Hello from Honolulu!

[Pattywack]

Wow it must be nice living on "The Orchid Isle" not so lucky here in Maryland.

[FrFrancis]

You sound like you are already hooked. And there are so many great nurseries in Hawaii, you are so lucky! Welcome to the forum.

[Lady Oscar]

Originally Posted by theloyalplum

YESSS. You can find pasteles here but not pastele stew! I need to learn how to make it... I might be going over sooner than expected for family things, but yay!

The two main guys are Kawamoto in Palolo Valley and H&R in Waimanalo. There's a few other nurseries that grow other plants all in Waimanalo so it might be worth a trip. You'd also be surprised with "garden center" orchids too like Koolau Farmers (the store happens to be near Champion Malasadas so... two birds with one stone?).

Also the Big Island is a short puddle jump away and there's quite a few growers there as well as coffee if you're looking for a weekend trip.

Definitely check out the local farmer's market though since smaller growers tend to make an appearance there and maybe if you're really interested in it, garage sales since a lot of orchids are grown as landscaping plants and you can get some nice sized ones for a good price. I may have done this just to look on vacation.... don't judge me.

I went to Kawamoto today! It was amazing - up in the wet forest down a narrow road, and so, so many lovely plants. I picked up a new Phal (the one with the reddish flowers in the front in the pic). They had a bunch of mounted orchids, too...someday I'd like to try that.

Thanks for all the recommendations!

[Lady Oscar]

Originally Posted by Pattywack

Wow it must be nice living on "The Orchid Isle" not so lucky here in Maryland.

Maryland may be less convenient for orchids, but I envy your supply of delicious crabs!

---------- Post added at 03:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:40 PM ----------

Originally Posted by KonaLady

Aloha from the Big Island and welcome! I recommend finding your local orchid society - I'm sure there must be more than one on Oahu. They are a great source of information--and plants. We have three here on the Big Island-Kona, Hilo, and Daifukuji. As mentioned above, there are a lot of orchid nurseries here on "The Orchid Isle," so if you ever head this way let us know. A few months ago I went to Honolulu and visited Kawamoto. I was blown away. There is so much to see it was overload!

It sounds like you have been bitten by the orchid bug, and living here allows you to really indulge yourself. Perfect weather year 'round and great resources...what could be better.

Just went to Kawamoto and was also blown away! Next time I'm on the Big Island I will definitely check out the nurseries there.

It looks like there's a Kaimuki orchid society...thanks for the recommendations!