As a child, he spent many fascinating afternoons chatting about orchids with some of the pioneer orchid growers in Hawaii such as the Kodamas, the Moirs the Aokis and the Ais. He started growing orchids by attempting to plant one of his dad's Dendrobium pods and ended up flasking the seed in flasks kindly provided by the Stanley Taba Orchid Nursery. That blossomed into thousands of orchids in the back yard and has turned into a hobby that has survived college, multiple jobs, 6 orchid societies, 4 cities and 3 states. He currently grows mostly species of various sorts and is a judge for the American Orchid Society.