Seedling size for cheaper worth the wait?

[gardengirl13]

So I'm going to order some new orchids and see that a lot of people recommend Carter and Holmes. But they sell mostly small size plants, but the prices are pretty good. Most I'm looking at say flowering in 12-18 months and some 2-3 years. I don't mind waiting for blooms. I hate waiting for blooms on plants that are well beyond blooming size and they don't bloom for me! I am being more careful with the light requirements and going with the lower light ones so I don't need to worry about not having my old wonderful south window.

Right now I'm waiting to hear back from a window company about maybe making my bedroom window a bay so I could double the plants on it! But depending on cost it might not be a good thing to do right now. So I'm also looking into pricing lights to put on my wire shelving unit.

So I have a couple questions aside from plant size:

1- if I do shelves how far off of the plants should the lights be? The unit has four shelves and is about 5' tall. I'd rather not have to reach to the floor, so I may be stuck with only having 1 shelf for plants and one for the light.

2- the only place in the house that can fit it is near a heater. Now we may be getting rid of it, since for some reason it's on an inside wall, and isn't really needed. We will be going for radiant heat at some point, but that's like 5-10 years from now. But we may remove this heater (baseboard) this summer if we can find someone to do it. Also I could close the top down to prevent much heat from coming out of it. Now I know heaters are bad for plants, but in our last house every single plant had these heaters under them except the kitchen. In this house all of them have these heaters under the windows, again except the kitchen. None have every been bothered by it.

And again is it worth it to buy cheaper smaller plants and wait, maybe getting more like 5-6 plants, or getting only 2-3 tops and having them flowering size?

Are there any other online places you recommend? I looked through some from the feedback page, and the websites leave much to the imagination. Not being well versed in orchids, I'd prefer to see photos of them and maybe a little culture info without having to google every single plant. I like orchidweb, but I ordered from them three times, one plant about 3 weeks after getting it the eggs of scale must have hatched. Every few days I went to town on it, but I couldn't get rid of it, I kept the plant until it bloomed for me because the scent was just wonderful, but in those first 3 weeks I didn't quarantine it and it spread to three other orchids I had had for years without problems. Sadly all four had to get tossed. (no room for a true quarantine. Another was just horrible looking, leaved dried out and brown and it just started falling apart. The third came very dry and almost looked like it might die, after emailing them (they are very good with communication) they said it should perk up, which it did after a few weeks. The other lost half it's leaves, bloomed nicely, then when I went to repot it is was so rotted I had to cut off 1/2-3/4 of it's roots. It's doing slightly better now, but no new leaf growth and no spike this year. So while the other plants I got from them are in great shape, having 1/4 of them dead or not doing well I'm hesitant. I'm wondering if shipping larger plants is harder on them, that's why they don't do as well?? All my other plants come from local stores so I'm not sure? Is it easier on the plant to ship them small like C&H does?

I'd like to order today if possible. Sorry it's such short notice.

[Leafmite]

I do buy many of my orchids as seedlings. My favorite places are Hausermann's, Oak Hill Gardens and, now, Andy's. The wait can be four or five years but that is why I grow many other plants. I do buy the orchids as mature if I find them for a good price or it is something I really want and it is only offered as mature.

[tucker85]

I'm not sure what kind of orchids you're buying since you say they're orchids that can take low light. Do you mean phals and paphs?
It really just depends on whether you mind waiting a couple years for a plant to reach blooming size. I prefer blooming size plants but I do buy seedlings also. Seedlings are much less likely to have problems like viruses and, assuming you can grow it to blooming size, the plant will be well acclimated to your growing environment. One seedling I bought took 4 years to get to blooming size but now it's one of my best big cattleyas.
My three favorite sources for quality seedlings are Carter and Holmes, Sunset Valley Orchids, and Carmela's Orchids.

[gardengirl13]

Yeah they're mostly phals. There's one catt that says it's ok for windowsill and light growing that looks fun to try, and there's also a neo which I've never tried before. Some of the phals on other sites, who sell them bigger not seedling types say they're better in shaded east windows, so that's good too if I go with the bigger window since it can go on the inside not right up against the window.

[Laserbeak]

I try to only buy blooming size plants (actually plants in bud), because I want to see what the flower is going to be like and I don't like waiting, most orchids grow painfully slowly... Plus, more importantly, small plants are much more difficult to care for. They dry out so quickly.

[Optimist]

I first started to buy only seedlings, then I got a few blooming size and became spoiled. Now I can buy either. I have several blooming sized plants, and several seedlings, so either way, if I like the plant and think I can satisfy its cultural needs, I can buy it. The only plants I stay away from are monopodial orchids.

[quiltergal]

Seedlings can be a somewhat misleading term. It can mean plants grown from seed. It can also mean tiny plants that are clones. If you are wanting a specific plant you should buy a clone. True seedlings grown from seed can be highly variable in color & form. It's kind of a crap shoot with those. Sometimes you get something really amazing and sometimes you get something that belongs on the compost pile!

[Andrew]

I buy mostly unflowered seedlings, partly because of the cost but mostly because I'm always suspicious that flowering plants tend to be the dregs left behind after the savvy people have bought the good ones.

That being said, if you can't flower blooming sized plants, I'd stick to buying flowering plants until you can figure out how to provide the conditions needed to flower them reliably. With seedlings, you're pretty much blind to knowing whether your conditions are good enough to flower them and seedlings can take longer to reach maturity if your conditions aren't suitable.

[gardengirl13]

I can flower some, but not all. I have 2 phals that have bloomed last spring and not since. One paph that bloomed in 2011 and not since. and an onc that bloomed last spring with no spikes right now and same with my bllra. marfitch in spike with two blooms, now nothing. My cochleata is in sheath on time and my psychopsis hasn't bloomed at all for me. He's got about 9 leaves with two new ones coming in, nice new health roots. Not sure what's going on? That's why I'm sticking with mostly phals. Aside from the schilleriana and the NoID I've had them all rebloom, some for years now.

Any suggestions would be great! This is why I'm leaning towards plants of blooming size. I might look locally and see what my favorite greenhouse has. They are a garden center but carry a few orchids, some are nice, most are NoIDs, but still fun.

[Optimist]

Originally Posted by gardengirl13

and an onc that bloomed last spring with no spikes right now and same with my bllra. marfitch in spike with two blooms, now nothing.

My bllra is repetedly spiking. It is right near the window getting strong morning light. Humidity is about 50. I let it nearly dry out. They need more water when in soike. Do you think your lighting situation is too low for oncs-cats? Everyone was telling me that the like to go bone dry between waterings. What they really mean is "almost dry. " They also need more sun than I thought originally. The higher end is better. I put them outside when I can, if it is mild outside, because it can get both too cold, and too hot here.