Greetings & Salutations and... a few thoughts :-)

[unsardonic]

...or, as they say in the Wilds of Wisconsin, "Gruntings & Salivations." There are various postings on this board stating new visitors should introduce themselves so, apparently, here I am or, so it would seem

I've been a member of the AOS since 1977 - a good accomplishment for someone who's only 21.... I mean: "21." Also a member of the American Begonia Society & the Int'l. Aroid Society.

...sort of a fetish for exotic wierdos (which inevitable leads one to S.E. Asian horticulture) - i do very well with Amorphophallus and have somehow managed to fill the walkway behind my apartment building with Giant Sauromatum... quite nice in the summer... well... with a gas mask, I mean...

I no longer have my own house/greenhouse (like I used to) - living in an apartment building in West Hollywood, California. However, in honestly assessing the State of my Character, I came to the conclusion that, no matter what, I can't feel at home if I'm not growing orchids in it, so... many pebble trays, HID Sun lamps & a big, fat Kenmore humidifier later... well... there's maybe 100 orchids doing their damnedest in my South-facing picture window.

It's everything, really... mixed Catts, Phals & Bulbos from Norman's Orchids (agree with those who spoke well of them), very good quality Catts from Carter & Holmes (another excellent company - but Catt specialist) and, well, I'm happily acquainted with Fred Clarke and I was thrilled to adopt a bunch of his various Catasetinae, including a magNIficent Fdk. After Dark "Sunset Valley Orchids" FCC/AOS & the awe-inspiring Cyc. cooperi... man, what a fabulous creature! He's also recently sent me some divisions of his personal stock - CCE & CCM awarded Bulbos that are exceptional - much finer than standard individuals of the same breeds (B. medusae! ...speaking of S.E. Asian wierdos).

What started my current collection was gifts from well-meaning friends - or, rather, abandonments from residents moving out... we live between 2 Trader Joe's so, I ended up with a bunch from them and, that IS why I joined this Board: it's ID issues so, maybe I'll take the rest of this chat off to that forum, eh?

But I DO wanna say this: I've found a fair variety of disparagement around this Board of Trader Joe's & other retailers selling of cheap, mass orchids and, well, it's generally well-placed however, they do as well as can be expected for the marketplace they are serving:

The main characteristic of our current culture, especially here on the West Coast is Instant-Gratification-RULES! Oh! La-la-landers dispute that? Check your mirror, eh? So, I will CONstantly see celebrity-so-n-so's gopher in Trader Joe's, picking up an entire shopping cart of nothing but White Phals and another of Blush Phals - dozens at a time. When that crop drops its blooms, whaddaya think will happen? ...pitch 'em & fill up a few more shopping carts, eh?

So they contract with Matsui for Phals & Odont Alliance, which is the world's single-largest grower of orchids, and they do it by the multi-million under many acres of glass and they fill all the retailers of the West Coast. The general public may not know how to continue growing these plants over time but, Matsui sure does. They know how to get them to that non-orchid-growing public in good shape (when they leave the greenhouse) & in a state wherein they can last a maximum amount of time in a very hostile environment with care verging on total neglect. That's why all the sphagnum: it's designed to keep neglected plants reasonably moist & acidified when their new environment would have them dead of drought within the week. It'll actually make it easier for the end grower in that, you don't need to water these new plants as often - i just let the plants dry out before rewatering and, BTW, some of those critters (from T.J.'s) are NOT Odont Alliance: I've gotten bog plants like Bolopetalums & Zelglossoda that were planted in SOLID sphagnum - staying soggy around the clock & they LOVE it... doing well.

The only plants I regular buy from Trader Joe's are the mini-Catts they have, maybe, once every other month. This is on the order of a "rescue mission," as those Catts have, essentially no hope of survival after a week or two and, as opposed to the Phals, their blooms don't live long, especially after a good shock or two so, I adopt 'em & they tend to do well. They're in a solid sphag ball, which I just ignore (Catts do prefer being ignored, doncha know? ...less pampering ...happier Catt). About once a week, I stick all the sphag-bound Catts in the shower for half an hour, feed 'em MSU tap-water fertilizer (as "Feed Me" from "Repotme.com," probably the BEST support website you can EVER hope to find - Oh Man!! If you don't know this company, RUN! GO!! "Repotme.com... I mean, if you want to know how to do something, they provide the BEST tutorial videos, for FREE! all over their site). Once they get fully pot-bound, I'll pot up into Repotme.com's seedling mix... that's their transition out of the sphagnum.

Anyway... I'll visit some other forum for detailed discussions

[Leafmite]

Hello and welcome! Sounds as if you really enjoy growing a variety of things.

[terracotta7]

Welcome to the OB. Hope to hear from you many times in the future!

Sounds like you have a lot of experience and I for one will be happy to share it! Thanks in advance...

[cbuchman]

Welcome! I really hope to learn lots from you and that you will post pictures and culture information on what has worked for you! Looking forward to learning from your experiences, and hope that I can offer you something in returns too

[WhiteRabbit]

I get orchids at Trader Joe's! I'm in the SF Bay Area... They go thru periods of having a nice variety with tags (other than Phals), to periods of not much variety and never tagged . Guess it depends on the current supplier. I like snatching up the rare mini-catts as well I have a (now) massive Onc. Sharry Baby I got three years ago in a 4" pot from TJ's

Glad you are joining us!

