The Orchid Thief

“When I first met him he lusted only for orchids, especially the wild orchids growing in Florida’s Fakahatchee Strand. I spent most of the next two years hanging around with him, and at the end of those two years he had gotten rid of every single orchid he owned and swore that he would never own another orchid for as long as he lived.”

This quotation gives readers a sense of Laroche’s capriciousness early in the book. He has an ever-changing personality, which Orlean matter-of-factly notes by writing that his all-out passion for orchids flamed out in the two years she spent in Florida researching the story. Note, too, the word choice in using “lusted,” which adds to the motif of sexual references (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“The wild part of Florida is really wild. The tame part is really tame. Both, though, are always in flux: The developed places are just little clearings in the jungle, but since jungle is unstoppably fertile, it tries to reclaim a piece of developed Florida every day. At the same time the wilderness disappears before your eyes: fifty acres of Everglades dry up each day, new houses sprout on sand dunes, every year a welt of new highways rises. Nothing seems hard or permanent; everything is always changing or washing away.”

The geography of Florida is an important part of the story Orlean tells. Here she notes its opposing qualities of wildness and tameness, which are forever shifting. This echoes the changeability of Laroche’s personality. In the same passage, she refers to Florida as a “hybrid,” a word used throughout the book for new varieties of orchids. Little connections like these help to add cohesion to the text.

“Setting up a nursery can be simple if you want it to be, but Laroche managed to make it complicated. He couldn’t bear the thought of having an ordinary nursery with cactus planters and potted palms and Christmas trees. He wanted the Seminole nursery to be dazzling, full of extraordinary things.” 

This quotation also gets to the heart of Laroche’s character. He is not someone who settles for common or average things. Instead, he always sets his sights on unusual, more exciting—and often riskier—goals. This is a quality Orlean notices with other orchid collectors and hunters, such as Lee Moore. Something about their constitution compels them to seek out the less-traveled roads.