MICHAEL COKER: A LIFE AMONGST ORCHIDS

By Matt Ross

You would have no idea of the horticultural delights tucked away at Michael Coker’s suburban residence. Hidden behind his home in Heidelberg Heights are six orchid houses sustaining one of Australia’s most impressive private collections of orchids.

His houses contain a dizzying array of orchids; 165 different genera and around 5000 plants, coming from every corner of the globe. There’s a sense of pride as Michael puts on a tour of his setup, sharing his expert knowledge as we go. And rightly so, this is something he’d always wanted and through hard work and daring to dream, he made it happen.

Every bit of space is consumed by orchids at various stages of growth. But there’s a precision and thought process to their placement; each house enjoys different microclimates allowing different genera to thrive. And each orchid is facing the way it should for optimal growing conditions.

He had assumed that a single house would have been enough but that merely lit the touch paper. Orchid Houses 2, 3 and 4 followed. And when a neighbouring property became available to purchase in 2014, that was the opportunity he had been waiting for to complete his set up. Orchid House 5 followed as a simple shade structure and after another two years he received the council permit he needed to put a solid roof on House 5 and to build Orchid House 6, his largest and most ambitious build. Each house is designed and built to his exacting specifications; Powerplants Australia and Monbulk Rural supplying specialist materials.

It’s no surprise that orchids feature so heavily in his life. Michael’s father, Julian Coker, was something of an orchid oracle. He held the Australian Orchid Council position of Registrar-General of Judging for a number of years and ultimately gave up his medical career to follow his passion and set up an orchid nursery in Warrandyte.

“If orchids are in your family, you can’t avoid it. They were everywhere growing up.”

A young Michael would accompany his father to various orchid shows and talks and the seed was sown. He started growing orchids at the age of eight years old and he has been exhibiting in the Open Section at club meetings since he was 11.

His passion for orchids provides balance in his life. Professionally, Michael is a successful corporate and commercial lawyer with NGIV Industry Partner, Piper Alderman. Spending time in his houses, nurturing his plants, immediately takes him away from the stressful nature of his work. Indeed, he chose to cut back to a four-day working week to achieve a work life balance that feels just right.

“It’s so therapeutic to be around orchids. Whatever the time of day, I can step outside, and it lifts the fog and lets me focus. On a summer’s evening I can open the door of House 6 and smell the Epidendrum parkinsonianum and Angreacums from 10 metres away. That’s pretty magical.”

His passion for orchids certainly isn’t restricted to his home setup.

Michael is currently President of the Orchid Societies Council of Victoria (OSCOV), President of the North-East Melbourne Orchid Society, an Associate to the Directors of the Australia Orchid Foundation, as well as a member of a number of other clubs. He’s also a regular guest speaker at orchid events, both in Australia and overseas. Michael has been awarded around 60 quality and culture awards from the OSCOV Panel and has won 21 categories in the OSCOV Victorian Orchids of the Year in the last five years, as well as the Australian Orchid Council’s Australian Hybrid Orchid of the Year in 2020.

Increasingly Michael is keen to make an impact in the world of orchid judging. It’s a process that has certain parallels with law; it’s a logical, guided by principal process, he has the right mind for the job. He completed the OSCOV judging training course in only four years. He enjoys training new judges, passing on his considerable knowledge and trying to remove subjectivity from the process.

Orchid growing needs people like Michael to breathe new life into its aging community. And having achieved so much in his own right, he’s increasingly focused on sharing that joy with others. So how do you attract a younger demographic to orchid growing?

“Young people are inspired and educated through social media. The orchid is such a beautiful plant, it has an architectural quality, it lends itself to being photographed and shared. Then the challenge, once you’ve grabbed their attention, is to bring them away from their screens to attend events in person. Orchid events have to be fun, entertaining and educational. We have to help novices to achieve and taste their own levels of success early on.

The burden of managing orchid clubs is falling on an increasingly small number of people. We have to change that as well.”

Michael is also passionate about the horticulture industry and in another lifetime would have happily been a nurseryman.

“The industry gives so much to others. We’ve seen this year, amidst a global crisis, how much the public crave that engagement with nature; it’s such a wholesome, therapeutic, constructive pursuit.”

I had one question left. What is so special about orchids?

“It’s the challenge, you have to get everything right and therefore you have to know what you’re doing. There are so many orchids, each with their own needs and growing habits. The variety is extraordinary, and they all behave so differently. They’re such interesting plants. And of course, they’re just so beautiful.”

On my way out, he encourages me to sniff a particular orchid. I ready myself to enjoy the aroma and instead recoil in horror. He takes great delight in telling me the Bulbophyllum echinolabium rotting meat aroma attracts flies in a bid to pollinate. Michael was right, orchids are both beautiful and interesting.