Vista couple bring art, design together via orchids

By: BEV KANAWI - For the North County Times | Friday, February 15, 2008 8:26 PM PST ∞

VISTA ---- Dennis Keany spends hours each day checking the temperature and humidity levels in his four greenhouses full of orchids.

Whatever the weather outside, it is warm and moist inside.

His wife, Laura, says it's great for your skin.

But it's also great for the exotic flowers that fuel both their passion and their livelihood.

The Keanys, who share a mutual love of art, design and beautiful flowers, own South Coast Orchids in Vista,

Dennis, who has a master's degree in art, was designing interior plant scapes for model homes in Orange County 25 years ago when he met Laura, an interior designer choosing the furniture and accessories the plants were designed to enhance. They said their mutual love of all things serene, balanced and beautiful brought them together and resulted in a marriage that produced two children and a new hobby: growing orchids.

"We had them growing in the kitchen, on the patio, in a lean-to next to the house. We finally ran out of room for the hobby, so we decided to take the plunge and try our hand at growing orchids commercially," said Dennis.

Laura, on the other hand, said she was a little alarmed by Dennis' venture, since she was pregnant with their older child Allison, now 24 and a graduate of San Diego State University.

"I was a little shocked," Laura said. "It made me nervous with a baby on the way."

Nearly two and a half decades later their business has become a family affair, with Allison and her brother, Sean, a 22-year-old student at UC Santa Barbara, working with their parents during summers and holidays. Dennis, however, is chief flower grower and said he feels strongly about the quality of the product.

He specializes in phalaenopsis, dedicating most of the 4.5 acres of land to their well-being.

Dennis has won several awards for his orchids, which he claims is a result of the long growing cycle he insists on.

"If you try to grow orchids too quickly, by manipulating the fertilizer, light or other factors, you end up with weak roots, and they not only don't last but they are not as beautiful," he said.

Hardiness is a must in the orchid business, he said, particularly if you ship them all over the United States as Dennis and Laura do. Their customers are located in areas from Massachusetts to Florida, and they want the exotic plants to arrive looking just as they did when they were packaged.

Learning how to best package such delicate items was a bit of trial and error.

"When we first started shipping, we had the flowers rigged up in the boxes in such a way that you needed detailed instructions to get them unpacked," said Dennis. "Now we have it down to an art, and the flowers arrive looking just as beautiful as when we tucked them into the box."

Although the business began as a strictly wholesale operation to high-end customers furnishing primarily hotels, model homes and offices, the Internet has provided a way for the couple to offer their orchids to retail customers as well.

Laura, who has a bachelor's degree in art and is a certified member of the American Society of Interior Designers, found another outlet for her talent; designing a Website, www.southcoastorchids.com, that would showcase the product while making it easy for retail customers to order gifts. She has also taught herself photography for use with the Web site and printed materials.

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