Eric and Frances Wilde
Eric and Frances have been growing orchids for over 30 years, since Eric bought Fran her very first Cymbidium as a gift. A couple of years later, while on holiday in Queensland, they were amazed at the cheap price of cymbidiums and bought home a carload. Back home, they joined Maribyrnong Orchid Club at their first show, to learn more about these orchids. Many more trips to Queensland followed, and many more carloads of cymbidiums returned to Melbourne. As Fran said, "If it was called an orchid, we bought it!"

Then they discovered native orchids. Soon they were having native orchids, stags and ferns sent down from Queensland, harvested from the bush by licensed collectors, and began selling at local markets.

25 years ago they moved from Laverton to a large property at Little River. They built their orchid houses and lived in the shed until their own house was built! The only problem with growing orchids is, according to Fran, having too many.

Eric and Fran are very active members of the Maribyrnong Orchid Society, the Victorian Orchid Club, the Australian Native Orchid Society (Victoria), the Australian Native Orchid Society (Geelong) and the Bromeliad Society of Victoria. They are (or have been) committee members of Maribyrnong Orchid Society, the Victorian Orchid Club and ANOS (Geelong).

Eric and Fran are now extremely busy helping to organise the 18th AOC Conference and Orchid Show, to be held at Werribee in September 2009.