Adopt, Adapt and Improve

 

Orchid hunting is a mortal occupation. 

Victorian-era orchid hunter William Arnold drowned on a collecting expedition. 

Osmers vanished without a trace in Asia. 

Augustus Margary survived toothache, rheumatism, pleurisy and dysentery, 

only to be murdered when he completed his mission and traveled beyond Bhamo. 

Laroche loved orchids, but I... 

I came to believe he loved the difficulty and fatality of getting them almost as much as he loved the orchids themselves. 

John Laoche, Orchid Hunter :

I've been a professional horticulturist for like 12 years. 

Uh, I owned my own plant nursery, 

which was destroyed by the hurricane. 

I'm a professional plant lecturer. 

I've given over, like, 60 lectures 

on the cultivation of plants. 

I'm a published author, 

both in magazine 

and book form. 

And I have extensive experience with orchids 

and the asexual micropropagation of orchids 

under aseptic cultures. 

That's laboratory work. 

It's not at all like your 

nursery work. 

Um... 

I'm probably the smartest person I know.