It all depends on the nursery manager at your local store. Most are
clueless. Some actually know how to grow plants and will be able to keep
stuff in good condition for a while. It also seems that sometimes the box
stores will just order a box of mixed orchids and get some interesting
things. I got a Paph. exul one time in bloom at Home Depot ($20-$25?).
I've seen a Cycnodes at Whole Foods, and also a Grammatophyllum scriptum in
spike (around $30-35?). Trader Joes just opened here, and they seem to
carry phals fairly cheap.

I see a lot of comments about the evils of the mass market growers, but
frankly I don't see comments about some of the obvious evils of the
traditional orchid business. Has anyone noticed that most seedlings of
phals and paphs aren't very good, and if it's a new line of breeding they
are likely to be total crap? This can be especially bad with the slippers
where the seedlings can be priced quite high. At least the wholesalers are
mostly selling clones of plants that have bloomed out nicely once or twice
before they're propagated. What's happening in the orchid business is that
it's becoming more like the plant business in general. You don't normally
go to a specialty nursery and pay $20-30 for a speculative seedling between
two pansies or daylilies. What you buy in most groups of plants has been
selected from large groups of bloomed seedlings where the best ones were
then propagated for sale.

After saying that, I do still buy unbloomed seedlings, although there are
some paph vendors (quite well known) that I won't buy from anymore unless I
see it in flower. If you have a good knowledge of an area, or know a vendor
that will select the most promising new crosses from a group, you can still
bloom out some nice new things. I just really wouldn't mind a little bit of
a shift where many of the growers selling lots of crappy seedlings at high
prices go out of business.

-danny

"Ray" wrote in message
news:RG%_g.2070$Wp3.466@trndny05...
Interesting...

The HD's I have been to carry scraggly, beaten-up phals, if any orchids at
all. The local Lowes, on the other hand, carries some really good looking
phals (many of which appear to be properly tagged), an occasional variety
of oncidiinae intergenerics and straight oncidiums, and even paphs every
now and then (although it's been a while).

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!