One of my earliest childhood memories were the many pots of Cymbidium growing in my grandfather's backyard and that is where my orchid obsession had first taken root. Visiting the hardware store and a local orchid nursery was where I got my first orchid plants; Dendrobium, Cattleya, and Phalaenopsis. Eager to learn more about this diverse group of plants, I joined the American Orchid Society as a Life Member and cultivated many friendships and connections with local growers around Los Angeles. By the end of senior year of high school, my collection filled two greenhouses - one at home and an overflow at my grandparent's house down the street. I went on to obtaining a BS at UC Davis in Environmental Horticulture and Urban Forestry and was curator to the orchid collection at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory throughout my years there.

I completed my Master's in Horticulture and Agronomy in 2015 while managing and studying the Vanilla germplasm housed at UC Davis. The collection included many rare and endangered Vanilla species, such as wild-crop varieties of the "Orchid of Commerce" - Vanilla planifolia, and was the only domestic collection of its type. Shortly after graduation, I moved to the bay area to continue to teach Chinese traditional music; of the guqin, the classic instrument of the scholars and sages, and the erhu, unequivocally known as the Chinese violin. More information about me can be found at https://alanyip.art/.