Although I haven't looked into this yet, it has been a thought that
has plagued me for several years now. My in-home collection has grown
to over 60 orchid plants, a major responsibility requiring almost as
much attention as 3 kids, two dogs, 4 cats,a hampster and 2 horses. I
used to travel quite a bit before my orchid addiction got started.
Now, all I do is care for, inspect for disease and water plants and
smell & look at the blossoms. Everytime I start to think about a two
week to a month trip all I envision is a pile of dead orchids when I
get back. It's too much to ask of someone to come in twice a week for
2 to 3 hrs let alone trust someone to do it right.

Many of the local greenhouses store fuscias and other potted plants
for people through the winter around here. The costs are supposedly
quite reasonable although I've never checked into it. I have several
friends that use this service.
I see the problem as being that buisness slows down in the winter so
they have the room for them then. They'll fillup almost half of the
g.h. with them. In the summer they're full up with all the plants
they're trying to sell. It'll probably be more expensive to get them
to do it during that season. I'm a slave to my orchids. If I ever
really want to spend a lot of time traveling again, I'm afraid I'll
have to get rid of my orchids. Not yet though.


Susan Erickson wrote in message . ..
On Sun, 11 May 2003 23:19:18 GMT, "Gene Schurg"
wrote:


Stuart,

There used to be a nursury in the Richmond area that would take out of bloom
plants from people and board them until they bloomed again. The idea was
that it was cheaper to board that plant than buy new plants in bloom. Each
year you got a bigger plant and even better if it was a gift from family
member you got the memories.

I think they charged by the month and by the size of the plant but I don't
recall the cost.

For some well to do folks who always want a blooming plant they would drop
the plant off and pick up another one in bloom. Sounds like a great
business in a wealthy area.

I don't believe they offer this service any longer.

Good growing,
Gene

I Colorado Springs there is a florist that does hotel flowers and
others. She sells the plant, will take it back for 1/2 credit on
the next bloom you buy. Sounds like a used book store I know. But
the book store sells the used books at 1/2 the cover. The plant
store sells the out of bloom at $5 to 10. But of course they
generally no longer have the name tags.

Some growers that board do it by the square feet of bench space,
others do it by the # of pots and size of pots. Either way it is
very expensive. I have known some AOS judges that kept specimen
size plants with favorite growers. But the pollen was the
growers to use. Most boarded plants I have seen have had a
problem due to lack of personal care.

SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php