Orchid Hobby Pays Off . . .
• J
SWOON, LADIES . . . That's a super orchid bloom John Lines
(left) shows Clint McDade (right), business man who turned
t a hobby into big business.
By NORMAN BRADLEY
(iP) Newsfeatures
CHATTANOOGA. Tenn. — La
dies who love orchids should look
with affection on Clint McDade,
a big volume grower who believes
the price of the exotic blooms
should come down.
And McDade, a Chattanoogan
who has burgeoned a passing fancy
in the flowers into a multi-thou
sand dollar, profitable business
within five years, wants to do
something about it.
The retail price for an orchid,
running in wartime from $7 to
$20, is “too high,” he adds, amidst
a profusion of blooms from some
of his 22,000 flowering plants in
greenhouses atop Signal Moun
tain.
"When an orchid sells for ihal
i
much, if dosen't fulfill the purpose
of a flower. We here at Rivermont
Orchids don't believe in encourag
ing such prices.
“When we really get going (his
venture already approaches the
size and scope of the largest inde- i
pendent orchid grower of the na
tion) we’d like to sell our blooms
at $1 each which would mean a
fair retail price of $2.50 or $3.
“It’s not that we wouldn’t like
to take in the money—we just be
lieve it’d be better for the business
to sell more orchids for less.”
That’s from a man who can rea-1
sonably expect to have around
70.000 flowering plants within two
or three years. The quality of j
Rivermont Orchids is indicated by;
the American Orchid Society’s j
grant of two awards of merit, two j
first class certificates and a silver |
medal to McDade’s entries in a re-1
cent show — an unprecedented i
honor for a single grower.
McDade’s now full blown inter
est in orchids was planted less
than ten years ago by a friend and j
blossomed because his son, never i
particularly happy in business, j
“loved to work with the plants.” j
A highly successful business
man—he owns a magazine distri
bution agency which operates in
11 southern states—McDade has
always loved flowers. For many
years he specialized in the culture
of iris but only as a hobby. In the
late ’30s, R. H. Gore, a longtime
friend who had returned to the
United States after serving as gov
ernor of Puerto Rico, invited Mc
Dade to Florida to see his orchid
collection and to give him a few
plants.
Thai was the start of the hobby
turned big business. McDade
rented a small space in a florist's
greenhouse end began puttering
around with orchids. Mrs. McDade
gave impetus to his interest by
presenting him with a book on or
I
chid culture.
“That was the most expensive
$5 book she ever bought, he said
laughingly.
Everest, his elder son, displayed
an even greater interest in the
plants and their development. He
began a serious study of orchids
and later developed a controlled
method of seed culture suitable to
this climate.
In 1941, McDade decided to “put
my life savings into something I
thought Everest would like to op
erate” and Rivermont Orchids was
born. Everest entered the services
in 1942 but expects to return to
the managmeent of the nursery
quite soon. Incidentally his plants
will include some he sent from
Tokyo which are “growing like
weeds.”
The firm, now Clint McDade
and Sons (his second son, Neil,
owns an interest too), has grown
faster than its orchid plants which
take seven years to mature. It now
owns around 22,000 blooming
plants, an equal number which
will mature within two or three
years, and at least 60,000 seedlings
coming along.
McDade's grower, John Lines, a
second generation orchidist, whose
father, Oliver, is one of the na
tion's foremost experts, valued
the mature and nearly mature
plants at $10 or more each with
some of the rarer varieties worth
from $100 to $500 each.
Recently McDade invaded the
world field with the purchase of
the complete stock of the Orchid
hurst Nursery near London, a
world famous firm. In addition to
its own carefully tended seedlings,
the local nursery is constantly
adding to its stock from all over
the world.
The majority of the plants
grown here are of the cattleya
type, producing the corsage type
of bloom “which everybody thinks
of as orchids,” McDade said. But
in one greenhouse are rows of
“growers’ orchids,” as he called
them, which include rare and par
ticularly valuable types used prin
cipally for exhibition or breeding.
They’re worth real money. A
seed pod on one represents an ef
fort to cross an Easter blooming
plant with another noted for its
size and color, in the hope of get
ting a plant which will bloom
early in the spring, when orchids
are in high demand.
“We wouldn’t take $1,000 just
for the chance that pod will pro
duce what we want,” said Mc
Dade.
In seven years, he can find out
if he lost $1,000 or has a plant
worth many, many times that
amount.
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•
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