Meet renowned composer, conductor and Artistic Director of the Victorian Opera, Richard Mills, who has a lifelong passion for growing orchids.
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Richard Mills AM lives in a converted warehouse in suburban Melbourne and loves his garden. “Gardening is a creative pastime, it’s not accidental; it needs routine, it needs attention to do it well.”
Richard’s interest in gardens came from his hometown of Toowoomba, which was “garden-conscious place” and had an annual festival, the ‘Carnival of Flowers’. “Also, as a young fellow, I used to go to meetings at the Toowoomba orchid society which were a high point of my school holidays – I would be so excited for weeks before. I in fact started growing orchids when I was really young about 8 or 10 years old. And then I was allowed to have some orchids on the side veranda” before upgrading to a greenhouse.
A professional musician for over 50 years, Richard first studied and worked in England as an orchestral player but says his “creative work has been very tied up with who we are as a people and the landscape and atmosphere of Australia.”
Richard sees may connections between music and nature, and especially with plants. For example, the way leaves are distributed up a stem is roughly in Fibonacci proportions, either beginning large and getting smaller or the other way round. This is like the way phrases of music are built upon in Beethoven’s sonatas.
In Richards glasshouse, there are lots of shade loving orchids that all enjoy a similar temperature range. There are challenges in growing these orchids - “they need to be protected, they need their own microclimate, they need their own humidity, and they need warmth in the Melbourne winter.” It also takes skill to master the art of watering.
Cool-growing orchids are found in his courtyard which has a “symphony of microclimates” with high shelves to help cymbidiums capture morning sun whilst being protected from high walls. Whilst the native Dendrobium kingianum is growing well in a spot of western sun.
06:04 To re-pot a Slipper orchid, you need to get it out of the pot and check its roots. After flowering is the right time to re-pot.
06:22 Squeeze around the plastic pot to encourage the roots to come away from the sides of the pot.
06:35 The substrate might be a bit broken down, so remove all of the substrate and check for any trimming that needs to be done.
06:59 The right sized pot is one in which the substrate can dry out in because Slipper orchids like to be damp but not wet. The roots should fit into the pot quite snugly without being overcrowded.
07:28 Richard uses a substrate made up of small grade fir bark, coconut husk, and styrene foam.
07:43 Simply place the substrate into the new pot on top of the orchid's roots, tapping the pot to settle the substrate. Be careful with new growth so as not to snap it off.
08:15 Give your repotted orchid some water and some rooting hormone.
“One of the things I think is important in life for an artist, is to engender a sense of hope in people. Planting a plant is an act of faith in the future, and composers have been inspired by nature throughout the history of music.”
Featured Plants
Slipper Orchid Paphiopedilum cv.
Cymidium Orchid Cymbidium cv.
Pink Rock Orchid Dendrobium kingianum
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