Erin Nelson is one-part orchid placement consultant, one-part orchid plant doctor, and all-parts orchid lover.


At her store, Small Hill Orchids, which she opened in February at 2207 N. Hamilton, a few blocks south of North Foothills Drive, Nelson is in her element, surrounded by the blooming beauties that not long ago threatened to take over her Deer Park home.


Its a hobby gone awry, Nelson says of the business, which initially was stocked mostly with the hundred or so orchid plants she had amassed at home. There, Nelson had so many orchids that she had to move about 20 of them each time she wanted to use her washer and dryer.


Nelson has since parlayed her passion into a full-time enterprise with average sales of $4,500 a month, selling orchids and services such as the shops orchid hospital, where she helps her customers rejuvenate unhealthy plants and learn how to encourage blossoms from their plants. Nelson always has enjoyed plants and at one time was the youngest member of the Inland Northwest Dahlia Society, she says.


Several years ago, she received one of the famously temperamental plants as a gift. She got it to bloom againwith 42 blossoms. After that first fortuitous experience with the perennial and varied orchid family that has fascinated plant enthusiasts for years, she contracted what she jokingly calls orchid fever.


I was hooked, she says. She joined the Spokane Orchid Society and began collecting orchids in earnest. Nelson sensed, though, that there was an information gap outside of the monthly orchid society meetings, and she believed there was a niche for accessible local expertise about the plants.


She and her husband, Steve, had halfway started building a greenhouse for her orchids when she learned that the store space on Hamilton was available. The Nelsons joked about moving the orchid menagerie off their property and into the store. They soon realized the joke was an inspiration, and rented the small shop. It was a leap of faith, Nelson says.


When we started, it was a very scary thing to do, she says.


The couple remodeled the about 600-square-foot shop themselves, painting the walls a sunny yellow and enticing friends to help lay new carpet, and they secured a lease that would allow them to expand into additional space there if demand warrants it.


The upfront gamble is paying off, though, Nelson says. The Nelsons invested about $6,000 of their own money to get the store started, which they already have recouped, she says. The store now carries about $20,000 worth of orchids, bonsai trees, and a few other tropical plants, ordered from suppliers in orchid-laden regions like Hawaii and Thailand.


Most of the orchids cost between $26 and $28, with a few rare or special-order varieties priced at more than $40. As an added incentive, Nelson offers a discount for some varieties of plants when they are between bloom cycles, for those who can wait four months to eight months for a plant to bloom again.


Nelson hopes to start selling plants via a Web site early next year, and to add dahlia tubers and an outdoor variety of bamboo suitable for growing in Spokane later next year. In two years, she would like to add irises as well, she says. Nelson says she can envision, with continued growth, hiring a florist to create orchid corsages and bouquets, and buying a refrigerator to stock arrangements for weddings and special occasions.


Personal orchid consultations


Getting orchids to blossom repeatedly is a task that can be daunting without some education, Nelson says. There are more than 35,000 different kinds of orchids, each needing different and specific conditions to grow optimally and flower. The vanilla plant is a variety of orchid, Nelson says. There are even several types of orchids that are native to the Spokane area, demonstrating the wide variety of needs of the various orchid types, she says.


She says people frequently come to her store seeking an orchid that looks like a picture they found on the Internet. While she can special order most varieties, Nelson says she tries to help her customers evaluate whether a particular variety of orchid is well-suited to their home environments. An orchid that needs 95 percent humidity or other conditions would be difficult to grow in Spokane, but given the huge number of varieties to choose from, a similar-looking alternative often can be found, she says.


Nelson says she teaches people how to encourage their orchids to bloom, even if they bought the plant somewhere else. She considers the personal interaction a key to building a customer base.


Her husband, Steve, says, You have to have success to get the orchid fever.


Nelson sells 90 percent beginner orchids, which are hybridized, hardier plants that require less specialized care for novice orchid growers.


Small Hill also operates an orchid hospital and hotel, where Nelson takes in unhealthy plants, diagnoses and treats them, and nurses them back to health. She accepts other types of houseplants as well as a service to her customers, she says.


The hospital is located in a bathroom in the back of the shop, which she also uses for her orchid repotting service. Repotting can be a key to getting blooms, Nelson says. She provides the service for just one dollar, as a way of getting people in the store.


A lot of what Nelson does as a plant doctor is education, she says. For example, she sells a type of orchid from the Dendrobium family that is deciduous and loses most of its leaves right before it flowers.


She says people who dont know that frequently see the plant lose all its leaves, assume it has died, and may consider throwing it away, right before they were about to be rewarded with a bloom.


Nelson uses many natural items in the orchid hospital, such as cinnamon, which she calls Neosporin for plants; and sesame oil, which she says is a natural insecticide. She says she tries to avoid commercial chemical treatments, as they can have their own harmful altering affects on the plants, but uses a liquid copper solution as a fungicide. Once treated, the plants are moved to a well-lit shelf in the back for recuperation.


The orchid hospital is quite popular, Nelson says. She says she gets two to five new patients a day, satisfying her need to exercise her green thumb.


Though Nelson has no employees yet, she hopes to continue to expand the business. For now, her husband fills in at the shop occasionally, and helps with the bonsai plants sold there. She also sells ceramic pots made by local artists and a line of greeting cards that she creates.


Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at [email protected].