[RosieC]

Welcome to Orchid Board

[unsardonic]

Well wow :-)

I've been gone a few days working & no time to drop in here but, I just found 2.74 minutes to think about something besides reacting to the latest crises Life has imposed upon my (August) self and so... checked in to OB.

First, I was amazed by how many charming folks chimed in to say, "Hi!" all at once; I bet you're all the sort of crazy folks who would, oh... (I dunno... maybe)... grow ORCHIDS in their own HOUSES?!? So I thought I'd drop in and say, umm... 'How nice of you all' :-)

Sorry for a moment's ineptitude but, there was a decent list of folks chiming in & saying 'Hi,' and I couldn't figure out how to reply to any given person individually; there was only one "Reply" button at the bottom of the page so, for all I know, you'll ALL receive this reply from me, no idea...

Sonya White Rabbit - :-) - mentioned picking up Trader Joe's orchids and so, if you guys have never encountered it, well, a very useful - if limited - resource is Matsui's own website. This is "matsuinersery.net"

I had been corresponding with Dr. Yin-Tung Wang, who was the R & D Director for Matsui (at that time), who was very approachable and was my source of information about the massive factory-scale methodologies that Matsui utilizes (I had met him through my AOS membership and he had been doing the most astoundingly knowledgeable advice column for their monthly Journal - I swear, this man knows EVERYthing about orchids). We had been discussing the minutiae that Corporate Buyers are motivated by - people like the 1 or 2 individuals who purchase ALL the plants that go into every Trader Joe's in America, every day of every year.

This was a worthwhile discussion for me as I had once been a buyer for Best Buy (Classical & World Music), both, in Colorado and, here, in California and, we were talking about why, for one example, Matsui puts no labels on the Phalaenopsis they ship to Trader Joe's by the multiple truckloads every day. He pointed out that the FRACTION of One Cent Per Plant that would add to the price of each plant would, over the course of the contract, add up to such a substantial amount of money, that they could easily lose that bid to some other gigantic orchid greenhouse so... no labels. It's surprisingly big business in these beautiful orchids we are happy to be obsessed with.

I had a variety of pointed criticisms of their practices (and am also quite happy to sing their praises because, after all, they provide stable employment to a great many people - one, and two - look how many people have become intrigued by orchid-growing that might not otherwise have even been exposed to this) and, he had gone to the trouble to have this website set up.

Matsui apparently had a massive effort at setting the website up and, as far as I can tell, there has been no follow up to complete it since - several years ago. The company is, after all, a wholesaler so, they're not really focused on any given individual's concerns... Their website provides, first, "Type" photos for each category of orchid they grow; there's Phalaenopsis, Dendrobiums, Masevallias (if you can imagine that being grown on a massive factory scale, eh?), among many others. What happens when you click on a given "Type," the site directs you to a page of the individuals withIN that type that they grow... again, only an unannotated photo of each one. At least, they do give you a photo - your guess as to what it is...

The exception is the Odont Alliance. Here it looks like they achieved what the original intent was for the entire site but, never got around to finishing. First, there's several macro photos of a bunch of Oncids, etc - WITH full identifications BUT... there is a hotlink to a more detailed page and... here's the payoff: there are precisely detailed photos of many dozens of Odont Alliance flowers - full ID, growth characteristics (such as length of spike & likelihood of branching or multi-spiking) and, it's even "mug-shot" detailed - showing each individual flower up against a ruled grid. It isn't complete but, it's so precisely detailed that, often, if I've got a mystery Oncidium or Miltonia, I go to Matsui's Odont page first for ID purposes. I've managed to un-NOID a buncha NOIDs through this website :-)

One thing that Trader Joe's does [U]not[U] get from Matsui are the mini-Catts; you won't find them on the Matsui website. I've tried to find out who that provider is but, TJ's buyers are very closed-lip about this... won't say. Mercifully, almost all mini-Catts from them are nicely labeled. I was trying to find that grower to see if I could ID the others on some nice website but... no luck

Y'know... I ought to get around to posting some photos... just to show what can be achieved in 6 feet of concrete walkway but... I'm VERY overworked so, it might take awhile, bear with me, eh?

[Stray59]

Welcome to the Board unsardonic;
Obvious you are not new to orc's so I am sure you will find the board helpful and welcoming as I have.
Thanks for the info on Matsui and Trader Joe's. I knew that the NoID is a marketing issue to be competitive in a very cut-throat sales force. What a shame...I would pay TJ's .50 more per plant if they would get ID'ed plants in.
Again, welcome and Happy Holidays! And your right about the Matsui website - it's shame they don't ID all of the plants, but the Oncidium catagory gave me a possible lead on two Oncindiums I bought about 2 years ago - so "special thanks" on that one.
Steve

[bballr4567]

Welcome!

My former boss at Lowe's still has my number and he knows to call me when he gets tagged orchids in. The majority are the super common stuff but Ive missed out on a few that I wanted because they usually come one to a shipment.

[cbuchman]

Thank you for the great info about TJs! I've gotten a number of NOIDs from there that are now coming into bloom. I'm going to try to ID them from the web site. Woo hoo.