I just came back from a visit to family in the Milwaukee, WI area. Among the
many attractions during the visit (that included two very cute nephews, as
well as my mother-in-law's orchids), we went to visit an orchid greenhouse
called Bettencourt Acres Orchids in Mequon, WI. This visit was very
interesting and thus I think deserves a report on RGO:

I found Bettencourt Acres Orchids through a Web search on some Web site
listing a bunch of vendors in the Midwest, since it was in the Milwaukee
area, I naturally had to visit (only because I needed an additional present
for my mother-in-law, of course). When I called, Mr. Bettencourt told me in
the directions "and then you get to a tar road, which becomes a gravel road,
it's a dead end street, and Bettencourt Acres is at the end, we are the only
thing out there, so you can't miss it." It indeed was a bit out of the way,
and the entrance to the greenhouse is through some kind of garage or shack.
It's a one man operation. Mr. Bettencourt (I don't know his first name) was
very welcoming. He has been growing orchids for about 20 years, and is
hybridizing with very specific goals in mind (for example: a non-fading
lemon yellow Phal). The greenhouse makes the impression more of a lab than
an orchid greenhouse. It is meticulously organized with all orchids for sale
in the front part and the breeding plants clearly labeled. Further back,
there are shelves of flasks, and some non-Phal orchids as well, but there
were only Phals for sale, and only in spike (no plants in bloom and none out
of spike in the for sale area). Phals with single spikes sold for $10, and
two (or more) spikes Phals sold for $15, with the vendor encouraging his
clients to buy single spike because it's cheaper (but that part of the sales
pitch fell on deaf ears in our case). All the plants are in pure white
perlite medium. The watering is computerized with watering hoses connected
to each plant pot, and at Bettencourt Acres all orchids get watered with two
ounces of water ever 21 days -- all the Phals that we saw were healthy
looking and meticulously kept up. Upending the potting medium into a bowl,
root trimming, and refilling with the existing all perlite medium is done in
this greenhouse about once a month, and Mr. Bettencourt suggests this
frequency to his clients in his brochure. He stressed how easy it is to do
this in the perlite medium and demonstrated on two plants for us. I have
never before seen such a thorough root trimming demonstration, explaining
exactly why one root gets trimmed and another does not. We noticed that none
of the orchids in this greenhouse have aerial roots. The reason for this is
that if there are any aerial roots any leaves below these roots are yanked
out by Mr. Bettencourt, and the plant put back in its pot with all roots in
the perlite. As a results most have 3-4 leaves, but a few plants had as many
as 7-8 leaves without any aerial roots (no doubt they do not dare put them
out :-). The Phals that were for sale were all labeled, but I suspect that
the names were not official names but Mr. Bettencourt's own names for these
hybrids, he referred to them as Mabel, Adam, etc., with Mabels all being
bred for as dark an "orchid color" (that's pink) as possible.

Overall it was a very interesting visit. From my account, you can see that
Mr. Bettencourt does a few things somewhat differently than you may have
encountered in other greenhouses, however as already mentioned all the
plants we saw were healthy looking, so I believe that even though he has a
different approach, it works for him and his orchids. He was very friendly,
very informative, and obviously delighted to show his greenhouse to others.
If you ever are in the area, I would recommend the visit, not only since
there are no other orchid specific greenhouses in the area (at least none
that I know of), but because it is an interesting place showing a very
different approach to orchid growing than in most greenhouses. Oh, and the
prices are very reasonable, too. I bought three orchids for presents, so
they don't really count toward my orchid acquisition, so I will have to go
and buy some orchids for myself soonish again, right?

Joanna