Double phal SAVED from certain death

[mayres]

One of our local departent stores is currently running a special on young phals ($12.99) - they look like mini's size-wise, but may be just young plants (?). Amazingly, in order to increase the wow factor/sales, they have planted many of them in twos to a ceramic pot - in sphag, with NO drainage hole - crammed into the pots with some kind of "press" (don't know how else they could get them in there like that?) In this scenerio the majority of these will serve as nothing but cut flowers and will soon be thrown away by people who will wonder why they can't grow orchids.
First picture is what plant looks like upon acquistion (nice! I've been looking for a nice bright yellow!) -

Sometimes growers have thin plastic pots inside these types of ceramic pots - which you can remove for watering and then place back into the ceramic pots for display - not these!

Sometimes you can find two plants together in the same pot that appear to be seedlings that have grown up together in the same community pot and then have been transplanted together for sale - this is obvious by their intertwined root systems. Not so here - the two plants easily fall apart into two sides.

This group of plants came into the store over a 5-10 day period and the early ones are already starting to wilt and show signs of abuse - good thing I got this one before any significant root deterioration - note the roots look pretty good yet!

I got both plants now in their own pots of fresh media (my favorite - coir/perlite/charcoal) with great drainage - I'm already looking forward to seeing them thrive and enter their NEXT blooming season! Two little yellow phals for $6.50 each! One for me and one as a gift ?!

[camille1585]

Great job,and it looks like you got to them in time, before they started developing root rot. They llok very healthy and the flowers have a nice color!
It sickens me to see that the grower stuffs (crams them) them into a pot with no drainage. Of all people, growers KNOW what happens to plants (any plants) if there is no drainage.In the hands of a complete novice, these orchids are doomed to die, and those people will think that growing orchids is just to difficult and give up. They don't know what they're missing!

[Bird Song Farm]

Great find and nice job of saving. I recently found the same thing at HD only yellow with red spots. The two plants easily seperated and I now have two beautiful little phals for $5. each.
As for why growers do this..........MONEY!

Al

[mayres]

Camille - yes, that is what bothers me the most about this practice as well - people missing out on growing these great plants because they don't understand why their plants died (never had a chance to start with).

[sucuz]

I guess that I am kinda both ways on the money issue. The growers do make money, but what do they accomplish? Are they trying to train people that orchids are a disposable plant like florist mums or poinsettas that you enjoy while they flourish, then disgard them? Many plants can rebloom, but for the cost it is easier to enjoy then buy new ones. For seasonal plants I guess that this is ok, but view doing this on a regular basis kinda expensive for my budget.

Don't know why growers can't give the chids a better chance and get the public hooked on this addictive hobby. Here we pretty much suscribe to the adage that "there's always room for one more orchid". If growers would only educate people that orchids aren't all that difficult (relatively speaking) they could just move into feeding the addiction. They could make plenty of money then. We're all living testimony to that.