US sources for Pleione?

[gnathaniel]

Hi all, I really like the Pleiones I've seen and I'd like to try one or two of them in my space.

Can anyone recommend good sources for these in the United States? I haven't had much luck finding them for sale online... Thanks!

--Nat

[luckygrower]

I see them every now and again on Ebay

[gnathaniel]

Thanks, lucky! I've seen some up there every now and then, too, but nothing for the last month or so. Maybe it's the wrong time of year to ship them?

Also, most of the sellers seem to offer formosana exclusively, and while I'd love to grow one of those I'd also like to find a wider selection of species and hybrids if possible. I guess I'll keep looking; maybe someone with my local OS knows a good source, there are a lot of 'species nuts' in the group... Thanks again for your reply!

--Nat

[stefpix]

most off ebay are from China. seems hard to grow Pleiones in teh US. Winters are too cold, summers too hot, apartments too heated. Probably perfect for UK outdoor growing. I saw a site anyway I cant remember. They sold Pleiones but was expensive.

[Andrew]

According to Paul Cumbelton's Pleione site, Sean McMillen at Hana Farms sells them.

[gnathaniel]

Thanks everyone!

I think the area I live in has pretty good Pleione conditions. Winters get too cold to grow them outdoors year-round, but our summers are quite mild and even when it gets hot we experience fairly large diurnal temperature ranges.

I'll definitely contact Sean at Hana Farms to see what he has for sale. Interesting that these are relatively hard to find, maybe I should look into importing some from the UK...

--Nat

[Zdenglan]

Hi if you do, I reccommend contacting Mr. Ian Butterfield who's the national collection holder and has an amazing number of species and hybrids on offer. Ihave a few from him myself and they do great for me. Usual time for shipping is late winter when the bulbs are in their dormancy, so I guess you'd have to wait a little. Hope this helps.

[neb]

They can be grown in the US if you are willing to try some are easier than others. If you do decide to try to import from Great Brittan then it will be easier if you make a large order otherwise many sellers will not want to deal with the hassle of international shipping. BTW I would be willing to go in on the order as I am sure many other people would too.

[gnathaniel]

Yeah, Ian Butterfield is exactly who I was thinking about if I get around to importing some, he seems to really be the man for Pleiones... I'll probably check with Sean McMillen first, though, to save on import hassles.

Neb, where in upstate SC are you? If you're not too far from Asheville you should come out to some WNCOS meetings, it's a good society with lots of interesting people. We just had Glen Decker of Piping Rock Orchids speaking about Phrags and kovachii in particular. Great stories and a really nice guy! We usually meet at 2 PM on 2nd Sundays of each month, check out WNCOS for details. In any case, I'll post about it here if I start planning an importation of Pleiones.

--Nat