Thomas Powell may be known to you as the distinguished, award winning editor and publisher of the monthly newsletter, The Avant Gardener, and the author of popular garden books. But, back in the nineteen fifties and sixties, he and his wife Betty were just starting out in horticulture when they were suddenly drawn headlong into the high flying world of the orchid trade, in the days before tissue culture and mechanized greenhouses made the world's most beautiful flower available to all. The cast of orchid-obsessed characters in this book range from super rich, even titled customers to...