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SUMMERFIELD - Jack Kepley felt intimidated at his first orchid club meeting.

"I was sitting there with all these flowers ... I didn't understand any of the scientific terms the speakers were using," he recalls.

He thought he was just humoring his wife, Margie, by attending.

The Kepleys bought a couple of orchids that day, then returned the following day to buy a couple more.

Twenty-three years later, orchids have grown on Kepley. A greenhouse built beside his Summerfield home provides the ideal climate for the 1,500 orchids Kepley cares for simply as a hobby, not to sell.

"I'm still a rookie," he explains modestly.

Walking through his greenhouse, one can't help but be impressed by the colorful array of potted orchids that jam table after table. Kepley resists the urge to talk scientifically about them.

He'll tell you that orchids are hardy plants ideally suited to household environments.

He'll tell you about an unusual green orchid that looks -- to the untrained eye -- like a weed. (Yet this won a ribbon at a recent show.)

He'll tell you they are easier to grow than most people realize.

"Everyone seems to think that orchids like it hot with lots of sun, but they grow best in indirect light under normal household conditions. They provide so much color and beauty in the bleakness of winter."

Kepley is not alone in his love of the plants. Orchids currently rank as the second-most-popular potted plant behind the holiday poinsettia.

"You can spend more money on a cut-flower arrangement that lasts three or four days than it costs to buy an orchid that blooms three or four months, year after year," he says.

Look for Kepley at the Triad Orchid Society's fourth annual Orchid Show Friday through Sunday at the Greensboro Council of Garden Clubs, which is adjacent to the Natural Science Center in Greensboro.

Enthusiasts will display, compete and also sell orchids during the show. It's a friendly affair, although occasionally rivalries emerge among growers, rivalries that Kepley describes as "professional jealousies."

Even Kepley's wife, who exposed him to orchids at their first show 23 years ago, is not immune to them.

"She says I stole her hobby from her."