GaWd wrote:

My local HDs and Target stores carry Orchids on a pretty much non-stop
basis. The plants, while abused, are always healthy with no pest problems.
They do get under- and over-watered, though.

These also pretty much always come with proper tags on them. Oh, and a
majority seem to come from McLellan Botanicals( www.orchidexperts.com ).


I was actually impressed with the orchids at Franks Nursery & Crafts
(may or may not be in a location near you), last week. In the interest
of full disclosure, I did work for them for a year. In the interest of
fuller disclosure, that was 10+ years ago, and I wouldn't trust them to
keep a philodendron alive much less an orchid.

These must have been fresh off the truck. They were labelled with
crosses (said crosses compatible with the phenotype, even). No grower
information, although I could probably figure it out if I had to.
Prices were, well cheap..., disgustingly cheap, actually, for some nice
two spike phals, some with branched inflorescences, all with good
quality flowers. Probably mericlones of awarded or selected plants,
although there was no clonal information on the tags. If I grew phals,
I might have been tempted by some of them. You would be hard pressed to
visit one of our local orchid growers and find plants as nice as these
in full bloom (at least this time of year).

It looks like it will be more and more difficult for your mom and
pop orchid vendor to stay in business, with this kind of competition.
At least if you want to sell phals. Puts even more emphasis on service
and carrying things that don't really fit the 'pot plant' market. The
big box stores will get them hooked, but the little guys are going to
have to work hard to reel in the fish.

Rob

--
Rob's Rules: http://www.msu.edu/~halgren
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a. See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to purchase
more orchids, obtain more credit
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