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Orchids And Love Get Better With Time

Amazing flowers bloom in the Jaudons' yard.

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By MONICA BRANDIES | The Brandon News

Published: February 7, 2007

While Stella and Elbert Jaudon have perhaps 20 healthy looking orchids of various kinds, they had been worried about a particular cattleya.

It often had one to three blooms, but they thought it could do better.
They even took it to Lin Cook of Cherub of Gold Orchids in Wimauma last summer and asked her if they should divide it.

"No," she said, "take it home and feed it and it will bloom for you."

Elbert began sprinkling little beads of Osmocote, a slow-release fertilize, over it and letting the fertilizer filter down among the leaves.

Slow-release fertilizers will not burn and every watering will dissolve just enough to keep the plant well fed.

"I think that's what made the difference," Elbert said.

It must have worked because this year the plant bloomed as few orchids ever do.
When this photo was taken there were 26 buds open and 26 more in the process of opening. Each was mostly white but with a deep-maroon throat. There was a greenish tinge to the outer petals as they opened, but the tinge faded to white as each flower opened completely.

The orchid had been outside under a giant oak in the Jaudons back yard.

But a heavy rain was predicted just as it began blooming. So they had one of their daughters help them move it into their living room so the rain would not beat the blossoms. That was very fortunate, since the cold spells followed, and they brought all their other orchids in as well.

"Stella had one orchid almost the same color in a corsage when we got married," Elbert said. "We've been married 52 years, and now she has 52 flowers. What is more, I graduated from Brandon High, whose teams are called the Eagles and whose colors are maroon and white. And a decade later, Stella graduated from Woodrow Wilson High in Beckley, W.Va., whose teams are called the Eagles and whose colors are maroon and white."

The Jaudons have had a life almost as amazing as their orchid.

He went into the Navy at 17 and was on two ships that were blown up during WWII.

"I was in the water the one time for six or seven hours with shells falling all around me from a mountain on Borneo," he said. "My mother heard that the ship went down with 90 percent casualties, but it was a month before I got to San Diego and could call her and let her know I was OK."

The Jaudons have a son and twin daughters and have lived in the area all their married life.
After Elbert retired from Tampa Fire Department after 30 years of service, they ran two wholesale nurseries, growing all sorts of plants, as many as 60,000 to 90,000 at a time, at two different locations, including the acre where they still live.

"No, there's nothing much to see in my yard now," Stella said. "Elbert had a stroke some years ago and I had a heart attack in 1997 and we don't keep up with it now."

A sincere, but definite understatement.

Recently, after Stella arrived home from her morning walk at the mall, she pointed out the many beautiful camellias that cluster under the trees. Other plants, begonias, hoyas and an anthurium decorate the front of the house as well.

In the back a giant oak shades two huge staghorn ferns, several hanging baskets, a picnic table and a wicker swing.

"I don't know what kind of oak it is. I brought it home in a gallon tin can years ago," Stella said. "Elbert had once removed a basket of hoya, (probably during another cold spell) but it had already grown up the tree and the pieces he cut off just continued to grow with the waxy blooms cascading down.

Monica Brandies can be reached at monica@gardensflorida.com.

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