HH,
I don't know about your part of the country, but down here red flags pop all over when someone buys hydroponics gear, and FPL monitors excessive power usage in residential areas. Many, many pot busts have happened here from people using hydroponics to grow weed. The last case I saw they converted a high-end home (3000 K square feet) wholly into a pot farm.
My mom is an expert orchid grower, splices and dices them, has all kinds of weird, show class plants, also heavy into ferns...Australian, Staghorns of every kind, our weather down here is perfect for her hobby.
BTW, Vanilla comes from the beans of an orchid.