Wayne Ferrell thought he was just picking up a summer accounting job 30 years ago when he graduated from Chico State and found work at the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate. But when some key employees left, he was soon setting up the estate’s annual display at the Santa Barbara International Orchid Show and got hooked in this mysterious flower. This native from Bishop, California, is now general manager of the estate — which was founded in 1957 and is open seven days a week at the end of Patterson Avenue on More Mesa — and also president of this year’s 72nd annual Orchid Show, which is March 17-19 at Earl Warren Showgrounds.
“Santa Barbara is really the epicenter of commercial orchid growing in the United States,” said Ferrell. “We have the right climate here for growing cymbidiums, and down in Carp you have heated greenhouses that are the biggest producers of phalaenopsis, the grocery store orchid. That’s the largest-selling potted plant in the world right now. The industry has really grown.”
Which orchid started your fascination? Cymbidium tracyanum. It’s from Burma. It’s extremely wild, these long sprays of bronze-colored flowers with red strips. It blooms before 90 percent of the other species, and it’s richly fragrant. I remember walking along the aisles and seeing this spray of flowers shooting up from some foliage, and they really caught my fancy.