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Art Chadwick Jr. at Chadwick & Sons Orchids greenhouse in Powhatan (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Art Chadwick Jr. and Aaron Talley at the Chadwick greenhouse in Powhatan (Photo by Jay Paul)
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One of Chadwick's hybrids, the Williette Wong "The Best" (Photo by Jay Paul)
Down Dorset Road in Powhatan County lies a piece of the jungle, or rather tens of thousands of pieces: Row after row of orchids fill 150,000 square feet of greenhouses at Chadwick & Son Orchids, part of a farm on 18 acres of sprawling wooded property. It is a massive reservoir that feeds into a small store in The Fan.
When you walk into that store, Chadwick & Sons Orchids on Belmont Avenue, it’s hard to decide what to look at first. The walls are covered with large, vibrant paintings of orchids and photos of famous women proudly holding orchids. Freshly blooming orchids are perched throughout the store on stands and shelves. Some are more than 2 feet tall, while others are petite and delicate.
Behind the counter stands a man in a colorful button-down shirt who has a relaxed and curious smile. He’s Art Chadwick Jr., owner of the shop and greenhouses and a resident of the Powhatan farm. One customer says Chadwick looks like Jimmy Buffet, an appropriate reference for someone who has brought this tropical paradise to life.
“I’ve never had a horticulture class, but I’m inspired by this flower,” Chadwick says — walking from behind the counter and revealing bare feet — “so I live it 24 hours a day, just 6 feet away from me, either here in the shop or home on the farm.”
Fostering Blooms
The store stays busy. Most leave with a purchase in bloom, but many walk in with bare orchids in hand, plants in need of some foster care.
Orchids only bloom three months out of the year. As the last petals fall, customers can bring their plants to Chadwick. For $2 a month, he and his team will board the orchid and pamper and prepare the plant for another round of blooming. They’ll call customers as buds begin to appear.
“Instead of throwing an orchid away, you can come back, give it to him, and he’ll take it back to his greenhouse,” says customer John West. He and his wife, Cabell, have more than 20 orchids in their home; most are from Chadwick. “In a couple of months, he’ll call and say it’s ready for blooming again, and we’ll go pick it up down the road.”
Janis Ranck, vice president, says the company boarded nearly 8,000 orchids in 2016.
“Eventually, they all make their way back here,” says Chadwick.
A woman who is moving to the West End proves his point as she enters the store to drop off her orchid for Chadwick to “babysit.” After a long story about how the orchid has been doing and her big move, she turns to leave. She can’t make it all the way to the door, though, before she stops to look at four or five orchids on display. They are calling to her, dying to be doted over and taken home. She eventually shakes her head out of a trance and says a final goodbye.
Like Father, Like Son (Sort Of)
Before mastering the art of orchid care, Chadwick was an electrical engineer. After years in the field, he became disenchanted with the business and his superiors. One day, he picked up the phone and called his father.
“I want to go into the orchid business,” he said.
Chadwick Sr. had maintained a greenhouse throughout his son’s childhood. It was a hobby, but he says it was also a passion that had begun when he fell in love with orchids when he was 13. A neighbor of his family had a greenhouse filled with orchids, and he couldn’t resist stopping by.
“It only takes one orchid plant to do it,” Chadwick Sr. says of his nearly lifelong obsession.
Orchids at that time were a fashion accessory made famous by movie stars and first ladies. It was a big business, and many orchid growers were rich, he says. The plants eventually fell from fashion and many growers went out of business, but Chadwick Sr. retained his interest and maintained his greenhouses.
The family was supportive of Chadwick Jr.’s career change, and the father and son developed a retail model rooted in the unique boarding program. His father and mother, Anne, came down from their home in Delaware and helped Chadwick Jr. build the greenhouses, work that entailed digging 150-foot trenches and dragging 20-foot-long pieces of redwood timber.
They opened Chadwick & Sons Orchids Inc. in 1989.
Today, there isn’t an open hook or table under the canopies behind Chadwick’s home. Every inch of the farm is filled with orchid plants from households across the metro area. Here, he and his staff take care of each one, watering, repotting and providing nutrients.
“I have an amazing staff who help keep the farm running and the orchids blooming,” Chadwick says. “I’m usually busy at the store or working on some of my other projects.”
Beyond the Farm
Chadwick travels the world to make presentations on orchid culture, and has authored articles for Orchids, the bulletin of the American Orchid Society.
In November, he was set to travel to Ecuador for the World Orchid Conference, a perfect chance to see cattleyas, a type of orchid native to Central and South America. “I’ve never been to South America, where cattleyas grow wild in the trees,” he says. “I’ll get to see them in their natural environment, in the jungles, and understand them even more.”
He’s also developed orchids that honor the wives of American presidents, a subject he will present at a seminar in Ecuador.
In his store, Chadwick has large photos on the wall behind the counter that depict every presidential spouse from Eleanor Roosevelt to Michelle Obama holding an orchid that Chadwick custom bred in their honor. A variety of orchid growers began the tradition in the 1920s. By the 1980s, the Chadwick family was the only player left and has continued the tradition.
It takes seven years to breed and grow a new orchid variety. Chadwick chooses the orchid when the president is elected and begins writing letters. He has an orchid selected for first lady Melania Trump. It can take five years to schedule an appointment to meet the first lady and present her namesake orchid.
“It’s really exciting, but then it’s all over in five minutes,” Chadwick said.
He’s also developed a flower in honor of an earlier first lady, Woodrow Wilson’s second wife, Edith Bolling Wilson. Chadwick wrote a feature for the September 2017 issue of Orchids that details the breeding process to create the Wilson orchid, which is a largely purple cattleya variety with hints of yellow. In October, the orchid was unveiled during a reception at Wilson’s birthplace museum in Wytheville in southwest Virginia.
The rich tradition of orchids is also celebrated in photos in the back hall of Chadwick’s store. Local models in period clothing were photographed to re-create the 1940s and 1950s traditions of wearing orchids as a fashion accessory. Chadwick has traveled as far as Los Angeles to display the exhibit, titled “Cattleyas and the Golden Age of Orchid Fashion.”
Chadwick’s two sons are in college, one at Virginia Commonwealth University and the other at North Carolina State University. Neither has taken to the family business, yet. “I wasn’t interested in orchids until I was 25,” Chadwick says. “I’m just waiting for one of them to pick up the phone and tell me they want to get into the orchid business.”
