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Richard Sipko has been called the "Cattleya King."

The 73-year-old has been growing Cattleya orchids for 45 years, ever since his mother asked him to build her a garden and he found that growing plants and flowers came easily to him.

"Everything I tried to grow, grew," he recalls from his Mt. Troy home. "I read an article about a woman in Wyoming who grew an orchid in the winter by putting it on the radiator, and it bloomed in three months. I'm always up for a challenge, so I thought I could grow them."

Sipko will be showing off some of his prized Cattleya orchids today and Sunday when the Orchid Society of Western Pennsylvania hosts its Fall Orchid Festival at the Phipps Garden Center in Shadyside.

Members of the Orchid Society and the public will be able to purchase rarely offered-for-sale orchid species. Various types of orchids and orchid growing supplies will be available for sale, and many beautiful orchids will be on display.

Sipko also will be speaking on Sunday, giving tips for growing magnificent Cattleya orchids. He should know -- he has more than 1,500 thriving in a greenhouse high above his house on a hill.

"Orchids are ... one of the toughest plants you'll grow," says Sipko, a retired building contractor who is married to Theresa. "It takes five to six years to grow them from seed."

Despite suffering a heart attack eight years ago, and having bad knees, Sipko treks up the mountainous incline twice a day to tend to his orchids. A railing helps keep him steady on the narrow steps, but it takes several minutes for him to arrive at his greenhouse.

Once inside, Sipko shows visitors around the spacious building. Crammed full of potted orchids, the greenhouse has a mixture of scents and colors that are stimulating to the senses.

"I can go up here in the dead of winter and smell the best fragrances in the world," he says. "I have every color of the spectrum in here except black. You name a scent, and I'll have an orchid to match it. They're really fragrant when they bloom."

"When I first started, you could only buy white and lavender orchids," he adds.

Sipko has been a member of the Orchid Society for 20 years. The society has about 250 members, some of whom meet the third Sunday of every month at the Phipps Garden Center.

"There are a lot of beginners in the society," he says. "We have study groups: A member opens his or her home up, and we'll have a speaker. We talk about different topics."

Sipko owns Hill Haven Orchids and sells his orchids, but he says whatever he gets for them, he just puts back into the business.

"I do a few shows a year," Sipko says. "A lot of the plants you see here, you can't get anymore. Like the Blumeninsel -- you can't buy that. It went out of business 20 years ago. I have the division."

His orchids bloom throughout the year, but June and July are a slow time. He has young plants as well as one that is 125 years old.

"The majority of these are hybrids," he says. "By using different fertilizers, you can make them grow. I pot them with orchid bark, peat and cedar, but everybody has their own way of doing it. Once you learn what you're doing, it's not hard to grow."

When he first started, he and Theresa had just gotten married, and he grew the orchids in an aquarium in their apartment. Many years later, they moved into their house and he built the 50-foot by 27-foot greenhouse on top of the hill.

"I used to have two smaller greenhouses, but I ripped them down and built this one," Sipko says. "My orchids are a high light orchid. Without light, you can't grow them. "

Sipko waters the plants for about an hour every day and spends another couple of hours tending to them. He says it drives Theresa crazy, but "she puts up with it."

"It's a really enjoyable hobby," he says. "It has its rewards and downfalls, but it's my passion. I love it."

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