Genesis of a business

McBride was a clothing store manager and Krause a TV repairman when serendipity sneaked up on them and changed their lives forever.

After visiting what was formerly called The Little African Violet Greenhouse at a friend’s suggestion in 1973, the then-20somethings soon became regular patrons. When the greenhouse’s owner announced a year later that she would shutter her business, the pair embarked on selfdescribed “panic-buying spree.”

“We figured we had to buy everything we could before it was gone,” McBride explained. “Then we went out to buy a book to learn how to take care of it all.”

As their burgeoning collection topped 100 plants — which they set by large windows and under grow lights in their apartments — their next step became obvious. They decided to buy the business and make their hobby pay for itself, which they did on March 9, 1975.

Their current inventory mainly includes plants priced from $5 to $50, though McBride paid $1,200 for a rare lady’s slipper and sold a division of it recently for $350.

Since there are 30,000 known species of orchids in nature and more than 100,000 registered hybrids, collecting them continues to be an addiction for the pair and, luckily, for their most loyal customers.

Stiles Colwill, an interior designer in Greenspring Valley, paid his first visit to the greenhouse over a decade ago and has purchased orchids for events he has held at the Baltimore Museum of Art as well as for personal enjoyment.