Here in Portland, Oregon I find some at Fred Meyer's and Trader Joe's
stores. Actually some of my best phals and dendro's were "rescues" from Fred
Meyer's. What I do is wait until they are not blooming and the prices go
from $19.99 to $3. With some TLC they have become among my best orchids.

RM


"dd" wrote in message
...
In article , bb
wrote:

On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 05:57:54 GMT, "Sinister" wrote:

The last place I expected to find professionally raised orchids, I
found
spray after spray of Phal. Aphrodite at Lowes

I look at the hd discount bench sorta like buying bare root stuff. I
have to agree with those who mentioned rotten root balls, most of what
I've seen at the local hd seems to be in just such condition.

I'm still in the experimental stage of what works and doesn't work for
me. The hd cast-offs seem to work for trying new growing techniques.

I was just there a little while ago and was amazed at the poor
condition and high prices offer on the few vandas. The few roots
still attached were in horrible shape. One poor vanda had no roots
left on it, but it did have the remains of a spike, and was only
$29.99, what a deal, eh?

bb

I consider Home Depot and Lowes orchids to be "cut flowers" --I put
them in the kitchen and enjoy them while the blossoms last: Once in a
while, I MIGHT get lucky and have a plant thrive after it blooms. My
favorite phal is a HD orchid, but it was preceeded by many others that
bloomed and died. Oh, yea, and you're always taking a chance that one
of their plants has scale or some other pest or a disease.

Basically, there is absolutely no substitute for a quality grower.
Period. If I could tell newbie growers only one thing, it would be
this. Well, and maybe that more orchids are killed by overwatering than
anything else...