Macara Orchids is the home of our personal collection of orchids, & we can be found at 2 Macara Street, (where else) Masterton, New Zealand. Masterton is situated in the Wairarapa which is in the lower North Island, & we are about 60 km north of our Capital city, Wellington. The Wairarapa is a vast fertile plain, that is bordered to the west by snow-capped mountains (well in the winter anyway) & to the east by a diverse & exciting coastline. Our temperatures can range from 30+ degrees at the height of summer right down to -2 degrees C or even lower with some of our more severe frosts. We have a moderate rainfall most of the year, but our summers can be extremely dry.
As is probably the case with many orchid enthusiasts, we started out with just a couple of cymbids & these were quite ample, but you know how it is..., you flower your plants for the first time, & before long you are adding another plant here & there to the collection. Then you try a couple of different genera & before you know where you are you are a fully fledged orchid enthusiast. Our collection numbers around 400 plant with the genera ranging from "A" through to "Z" which makes for an exciting & extended flowering season, there are not many months that we don't have something out in flower.
The first orchid house was built as a bit of a walk through type setting with plants being displayed as naturally as we could arrange. There is a fish pond & a couple of small water falls to add to the atmosphere. This was an unheated area & the temperature would drop as low as 0 degrees C in a good frost but the frost wouldn't settle inside the house probably mainly due to the fans that keep up a constant air circluation. For the summer this house is well ventilated, & a fine mist system ensures that the humidity is kept at a level the plants enjoy, but without getting thing so wet that the suns rays burn leaves etc. to this we then added a small warm room for those plants that didn't like the cold, & into this we put in a double sided display cabinet that had sliding glass doors all round & a smaller display setup on the top, agian with sliding glass all around. We kept the warm room at a 8 degree minimum, & the inside of the cabinet at a 12 degree minimum, & this proved ideal for the phally's. Over time both of these houses were getting a little crowded, so when the neighbours, who's property had a large backyard that sided onto ours decided to sell what else could we do??? We have built a new orchid house complete with inground swimming pool, warm room, kitchenette, toilet, & so on. This we are also setting up as a natural type area, & even though it is still not finished it is looking really good with many cymbid blooms dancing gently in the breeze. This house has an air conditioner unit that comes on if the temperature drops below 10 degrees C, & the lowest temperature inside the house that we have recorded was 4 degrees C while it was minus 4 degrees C outside. We are currently working on ventilation & mist systems for the summer heat.
