Are most popular orchids always available?

[dshallpost]

Have been buying "a few" orchids (now that I have lights) and had planned to buy one and only one of each. But I am entranced by my new Toshies Magic Doris (the only one I bought in bud). I think it's so pretty and love the fragrance. They seem to be available right now and I am wondering whether to bend my rule and buy another, or whether I can count on it being available always from one place or another. Are most of the "popular" orchids (especially Catts) almost always available? (and do you double up on favorites?)

[JScott]

Of course tastes and fashions change over time, and so does orchid availability. They will keep cloning these plants for as long as people keep buying them, however it is impossible to say which ones will be popular over time and which others will fall out of fashion and be replaced by newer hybrids. Some examples:

Ctt Jewel Box 'Scheherazade' has been around since the 60s, and it continues to be very popular. At any given moment, you are most certain to find that one for sale from a number of nurseries.

Beallara Peggy Ruth Carpenter 'Morning Joy' used to be very popular. When I was a young guy in the late 90s, I used to see that one just everywhere. I had one myself. Eventually I went to college and didn't have any place for plants and most of them died at my parents' house, including that one. Now that I am stable in life, I wanted that one again, because it was among my favorites. It took me a long time and a lot of searching to find one.

If you decide you want a duplicate of one of your favorites, you could just wait until it is large enough to divide, but specific plants go in and out of fashion just like everything else, and it is hard to say which ones common now will be hard to find later.

[estación seca]

There are so many thousands of hybrids, far more than total space in commercial growers' greenhouses.

[Optimist]

In my experience the availability of orchids is based on who (which grower) has a population of them and how long that population lasts. Some seed grown orchids are harder to find. This is why a seedling is 35 dollars.

[Leafmite]

If you really love an orchid and are afraid you will kill it, it makes sense to buy a second one.

Orchid availability really varies. Some types of orchids are always available or are available in cycles but most are offered for a time and then not again seen. The disappearance of a 'popular' orchid from availability is most common with hybrids but even certain specie orchids can follow this pattern. I have come to imagine that some company flasks thousands of a certain orchid at a time, sells it wholesale to vendors, then moves on to a different type of orchid.

What is nice about having two of a favorite orchid is that you can enjoy more blooms.

[camille1585]

Over here in Europe I noticed that there are 2 types of popular orchids (thinking more of hybrids rather than species):

- The classics which seem to always be available somewhere, all the time. If you can't find it, wait a few months and some grower or another will have it again.

-Popular for a year or few years, then disappear. Many have never been seen before, then suddenly all vendors seem to have it, and after a few years it's impossible to find again. I think they're all shopping from the same sources and they buy what's currently being mass produced over in Asia.

Because the second scenario is very common, if I have a favorite that I know I can't live without, I buy a second one. I don't do this often though, I think I only have 3 duplicated plants.