to the cold would not do. So I constructed a lean-to structure that I could house my orchid collection with heat. I worked for Frank another two months and in the middle of November had to quit. I had no more room in my orchid house as I was now up to 350 or more orchids.
I maintained the 350 orchids until Linda and I moved to Sarasota. First thing I did was to join the Sarasota Orchid Society and the Venice Area Orchid Society. I am a Life Member of the Central Florida Orchid Society. In 1999, 2001 and 2005 I was Show Chairman for the Sarasota Orchid Society. I was elected President of the Sarasota Orchid Society in 2000 and 2001 and recently re-elected for two more years 2005-2006.
While constructing our new home, I made sure that I would have adequate space to grow orchids. I had a 12’ x 36 foot screen room added to my pool cage and had 50% shade screening put in to protect the orchids from too much sun. I added an overhead watering and misting system and PVC pipes for hanging Vanda’s and other genera of orchids.
I am please to say I filled this area up quickly and now have reached my maximum at 800 orchids.
On December 15, 2004 I had Cirrhophyllum Emly Siegerist awarded a CCM AOS 81 points and the new name is Cirrhophyllum Emly Siegerist 'Molly-Jack' (after my two grandchildren). This is a cross of Bulb. Elizabeth Ann x Bulb. lasiochilum. It had 77 flowers and 37 buds. on 57 inflorescences.
And they said this wasn’t habit forming.
In addition to growing orchids, I also take photographs for the American Orchid Society Judging Centers and for various orchid societies in Southwest Florida. My photographs have been published in the Awards Quarterly published by the American Orchid Society. I also have two photos in “The Ultimate Orchid” by Thomas J. Sheehan, as well as many orchid newsletters.
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This cartoon was done by the late Charlie Bird of the Middlesex County Sheriff's Department in 1995 upon my retirement from the
the Middlesex County Department of Corrections
