I looked up the name of the woman who asked here in rgo about boarding
orchids for an article, but she signed herself "Sasa Woodruff". Funny
that two would be writing articles about this topic in CA.

I would love to have Jeff's collection if his plants average $50 apiece!

Reka

Americans spend hundreds a month for orchid babysitters
KIM CURTIS
Associated Press

BOLINAS, Calif. - They're temperamental, but tough. Sensitive, yet
strong. They bloom infrequently, but beautifully. And some say figuring
out how to make orchids thrive at home can be as challenging as raising
kids.

Like parents packing children off to camp, orchid lovers across the
country are paying hundreds of dollars each month to professionals take
care of the plants when they're not in bloom.

"I have the sickness," admits Jeff Doney, a San Francisco architect who
estimates his collection of 200 orchids is worth about $10,000. He
spends $300 a month boarding his plants at California Orchids in
Bolinas. "I might be driving a new Jaguar for the same price."

Doney is fighting his addiction. He recently reduced his monthly bill
from $500 by weeding out less desirable plants. And he's trying to buy
fewer new ones, although he's constantly tempted by an endless parade of
new breeds and hybrids.

"It's time to stop," Doney says. "I'm satisfied with what I have."

Experts conservatively estimate there are 25,000 different varieties of
orchids, excluding hybrids.

Vienna Anderson, who has 15 flowering plants in her Richmond, Va., home,
switched from buying fresh flowers every week to orchids.

"I like the serenity of the plant," she says. "I like the beauty of the
plant."

Anderson spends about $50 a month boarding her 45 plants at Chadwick and
Son Orchids in Powhatan, Va.

"We find we're much like the guy in the wealthy neighborhood where
someone's cutting the lawn, someone's trimming the bushes," owner Art
Chadwick says. "We're taking care of the orchids."

Most orchids typically bloom once or twice a year, some for just a few
weeks at a time. The rest of the time, they're fallow and not
particularly attractive. Some are downright mangy with plain, wide
leaves and exposed roots.

A former wholesaler, Chadwick began boarding orchids 17 years ago.

"Once they buy them, they send them back to us to baby-sit," he says,
adding that he and his staff currently house about 11,000 plants for
about 2,000 customers.

Mary Nisbet, who owns California Orchids, came to California in the
1970s to learn about orchids. She boards about 12,000 plants in five
temperature-controlled greenhouses for 200 customers.

She and five employees repot, fertilize and water the orchids in their
care. Every Friday, they set aside the plants that are beginning to
bloom, notify their owners and deliver them to their homes. When the
blooms fade, the customer calls Nisbet, who sends a driver back to
retrieve the plant.

"They grow slower when people take them home and they come back weaker,"
she says, surveying thousands of plants on pallets in the humid greenhouse.

The flowers are magnificent: reds and pinks, whites and yellows,
speckled and striped; some have softball-sized blossoms, others sport
flowers so tiny they need to be tilted upward with a pinky fingernail.

Orchids are big business. Worldwide, the retail economy in orchids adds
up to about $9 billion; in the United States, wholesalers ship nearly
8.5 million plants a year.

Improvements in breeding and production have resulted in plants that
look flashier, last longer and cost less. In the early 1980s, the
Phalaenopsis, the most popular type of orchid, sold for about $40. Now,
one costs as little as $10 at Home Depot.

"The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession" by Susan Orlean
about the shady, sleazy world of orchid poaching, and Spike Jonze's film
"Adaptation," based on the book, have only added to the orchidelirium,
the name Victorians gave orchid collecting fever.

"Everyone's interested in them. They're a good conversation piece,"
Doney says, adding that his plants complement nearly every room of his
1,800-square-foot house. "They're all over the place. I have pretty good
light. They bloom ... then they go back to boarding school."

I think I'd miss the excitement of finding that sheath or spike on my own,
poking around the plants. I wouldn't miss the bug treatments, however!

And the repotting - we all moan about it, but doing it ourselves gives us
the opportunity to decide whether to divide, save a back bulb, etc.

Just my 2 cents.....

Diana

Diana,

Orchid boarding is for a completely different social class/demographic.

The people who board orchids are well-off to insanely rich. Time is their
most important commodity. They just want pretty flowers at all times and
aren't as interested in the horticultural aspects of having orchids. And
even if they are interested in the horticulture, they don't have enough time
in their busy busy days to even think about it.

I'm friends with another big boarding grower, one not mentioned in the
article, and what Mary Nisbett from California Orchids said is absolutely
true - the plants come back from their blooming time at home looking
horrible. And the "amateur" growers who *think* they know how to grow
orchids frequently kill the plant in the short 4-5 weeks it's at their house
through overwatering. The worst clients are the rude idiots who treat their
boarding company like any other servant to be ordered around. Said friend
won't tolerate those clients and drops them like a hot potato if they become
verbally abusive.

As with all endeavours there are the good people who know how to take care
of their orchids and are interested in building a real collection but just
don't have the space for a greenhouse themselves and/or the time to maintain
it. Obviously those customers are valued the most as they are actively
engaged in the hobby and don't treat their boarding service like a common
servant.

Mary Nisbett at California Orchids is one of the nicest orchid people you
will ever meet. She keeps a low profile - her nursery is almost impossible
to find up in Bolinas, a town on the coast in Marin County with a reputation
for wanting to be hard to find. And she can grow plants like there is no
tomorrow. She's only open for retail sales twice a year during Open House.
Those sales are anxiously awaited and well-attended. And her displays at the
Pacific Orchid Exposition are top notch.

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
. ..
I think I'd miss the excitement of finding that sheath or spike on my own,
poking around the plants. I wouldn't miss the bug treatments, however!

And the repotting - we all moan about it, but doing it ourselves gives us
the opportunity to decide whether to divide, save a back bulb, etc.

Just my 2 cents.....

Diana

I know what you mean, Eric. There are plenty of people out on our barrier
islands who "rent" plants. I think Bill Hill (Orchid Island Orchids)
provides that service, and I'm sure he's not the only one. And there are
those who call themselves "Orchid Doctors", literally making house calls to
repot and provide general maintenance.

Sometimes it's a good thing not to have so much money that you lose focus on
the beauty around you.

Diana

On Tue, 20 Jun 2006 13:34:31 -0700, Diana Kulaga wrote
(in article ):

Sometimes it's a good thing not to have so much money that you lose focus on
the beauty around you.

Diana

...the beauty, yes, but more importantly the realities of life for all
our planetary citizens.
Please forgive the brief political diatribe.

Tom
Walnut Creek, CA
Nikon D70

On Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:34:31 -0400, "Diana Kulaga"
wrote:

I know what you mean, Eric. There are plenty of people out on our barrier
islands who "rent" plants. I think Bill Hill (Orchid Island Orchids)
provides that service, and I'm sure he's not the only one. And there are
those who call themselves "Orchid Doctors", literally making house calls to
repot and provide general maintenance.

Sometimes it's a good thing not to have so much money that you lose focus on
the beauty around you.

Diana


Colorado Springs has one, but the rental plants are on a short trip
from Hawaii to a hotel or cowboy mansion to the compost heap. They
come back and get 1/2 credit on the next display purchase. The out of
bloom stock, with or without tags (depending on the renter) is sold as
is for $4-$10. The shop is no more than a florist with living plants
to place rather than cut flowers. So many come back in worse
condition that HD grows them, that we only visited once.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/main.php