He began adding more orchids to the collection, and they became his passion, helping him cope with the loss of his health, his career, and his wife of 39 years.

Bracker decided he needed more space for the plants. His first thought was to build a greenhouse, but later he decided to renovate the basement of his home. With help from his brother, the four-room basement greenhouse became a reality, complete with temperature-controlled climate settings, fans for air movement, automatic lighting that moves back and forth over the plants on tracks, and a unique watering and drainage system.

“Almost everything is auto-controlled to minimize the physical labor needed to keep things running on schedule,” Bracker says.

With all the automation came huge electricity bills, easily twice as large as those from Bracker’s pre-greenhouse days.

“My friends would kid me,” Bracker laughs. “They said the police were probably wondering what I was growing in my basement.”

Even with the automation, human hands still must perform part of the work, and Bracker’s health does not allow him to do that each day. He asked Ed Ashworth, the head of Purdue’s horticulture and landscape architecture department, if he knew of a student who might need a place to live, in exchange for assisting with orchid care.

Amanda Hershberger, now a senior in public horticulture, took the job and says she enjoys her living arrangement and having a professor’s opinion just an orchid away.

“Dr. Bracker helps out quite a bit with course questions,” she says. “His advice is usually along the lines of ‘Who cares what others think?’ He’s gone through life being himself, quirky and all. He never felt the need to explain himself.”

As the orchids have bloomed, so has Bracker’s second passion: digital photography. Using an eight-megapixel camera, Bracker is able to turn his photos of his flowers into an art form.

“When I take pictures, I take a lot of them. About 20 exposures is typical for one plant,” Bracker says. “I would guess I’m pushing about 30,000 exposures by now. But the orchids are in charge of the process. I only photograph them when they’re blooming.”

Bracker explains that he is probably better known among orchid societies for his photography than for his orchids. While friends will occasionally take some of his plants to orchid shows, his photos bring him the most fame. In September and October 2003, he displayed 100 of his prints in the Watson’s Crick Gallery in Lilly Hall of Life Sciences at Purdue. When the exhibit drew a lot of interest, Bracker was asked to exhibit his collection again in March and April 2005.

He has had a number of exhibits and displays, from Hawaii to Massachusetts and points in between. The Tippecanoe Arts Federation has selected his orchid photo art for display this September.

“People ask me how much I sell my photos for. I say I don’t know because I never sell them myself. I occasionally give some to friends,” he quips. “I don’t have the entrepreneurial spirit.” They can be purchased in Lafayette at Susie’s Art Gallery and Frame Shop on Main Street. You also can see some of his photographs on the Web.

Bracker officially retired from Purdue in 2003. Today he says he is doing less and less with the orchids on a day-to-day basis. Hershberger and other members of Purdue’s horticulture and entomology departments make sure that the plants receive the care they need.

For the past two years, Bracker has tended to the care and nurturing of the Lafayette Orchid Society Newsletter, as well as his basement full of orchids. As editor, Bracker is responsible for the content, photography, printing, editing and most of the writing of the bimonthly publication. He even handles the mailings.

Contact Bracker at bracker@purdue.edu