Good evening everyone. I’m not sure if you’re familiar wi...
Good evening everyone. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the story of the “orchid thief” and John Laroche. It’s a great story. There was a movie made of it called “adaptation”. For all of us who are from Florida or who have lived here for many decades they are familiar with the story. John is a folk legend in this state. I have often wondered if he was still alive. I thought I would share this article about him here. https://therealorchidthief.com/meet-john-laroche-john-stafford/. 🪻🪴🌳🌸🐝 #HappyPlants #PlantsMakePeopleHappy #PlantAddict #NewGrowth #OutdoorGrowing #TheWateringHole @HFplantoasis @HummingbirdMint @Idplantthat @ILoveMyPlants @Jadedbelle @Jujube @Luckeecharm1 @ModestCoconut13 @Ms.Persnickety @newplantgirlies @Preciousplants1 @princesspitstop @QuickKalopanax @sarah10orio @Shells_Garden @SillyPlantGirl @SizableSuncup20 @smushface @SolaceInSunshine @RefinedSandwort @Ponytailmom @Blhagmaier @BigPetunia80 @BEsucculent @UnbeatenSoybean @TopCoriander6 @stephongreg @ILoveMyPlants @SpyderLily @Ms.Persnickety @CutePolypremum #TheWateringHole @DreamMachine @ILoveMyPlants @MariansOasis @SillyPlantGirl @Tiffanypickles @4eva @ @NOLAPhoenix @Devsleafypals #TheWateringHole
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@DreamMachine , I like the book however Susan Orleans did not have enough material from John to fill the book so she digressed and spoke about some of the weird developers that came to southwest Florida. John Laroche was a leading expert in the propagation of orchids and had the idea of propagating the ghost orchid, which is protected. So he wouldn’t get arrested. He hired a few Seminoles too get some ghost orchids out of the Fakahatchee strand swamp. The Seminoles were immune to poaching laws. A conservation officer caught them and tried to arrest John. John evoked the immunity law for the Seminoles. It was a big trial. The judge ruled against him and made him put all the ghost orchids back by glueing the bark they were growing on back onto the trees with liquid nails. 💅 🤔 John had several greenhouses in the Miami area. Hurricane Andrew destroyed his greenhouses. After that, I think he left horticulture and went onto other pursuits. The movie adaptation was exactly that an adaptation of the book. It had a lot of things in the movie which were made made up, including John being killed by an alligator. Far as I know he’s alive and well. Anyway, thank you for your comment Nadia. 🫶
@MariansOasis , i’ve been fascinated by the story for many years. https://therealorchidthief.com/meet-john-laroche-john-stafford/