Thanks everyone for your advice, I have placed my pre-orders (6 from Tropical Exotique and 5 from Ten Shin) so I'm definitely going now.
Will bring a box or two for the car and many bags. Maybe backpack or husband. Too bad there doesn't seem to be any big shows in the San Jose area but at least it's not too horrible of a trip to go to the city.
I went to school in SF. One of my classmates was of Japanese ancestry. He grew up on a farm in the Central Valley. In June after our first year we went fishing near Sacramento. We had not seen the sun since the previous October. He got a sunburn. He initially didn't know what had happened because he had never had a sunburn before.
95 deg F in Oakland and 55 F in SF A lovely summer day.
forgot to ask: I'm assuming that all the pre-orders from the companies coming from Thailand and Taiwan will be bare-rooted and not in a pot, is that correct?
I think that you can assume that... The only medium permitted on any imports is sphagnum. It is often wrapped around roots especially on plants that don't take well to drying out. Potting is a no-no. These are USDA rules, not something that the vendor necessarily chooses.
If you're thinking of ordering plants from Tropical Exotique, a good proportion of Manote's plants will be shipped potted in flimsy clear plastic pots with tightly packed Sphagnum moss.
Ecuagenera do not pot their orchids. The roots are wrapped in Sphagnum and then wrapped in brown paper taped with masking tape at the seams.
I highly recommend removing the moss and inspecting the roots for all imports.
I posted a pic of the pots if you want to know what they look like.
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Philip
Last edited by King_of_orchid_growing:); 07-10-2023 at 01:04 PM..
Thanks for the info! I have ordered about 5 or 6 plants from them so I ordered some net pots (which is what I use for all my orchids) since I was getting low on them anyway.
So I came home with 17 new orchids. I got so many cool ones that I've been wanting a long time so I have no regrets!!! Except not ordering more supplies.