The future of orchid growing

[Corsetière]

Originally Posted by AnonYMouse

Here's a future job title, Orchid Broker-search the globe to find that particular specie or hybrid and deliver it to your door.

Actually, it has been a past job title. Orchidelirium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[WeirdGuySeattle]

Not patient enough to read thru the entire post / replies, but my thoughts:

1) nothing wrong with cheap plants to try out - how many of us picked up a cheap orchid, made it rebloom, and subsequently got hooked and are now about to do stupid things like try to buy and grow a Disa Foam? I have started seeing paphs, cymbidiums, encyclias, phals all start infiltrating the supermarket - this is really cool imo.

2) I absolutely love conservatories - I don't know why my city doesn't have a world class one - we have an okay one, but from what I hear, the one at Golden Gate park is quite incredible...? Anyway, here is where I expect to be able to go whenever I want to see a cool plant. Also - the orchid societies and orchid shows where judging goes on, that is where I expect to see amazingly grown orchids

3) People growing orchids for business / retail have to be a special kind of (I was going to say crazy but will instead say) adventurous - unless they are able to mass produce. How many people are willing to buy a $50 orchid that dies in 3 months, or at least drops its blooms and looks like hell with it's papery sheath. This has always been a specialized business made for very rich people who are willing to throw out a plant. Collectors have grown in number - but I'd say mostly cause of cheap access to plants that can be killed / replaced without spending $100.

Internet is awesome. Now I can find a guy in Olympia who specializes in Disa, a guy in SF who specializes in Masdevallia, and so on... Everybody can be a grower / hybridizer, though I am guessing nobody is going to make much money on this type of business.

[tropterrarium]

Specialization is the key to success for smaller outfits. Look at Andy's (though not really "small"). There is commercial room for rotating inventory of odd-balls. I am looking for Oberonia/Hippeophyllum, check with every vendor prior to any show, do the annual e-mail barrage to check for any new arrivals. I guess I write to about 10% of businesses (don't bother with those specializing in Cattleya hybrids), of those, maybe 20% reply at all, and maybe 1 out of 20 has any specimens available.

The only good thing is, that it is easy on my pocketbook, as even if I buy every plant I want, I still am significantly below my threshold.

I am still amazed about the very limited number of species available, given that there are 30,000 or so out there.

I would welcome also "broker" services, because I am not going to get involved in sorting out CITES paperwork, but have seen plants with out of country vendors on the web. So the web is an annoying teaser. Once in a while I get lucky with traveling vendors from other countries buying plants for me in their country and bringing them along to a US show. Takes a lot of organizing, and success is at best haphazard.

With respect to OP, competing in the Bay Area with dime a dozen Phals is utter folly. High end is the only option, IMHO.

[Polarizeme]

Thought provoking.

I must say that the online presence of orchid resellers has been a very beneficial for me and others who are interested in the more uncommon species. I don't think I'd have had the opportunity to collect many of the plants I own at this time without the benefit of the online orchid retailer. Sometimes it's risky, but it's worth it to be able to obtain a plant you couldn't have purchased otherwise.

I'd love to have a local orchid nursery here to peruse and loiter in! But, like others have stated, the growers in this niche market, who have a good, easy online presence will survive. My

[quiltergal]

Here in Oregon the small greenhouses have been closing one by one. Even the ones who had an online store have closed as they can't make enough to keep up with the cost of doing business. The very unfortunate side effect of this is that there are no longer enough small vendors willing to travel, rent space, and put up displays at our local show. As a result my local orchid society has not had a show in 2 years. It was our major fund raising event for the last 25 years. The society has become less and less relevant. I fear that the society will soon disband. Many of us looked forward to the show. Now there is nothing to work towards in terms of achievement. The other thing I have seen, much to my dismay, are vendors selling NOIDs at large prestigious shows. One of my small greenhouse friends who closed up shop a few years ago said "Orchids aren't special anymore. You can buy them anywhere for a couple of bucks."

I think it is interesting that many of the online growers have actually become importers. Yes they still do breed their own plants, but they have to sell something while they are waiting for the seedlings to mature. So they have become the middleman for exporters from Taiwan, SE Asia and elsewhere.

[jeremyinsf]

Originally Posted by quiltergal

One of my small greenhouse friends who closed up shop a few years ago said "Orchids aren't special anymore. You can buy them anywhere for a couple of bucks."

I think this is sentiment is probably my number one concern, and is really why I started this thread. I used the $10 Phal as the example, but it can run across the board. I know there are lots of exceptions (i.e. Us) but the risk in that is a shrinking market. Even the collective 'we' don't buy enough plants to sustain many of these growers. I hope things don't become so specialized that this becomes a dying hobby. As I said before, I saw the same thing with Bonsai about 10 years ago, at least here locally.

[WeirdGuySeattle]

I dunno - my two cents here is that the orchid market is growing - more people with access to plants, higher quantity and diversity of plants. Sure, small orchid only growers can't survive in a market where big players decide to throw money in. They have to specialize in more rare plants that collectors might like - and there ain't much money in that.

But if you go to a higher end nursery you can find orchid varieties sitting alongside other indoor plants you didn't see when I started collecting plants 20 years ago. I never heard of a Masdevallia until maybe 10 years ago, and I bought a great one at a local nursery a couple months ago.

My take here is that collectors will look (or be able to sell) at local plant sales, local nurseries, farmers markets and be (or get other people) introduced to more interesting varieties. They will also be able to dumpster dive the Home Depot and their grocery store for NOID Phals / Cymbidiums.

Really interesting plants will have to come from somewhere, and maybe importers who can source from people where these plants grow natively is going to be better. I don't see a lot of opportunity to become a US orchid breeder unless you live in FL or HI - and real estate is expensive for that kind of thing (non commercial non crops.)

[Leafmite]

I buy most of my orchids from orchid growers because I don't see what I want cheaply. I buy the seedlings and wait many years to see the blooms, in most cases. However, I do buy gift orchids for people at big box stores. Why waste money on an orchid when I'm not sure that the recipient will actually care to keep it alive?
The truth is, most people new to orchids (and any other plant hobby) want their plants to be cheap and the only way to do this is to mass-produce them. This is nice as it gives people an introduction to orchids as well as gives them a chance to see if they can grow the orchid.
When people begin to realize that there are other types of orchids or that quality or a relationship with a grower matters...that is when the smaller growers or specialty growers or, even Hausermann's make a profit.