Orchids are among the most delicate and fickle of all flowers, but they produce some of the most mind-bendingly beautiful blooms in the natural world. So it’s little surprise that some people will go to extraordinary lengths to get them to grow just right.
For David Bird of Bird’s Botanicals, those lengths involve growing his flowers in a cave located some 150 feet beneath a remote patch of Missouri woods.
Growing and tending orchids takes a remarkable amount of time and patience. Depending on the genus of the orchid (there are over 750 varieties, though the exact number is always in flux as more are created, or lost), a single flower can take anywhere from five to more than 15 years to bloom. Despite the complete lack of natural sunlight and soil, Bird says his cave offers the perfect environment to cultivate such delicate flowers.
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