Geoff Harris has been growing primarily species orchids for most of his life. As a child, a family friend that grew orchids would give his parents a plant now and then, that they would promptly kill. He decided he'd had enough of the carnage and took over tending these plants at age 12. Having grown plants in bedrooms, bathrooms, on the side of a dorm tower in college, various apartments/houses and eventually a greenhouse, he has tried many different ways to cultivate a diverse collection over nearly 40 years. Today his parents even have a small windowsill collection of their own that they successfully cultivate.

Over the years, Geoff has travelled to many regions around the world in search of native orchids to better understand how and where they grow. Trips to most countries in Central and South America, Seychelles, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya have powerfully influenced his understanding of the amazing number of niches that orchids occupy. Always on the lookout for orchids, he has observed many of the species native to the western US and Canada as well.​

He has grown (and killed) all sorts of orchids from the high reaches of the Andes to the oppressive warmth of the Amazon. Through this breath of experience he has mostly learned the limits of what he can and can't successfully culture and learned a lot about the optimal vs. acceptable limits of what many different species need. He is happy to share his learnings with others and to learn from them.

Geoff has a BS in biology from UCSD and a DVM and PhD from UC Davis. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for nearly 20 years and is currently the CEO of startup company developing novel protein therapeutics for severe diseases.