The top of Kench Mountain in Brooksville does not appear to be the most hospitable spot for gardening. It resembles the extreme-weather regions of the mountains in Acadia National Park: granite flooring, pitch pines, crunchy grass and moss under foot. If it weren’t for the cool ocean breeze blowing up from Bucks Harbor, you might even think it looks slightly like a strip of defiant green in the midst of a desert.

Certainly, it’s not a place you would expect to find orchids.

The other place you might not expect to see orchids is in a hair salon. But one Blue Hill hairstylist always has a freshly blooming orchid, its open-faced, velvety petals incrementally and colorfully climbing a branch. The plants are always pert and beautifully displayed in fancy pots. If you know anything about orchids, then you know the blossoms last a long time, but can they really last longer than a dye job? The answer is yes, if Terry Green is your “plant lady.”

Green, who some indeed call the “plant lady,” is a certified master gardener who grows orchids in her greenhouse and “rents” them to people for between $40 and $100. For the initial cost, she delivers the blooming flowers in a decorative pot. When the blooms go by, she refills the pots with new blooms for the cost of the flower only. Depending on the decor of a client’s house or business setting, she uses ornate ceramic pots, mosses, feathers and ferns to adorn the orchid, which is the star of the show.

Green’s small greenhouse, which measures 10 by 20 feet, is attached to a house she and her husband, physician Michael Green, built on top of Kench Mountain two years ago. And while wild Maine orchids called Lady Slippers do, indeed, grow in the area surrounding the architect-designed house, a variety of treasures fill the humidity-, light- and temperature-controlled growing room in which Green nurtures her flowering charges. In addition to upper windows that automatically open to adjust temperatures, a separate window faces into the house so the Greens can enjoy the colorful blooms from their kitchen.

Terry Green, whose original family name was Giardino, which means “garden” in Italian, began growing orchids more than a decade ago. As with many orchid growers, she fell hard for the flowers, the unusual attention the orchid requires of its keeper and the payoff of the unique shape and colors of the blooms.

“I started with one orchid and caught orchid fever,” said Green, as she used a hose to spray a shower of water on one of the greenhouse plants. “When you see that not-so attractive plant start to spike, it’s exciting. Some people feel that watering a plant is too much responsibility, so the orchids aren’t for everyone. They need a certain kind of care and somebody to pay attention to what they need.”

Despite their reputation for being hard to grow and for being miserly when it comes to blooming (most house orchids bloom once a year – if you’re lucky), orchids have come into fashion for many home gardeners. Specialty plants stores and landscaping companies sell them, but so do the super stores for gardening and home repair. The popularity may come, in part, from Susan Orlean’s best-selling book “The Orchid Thief,” as well as “Adaptation,” the 2002 film version of the book. Clearly, the flowers are also exotic, but the appeal comes from more than just their sensual appearance for those who grow them.

“For me, it’s the challenge to get it to bloom,” said Green. “I feel I can make anything grow, but sometimes orchids are harder. So when I do get an orchid to bloom, there’s a real satisfaction in that. It’s the nurturing I like.”

Light, said Green, is the most important element in the life of her orchids. A black screen over one of the greenhouse windows filters many of the plants from direct sunlight, while others seem to happily absorb direct rays. The plants sit in clay pots – Green’s preferred containers – and several hang from beams.

There are more than 35,000 orchid species, but the ones in Green’s care are among the most popular household types: cattlyea, phalaenopsis, dendrobium and zygopetalum. A vanda, treasured for its blue flowers, hangs bloomless from the ceiling. Green, a member of the American Orchid Society, has a special affection for the flower and knows that by hanging it, the ultimate effect will be a gloriously draping cascade of delicate blossoms.

Most of Green’s specimens come from Florida, California, Hawaii and Georgia. Some she transports during her travels – making sure that no damage is done when the flowers go through security checkpoints – and others she orders online. Then she spends up to four hours a day caring for as many as 75 plants in the greenhouse (which also is home to her husband’s collection of cacti).

Her business, which is called “Green Thumb,” takes place entirely by word of mouth.

Friends, neighbors and others call her in search of orchids for special occasions or just for household enjoyment. From a selection of decorative plant pots that she buys locally, she creates an arrangement tailored to each person’s home or office decor. When she delivers the orchids, she sometimes will also give home plant-growers tips on existing greenery or advice on ways to fill a space with plants.

“I love growing things. I always have, even when I was a little girl,” said Green, who worked as her husband’s medical assistant in his family practice in Connecticut, where the couple lived before moving to Maine. “I really do love orchids, but I don’t think I love them any more than going out in the garden and planting zinnias.”

As for that outdoor garden, the Greens plant most of their flowers and vegetables in raised gardens because the soil is so rocky. They have landscaped their yard with stones and granite from the old quarry once located on the same site. In warmer months, they scan the area for the indigenous orchids to enjoy simply as local flora. But year round, Green’s orchids – fuchsia, yellow, white, purple, blue and spotted varieties – are blooms that are only a window away for both their delight and the delight of others.

Alicia Anstead can be reached at 990-8266 and aanstead@bangordailynews.net.

On growing orchids

Orchids are hardier than most people think. They grow in climates that are tropical, as well as in colder regions such as Minnesota. You can have just as much success growing orchids in Maine as in Belize, if you’re willing to go the extra mile in caring for them.

. Orchids don’t grow in regular soil. Purchase premixed orchid potting medium, or make your own medium with such materials as bark chips, charcoal, plastic foam particles, moss and-or perlite. Most garden stores carry premixed medium for orchids. Do not tightly pack the roots of the plant.

. Each orchid has a specific light requirement. Find out what kind of light your orchid requires by consulting a manual such as the Smith & Hawken guide “100 Orchids for the American Gardener.” Many household orchids don’t thrive in direct sunlight or in the extreme range of day-to-night temperatures outdoors during a Maine summer. So keep them indoors throughout the year. This will also protect them from pests.

. Orchids don’t need to be watered every day, and it’s not necessary, as some popularly believe, to place them in the bathroom where they might enjoy more humidity. Water every few days, allowing warm but never hot water to drain through the potting medium and out from the bottom of the pot. Fertilizer may be added as often as every other watering.

. Use clay pots, which allow more aeration. If you want something more decorative, place the clay pot inside a more ornate one.

. Be patient. Orchids may not be the most beautiful green plants for most of the year, but the benefit of the blooms, which on some popular kinds can occur as often as twice a year, is that they can last up to a month.

. Orchids are available at most gardening centers. But there are many online mail-order sources, too, such as www.orchids.com.