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Title: Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust, and Lunacy (Vintage Departures) by Eric Hansen ISBN: 0-679-77183-2 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 13 February, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.89 (66 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Orchids: I am trying not to buy one.
Comment: I have read Eric Hansen's Traveling with Mohammed and Stranger in the Forest with much satisfaction. I enjoy travel and adventure books and both of these fit my interests. My knowledge about orchids is very limited and I doubt I would have read Orchid Fever until I heard of a new book by Mr. Hansen.
"Orchids" I said, by Hansen? Well I bought it and now I am trying not to buy one of these orchid creatures. The orchid world described by Hansen encompasses all the world has to offer; life, beauty, culture, pleasure, excitement, and the mis-use of power and guidance of those entrusted with political and regulation ability. It is strange how organizations such as CITES are created to preserve, protect, and educate and the results appear to be less than desirable.
Another book to be read and enjoyed by Mr. Hansen. I would recommend it to anyone, not just orchid lovers.
Rating: 3
Summary: Orchid Police vs. Orchid Lovers
Comment: "Orchid Fever" is a book with a mission to inform its readers about the evil (or misguided and blundering) bureaucracy of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and its mistreatment of orchids and orchid collectors. Eric Hansen makes his case over and over again about CITES' blunders into the rarified world of orchidists, including the confiscation and slaughter of thousands of rare, nursery-grown orchids under the auspices of conserving them.
"Blind rage, crippling jealousy, and wild exaggeration are commonplace in the quirky and insular world of orchid growing..." but Hansen still manages to make a good case against CITES' mishandling of endangered (and not so endangered) flora. He also intersperses his polemic with tales of wonderfully eccentric orchidists, monstrous orchid judges, and of course, the outrageously beautiful courtesans of the plant world themselves: the orchids.
If you think of orchid growing as an octogenerian's hobby in league with quilting or stamp collecting, here is Hansen's description of a wholesale orchid grower's catalogue: "I thumbed through the pages to familiarize myself with the range of flower forms. Immediately I was confronted with centerfolds showing downy, smooth petals and moistened, hot-pink lips that pouted in the direction of tautly curved shafts and heavily veined pouches."
By all means, read this book if you want to learn why your great-auntie Em ditched her crochet-work and is now growing those weird-looking flowers on her sun porch.
Rating: 5
Summary: Orchid Lunacy
Comment: Eric Hansen's Orchid Fever is a quick, breezy and highly entertaining read. I just picked up a copy at one of the Orchid Gardens mentioned in the book, and will never look at the place the same way again. As with any avocation that stirs passion, the world of orchids has produced as many oddball varieties of aficionados as there are varieties of orchids. Hnasen brings them all wonderfully to life and you feel like a friend to many of them (except for the CITES nazis). Being relatively new to the orchid world I was able to appreciate the references to certain species, but by no means do you have to grow or even like orchids to love the book. I read the book in a day and my thoughts today have drifted to wondering about the characters that I had met, such as Xavier in Paris and the Harley-riding guys in the States that have been infected by the Orchid Fever.
The book wraps up with a heartwarming tale of Tom Nelson in Minnesota, slogging through blackfly and mosquito infested roadside ditches to save native plants from destruction. Not out of money but because it is the right and noble thing to do. It is people like him that give a glimmer of hope in a world that can often cause despair. Eric Hansen's book also serves the same purpose and I highly recommend it!
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Title: The Orchid Thief (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Susan Orlean ISBN: 044900371X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Motoring With Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea (Vintage Departures) by Eric Hansen ISBN: 067973855X Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 February, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Ultimate Orchid by Smithsonian Institution, American Orchid Society, Thomas J. Sheehan, Smithsonian Institution, American Orchid Society ISBN: 0789480441 Publisher: DK Publishing Inc Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo (Vintage Departures) by Eric Hansen ISBN: 0375724958 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 14 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Botanica's Orchids: Over 1200 Species (Botanica's Gardening Series) by Botanica ISBN: 1571457216 Publisher: Laurel Glen Publishing Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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