Smile Blooms 🌸 & Growth 🌿 Update ▶ from SADE

[SADE2020]

Originally Posted by realoldbeachbum

Love, love, love your orchids & space.

ROBB

Thank you!!!!!

---------- Post added at 12:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:03 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Roberta

Really nice!

You are my orchid idol Roberta! Thank you...

[Roberta]

Thanks! I am just a hopeless orchiholic...

[tmoney]

hey sade, your site is really nice but the orchids don’t hurt, of course!

so this is a serious question, but what are your goals as a grower? do you have plans to start selling orchids eventually, or is this purely an orchid addiction? i only ask because with our own orchid collection growing we are faced with the age old dilemma of when to stop....or better, how to manage.

and as always, i did see your braceana in the terrarium pics. thanks for putting that in there, but grrrrrrrr at the same time

keep up the great growing

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by tmoney

i only ask because with our own orchid collection growing we are faced with the age old dilemma of when to stop....or better, how to manage.

I know this is addressed to SADE... But jumping in with my ... I get asked the question quite frequently by people who aren't into orchids, as to whether I sell them. Seems that people have trouble understanding doing something as insane and expensive as orchid collecting just for love and the desire to learn... my answer is that "No, I don't sell them, just buy them... I would sooner sell my children . And there is always room for one more." How to manage? Reconfigure. There are so many ways to more efficiently use space. When running out of room to spread out, utilize vertical space... go up...

[SADE2020]

Hi Timoney

I'm identical to Roberta but with far fewer years buying I don't want to sell just buy, exchange/trade, and give away when I can since all I give to my friends are orchids....hahaha 😆

Maybe the difference is that I want to copy all projects and TestAB with everything, just because I run out of repotting plants. Don't take me wrong, I want to care for the plants but while I'm entertaining.

When to stop? Ummm I don't know...I guess my professional (work) duties and social life are the ones putting limits because time is a big issue.

btw
The site is for sharing here and there with friends, no commercial purpose whatsoever

[tmoney]

right on, i appreciate both you and roberta sharing your thoughts. its great you guys take the time to photograph properly and create the websites and all. nice to see good collections and obvious energy put into it all.

ive faced this weird life dilemma before with bonsai. and while i still grow trees, it’s sort of nice that my fever has tempered and i can more enjoy my trees. but yeah, the orchid fever is strong right now and it’s one of the moments where you sort of look around and go, what the hell have i gotten into now?

and @roberta, yes, our physical arrangement has changed a lot since we started collecting orchids. we have definitely added more shelving units of various descriptions! and more to come this ❄️

[Shadeflower]

Hey Tmoney,
fo what it's worth, I did crunch the numbers a bit.

I do this for every hobby I have as I have ended up with a lot of hobbies. The most sustainable hobbies long term are the hobbies that eventually pay for themselves.

So to start one needs fertilizers, ph measuring equipments and spray bottles.

Then one needs grow lights.

Depending what orchids one grows one needs to heat the orchids every year. The grow lights and the heating should be worked out to give a yearly cost of growing ones orchids.

Substrate is not too expensive but that needs to be replaced periodically.

So I think it makes sense to try to make some back eventually but the only good way of doing this is either producing ones own crosses or buying flasks and growing on seedlings.

Producing flasks is not an easy task and requires a lot of additional equipment.

For me it made sense to get some seedlings and try my luck.

Firstly to get some varieties that were hard to get otherwise or too expensive as fully grown plants

and secondly to make a little bit back.

It's been a bit hit and miss. Some seedlings I lost entirely thus increasing costs even further but others have made up for it.

Overall I am really glad I got seedlings even if lots were lost, the plus is that seedlings are not too expensive so if one loses them its not the end of the world and the good ones (if one has them) are well worth it.

My strongest seedlings were Cattleya Intermedia, bought 10, didn't lose a single one, like alan koch mentioned in his video I watched recently that one is bullet proof.

I can completely understand why people would not be interested, it is a matter of time vs money and seedlings can be a gamble.

I also expect it will take a minimum of 10 years to make what I have spent so far back again. Taht should also be taken into consideration but since I am growing them for myself anyway for me that is not a concern.

[tmoney]

howdy sf,

that is a very realist attitude, thank you for posting. at the risk of hijacking this thread, id just like to follow up and ask how you make some money off of seedlings. do breeders buy them back from you after you flower them? for full disclosure neither i now my girlffriend have any interst in trying to make money off of our plants ( tho we have discussed retirement plans of a mom and pop rose and houseplant store one day), but im curious how you get a return from seedlings.

we have bought a few brand new crosses from brreeders but only because the unknown of the flowers is like christmas! albeit a very long, long anticipated christmas

[Shadeflower]

I have heard of one individual who created his own strains and started selling to one of the european nurseries - I think that is for everyone to decide.
I have so far not sold much at all, all I have is plants I have placed in a "to sell" pile mainly till now.

I know far ore others have on here so I am not a good person to ask but I live in the UK and we don't have many nurseries here, in Germany I would expect it to be a lot harder to entice buyers to buy from you..
That might be a genuine concern for german sellers.
Here warm growing phalaenopsis' for example are very hard to find so I know I can sell them on Ebay any time.

But if you are not specialised in doing it like a shop then getting the right boxes and cheap postage rates can be real tricky as with any small scale business.

At one point I wanted to sell eggs but for the amount I produce the hassle is just not worth the effort. Ie it would take more time every week than the money I could make to make it worthwhile

[Mr.Fakename]

Originally Posted by Roberta

I know this is addressed to SADE... But jumping in with my ... I get asked the question quite frequently by people who aren't into orchids, as to whether I sell them. Seems that people have trouble understanding doing something as insane and expensive as orchid collecting just for love and the desire to learn... my answer is that "No, I don't sell them, just buy them... I would sooner sell my children . And there is always room for one more." How to manage? Reconfigure. There are so many ways to more efficiently use space. When running out of room to spread out, utilize vertical space... go up...

Out of curiosity, have you considered working with botanical gardens or even professional growers?

You have countless rarities most people have never heard about, I'm sure you could give/sell seeds/old backbulbs.
That's a cool way to fund your addiction