A must-have book
"You can get off alcohol, drugs, women ,food and cars, but once you're hooked on orchids, you're finished. You never get off orchids....never." Joe Kunish, orchid grower.
Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust and Lunacy
by Eric Hansen
Here's the opening paragraph to get you in the mood:
There is something distrinctive about the sight and sound of a human body falling from the rain forest canopy. The breathless scream, the wildly gyrating arms and legs pumping thin air, the rush of leaves, snapping branches, and the sickening thud, followed by uneasy silence. Listening to that silence, I reflected on how plant collecting can be an unpleasant sort of activity.