“It all started with one orchid.”
That’s what Little Brook Orchids owner Trey Pyfer said about his father, John Pyfer, who started collecting orchids in the 1980’s. At the time, John was a trial attorney and Trey was still a kid duty-bound by chores. As John’s orchid collection grew to fill two greenhouses, Trey was tasked with spraying the orchids, cleaning the greenhouses, and more.
Looking at orchids for the first time in his dad’s catalogs, Trey thought, “They look so alien, like this is a complete sculpture. And this is before Photoshop.” He was smitten.
As the orchid bug bit his dad, so too did it bite Trey. In time, two greenhouses at home wasn’t enough to house John’s incredible orchid collection (at this point still a hobby), so he rented space at 25 Ryder Avenue in Lancaster. The plant store that had been there for decades eventually closed and the storefront was left empty, eager for a new life.
By the early aughts, Trey returned from a decade out west, where he sowed his oats and readied for life’s next chapter. The timing was perfect, and the father-son duo started the joint venture of Little Brook Orchids in 2004. Little Brook transformed from a passionate hobby to a real family operation, propped up by the Pyfer matriarch, Carol, who took on the bookkeeping.
Trey said about the store when they bought it, “It was not up to orchid growing standards.” So they spent a year fixing it up, redoing everything from top to bottom, and doing what the Pyfers do best: Getting the job done.
Today, Little Brook Orchids is a reflection of the power of hard work, nurturance, and steadfast positivity—regardless of life’s obstacles. Take one step in the store and you’re greeted by the director of first impressions, a large chocolate labrador named Miles who has worked at the shop every day since he was eight weeks old.
A whole slew of orchid varieties and companion plants line the sprawling greenhouses, which extend much further than the curb makes it seem. “The types of orchids that I grow just remind me of being in a tropical warm environment and feeling good,” says Trey.
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Orchids grow on every continent except Antarctica, with some varieties even going past the Arctic Circle. Trey keeps tropical orchids, which he says have longer blooming seasons and are easier to grow in the home. There are so many orchids that it’s impossible for Trey to pick a favorite, but he fawns over the Japanese orchid Gastrochilus japonicus, or yellow pine orchid, which you can grow a plethora of in the windowsill. Orchid sales are enough to keep the shop bustling, but Little Brook does more than just sell plants.
Plant owners can board their orchids at Little Brook over the winter or while they’re on vacation—but the boarding greenhouse fills up quickly. The shop can also grow your orchids and get them to bloom, repot them, and diagnose them if you’re having orchid concerns. If your orchid needs to be rehabilitated, Trey says, “We have the NICU here,” but plants are living things and they can only promise that they’ll try their best. In short, they’re a place where orchid aspirations soar.
As any family business knows, obstacles are bound to happen. Trey remembers a big hailstorm that rolled through Lancaster one year, puncturing holes all over their greenhouse roofs. “Our greenhouses are made of polycarbonate plastic,” he says. “In an instant, the hail damaged the whole complex.. I went up and the whole roof looked like Swiss cheese. Every sheet had to be repaired” But, like always, they got it done.
From fragrant blooms to pungent ones, orchids are a world unto themselves. For Trey, it’s more than appearance. “It’s neat to reap the benefits of your labor. What you put into is what you get out,” he says. By recreating the environment they thrive in, you can have blooms that last months, often even in the wintertime when the world is bleak. Even if you don’t think you’ve got a green thumb, Trey says, “Little Brook shows people it’s possible to fix mistakes and succeed.”
Little Brook has many sides to it, but Trey says it boils down to one key thing. “We don’t want people to come into our shop and leave sad. We want them to see something and have their spirits lifted a little bit,” he says. “I guess we’re in the business of spirit lifting. It’s about positivity.”
Little Brook Orchids
25 Rider Ave, Lancaster, PA 17603
