After retirement, Paul Gripp nonetheless visited the nursery usually, serving to with weeding, as he’s doing right here on this file picture, or simply speaking with prospects.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
Orchid knowledgeable Paul Francis Gripp, a famend orchid breeder, writer and speaker who traveled the world seeking uncommon varieties for his nursery, Santa Barbara Orchid Estates, died in a Santa Barbara hospice middle on Jan. 2 after a brief sickness. He was 93.
In a Fb submit on Jan. 4, Gripp’s sister, Toni Gripp Brink, mentioned her brother died “after struggling a mind hemorrhage and lack of consciousness in his longtime Santa Barbara residence. He was surrounded by his loving household, day and evening, for a couple of week in a Santa Barbara hospice earlier than he handed.”
Gripp was famend within the orchid world for his experience, talks and plenty of prize-winning hybrids such because the Santa Barbara Sundown, a putting Laelia anceps and Laeliocattleya Ancibarina cross with wealthy salmon, peach and magenta hues that was bred to thrive exterior in California’s hotter climes.
In a 2023 interview, Gripp’s daughter, Alice Gripp, who owns and operates the enterprise often known as SBOE together with her brother, Parry, mentioned Santa Barbara Sundown remains to be one of many nursery’s prime sellers.
Santa Barbara Sundown is likely one of the hottest orchids that Paul Gripp bred at his famed orchid nursery, Santa Barbara Orchid Estates a.ok.a. SBOE.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
Gripp was a well-liked speaker, writer and avid storyteller who talked about his experiences looking for orchids within the Philippines, Myanmar (then referred to as Burma), India, the excessive Andes, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, New Guinea and different elements of the world, fostering exchanges with worldwide growers and amassing what crops he might to propagate, breed and promote in his Santa Barbara nursery.
“Working in orchids has been like residing in a dream,” Gripp mentioned in a 2023 interview. “There’s 1000’s of various sorts, and I received to journey throughout to search out issues folks would need. However the first orchid I discovered? It was in Topanga Creek, Epipactis gigantea, our native orchid, and you’ll nonetheless discover them rising in [California’s] streams and canyons right now.”
Gripp was “one of many final orchid individuals who went searching for these crops in situ — the place they occurred in nature,” mentioned Lauris Rose, one in every of his former workers who’s now president of the Santa Barbara Worldwide Orchid Present and proprietor of Cal-Orchid Inc., a neighboring nursery that she began together with her late husband James Rose, one other SBOE worker who died in January 2025.
Nowadays, Rose mentioned in an interview on Thursday, orchids are thought-about “one thing to reinforce the fantastic thing about your own home,” however when she and her husband first started working with Gripp within the Seventies, “they have been one thing that absolutely captivated your curiosity and instilled a wanderlust spirit that made you wish to discover the species within the plant kingdom, as they grew in nature, not as produced in varied colours from laboratories.”
She mentioned Gripp’s allure and self-deprecating demeanor additionally helped gas his success. “Folks flocked for the expertise of strolling round that nursery and studying issues from him,” Rose mentioned in a 2023 interview.
“Paul lectured everywhere in the world, educating folks about completely different species of orchids in a really accessible means,” Rose mentioned. “He didn’t act like a professor. He received up there with anecdotes like, ‘One time I climbed up this tree attempting to achieve a plant in one other tree, and all these purple ants infested my complete physique, so I needed to take off all my garments and rub all these ants off my physique.’ Lots of people’s lectures are boring as filth, however Paul might command a room. He had charisma, and it was infectious.”
Gripp was born on Oct. 18, 1932, in Higher Los Angeles and grew up in Topanga Canyon. He went to Santa Monica School after which UCLA, the place he earned a level in horticulture, and labored as a gardener on weekends, primarily for Robert J. Chrisman, a rich Farmers Insurance coverage govt and hobbyist orchid grower who lived in Playa del Rey.
After school, Gripp served a stint within the Navy after the Korean Battle, and when he received out, he known as Chrisman, his outdated boss, who invited him to come back to Santa Barbara and handle the orchid nursery he was beginning there.
After retirement, Paul Gripp nonetheless visited the nursery usually, serving to with weeding, as he’s doing right here on this file picture, or simply speaking with prospects.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
The nursery opened in 1957, with Gripp as its supervisor, and 10 years later, after Chrisman died, he bought SBOE from the Chrisman household.
In 1986, Gripp and his then-wife, Anne Gripp, divorced. Within the settlement, Gripp received their cliff-side Santa Barbara residence with its breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean, and his former spouse received the nursery. When Anne Gripp died, her youngsters Parry and Alice inherited the nursery and took over its operation in 1994, Alice Gripp mentioned in 2023.
Gripp formally retired from the nursery, however he was a frequent helper a number of occasions per week, weeding, dividing crops, answering buyer questions and regaling them together with his orchid-hunting tales.
“Paul loves crops, however what he loves most in life is educating different folks about orchids,” Alice Gripp mentioned in 2023. “He chats with them, and I attempt to take their cash.”
Gripp wasn’t an enormous fan of the ever present moth orchids (Phalaenopsis) bought en masse in most grocery retailer floral departments, however he was philosophical about their recognition.
They’re good for indoor crops, he mentioned in 2023, however don’t anticipate them to dwell very lengthy. “A home is a home, not a jungle,” he mentioned, “so there’s a 99% likelihood they’re going to die. However they’re fairly low cost [to buy], so it really works out fairly good.”
“He used to say, ‘I’m an orchid man. I like each orchid equally,’ and he does,” his daughter mentioned in 2023. “I don’t know if he would run right into a burning constructing to save lots of a Phalaenopsis from Dealer Joe’s, however he advised me as soon as, ‘I’ve by no means thrown out a plant.’ And that’s most likely true. When he was working issues, the aisles have been so crammed folks have been all the time knocking crops off the benches as a result of they couldn’t stroll via.”
Gripp is survived by his youngsters and his second spouse, Janet Gripp, in addition to his sister Toni Gripp Brink. In a submit on the nursery’s web site on Jan. 5, the Gripp household requested for privateness.
“We’re nonetheless very a lot grieving Paul’s sudden passing,” the message learn. “If you want to share your reminiscences of Paul, please ship them by mail or electronic mail for us to learn within the days to come back. We are going to welcome your remembrances and collect these right into a scrapbook to maintain at SBOE. We recognize your understanding of our want for peaceable reflection right now. Within the coming weeks, we are going to announce our plans for honoring and remembering Paul with our orchid associates.”
