Walsh, Gerry   (fl. 1990s - 2000s)

Born in ?;

Gerry Walsh openly admits he prefers the company of plants to people.

"I'm not a party goer, I don't go out on a Saturday night to a swinging hotspot," the retiree said, from his Blue Mountains property.

Instead, Mr Walsh is more likely to be found in what he calls "the Salt Mine" – a 300-metre-square greenhouse, with a collection of orchids so large he has lost count of how many there are.

"Other people would call it a greenhouse – but I feel it enslaves me, and has done for 43 years," Mr Walsh said.

Mr Walsh describes himself as a self-taught plant enthusiast – and said his passion developed in his childhood years in Kangaroo Valley, in the NSW Shoalhaven district, surrounded by cliffs full of spectacular orchids.

He calls himself the 'Rock Lily Man', after Australia's largest and showiest orchids. Long stems of bright yellow orchids.

"Around New South Wales, they call it 'Rock Lily', other people call it 'King Orchid', other people call it 'Bush Orchid' – but most people know what it is when they see one," Mr Walsh said.

King orchids have long stalks (racemes) of flowers and produce a heady, honey-like scent in the heat of the day, to attract the native bees they rely on for pollination.

"It's almost sickly – I've heard of people who've put just one or two flowers into a car and parked their car for five minutes, and get back into the car and get a headache from the potency of some plants," Mr Walsh said.

Mr Walsh admits native orchid populations have suffered badly from poaching in the past, but he said it was "complete baloney" to suggest it was still going on today.

"Since they've stopped rainforest logging … and access roads were abandoned giving people easy access to all these spots … a lot of that pilfering stopped altogether," he said.

"In places where orchids never used to be, I can tell you now there are orchids coming back and growing … it's definitely making a comeback.

"Most people today just don't do what we did in the olden days - they don't go out in the bush and steal plants.

"Don't be fooled by what people say who really don't have a bloody clue."

Source: Extracted from: ABC website Posted Sun 4 Oct 2020 at 8:14am
Portrait Photo: ABC website above

Collecting localities for 'Walsh, G.' from AVH (2024)

Data from 30 specimens