April 2026 - Nico Goossens on "Phalaenopsis: The Overlooked Epiphytic Orchid"

Nico Goossen

This month we are happy to welcome back Nico Goossens, who will share his talk on “Phalaenopsis: The Overlooked Epiphytic Orchid”. Nico will demonstrate a technique he created by mounting Phalaenopsis on plaques, allowing them to develop aerial roots and avoid the setbacks they can go through on a typical mount. He sells these mounts and mounted Phalaenopsis at local shows.

Nico’s first experience with orchids was an abandoned quarantined box of a shipment from Guatemala in 1976. His father, who was a custom house broker, came home and dropped them in his lap after a customer refused to accept the orchids that had been fumigated and warehoused for several months by customs due to improper documentation. He knew nothing about orchids and spent several weeks reading orchid books from the library and managed to keep these plants alive for around 6 years. That was enough to ignite his interest in orchids and, for the first two decades, he grew his orchids indoors and in shade structures in the backyard. 

Nico started working in construction in 1982 and learned how to properly build houses, patios, and decks. This eventually led him to design and understand greenhouse structures and materials including plumbing, heating, and electrical.

In 1993, Nico started to grow his orchids in a greenhouse with Lisa Humphreys. The first one was a gifted 6' x 8' hobby structure which was too small and overheated too fast. In 1995, he built a 16' x 48' greenhouse in Encinitas and they grew their orchid business, Lico Orchids, which sold orchids and did orchid shows for 25 years. 

Nico now has his own 8' x 16' greenhouse in Escondido and continues to work as a handyman and builds shade structures, greenhouses, ponds, and waterfalls for others. He has built so many shade structures and greenhouses in his lifetime that he's lost track of how many. 

Nico enjoys growing all kinds of orchid genera and especially species. He is also interested in the conservation of Southern California’s local native orchids and leads hikes to see our native wild orchids. In addition, he enjoys speaking and sharing his experiences and knowledge with orchid societies and at orchid shows. 

This month’s opportunity table will be provided by Nico Goossens and Lisa Humphreys.