Gold Country Orchids
 

Anyone ever order from them? I was looking for some small Cattleyas and decided to give them a try. With the colder weather coming, I wasn't certain if they hold orchids until the weather warms or if they send them out Fed-ex with a heating pack. The shipping costs look as though they could be using Fed-ex ($29--Hawaii is $30) but it does not say. Just curious.

My only experience with Alan Koch from GC is his visiting our society mtg and bringing well grown plants for sale,along with a very good lecture of course.

I have bought many plants from Gold Country, but all have been from shows or speaking appearances in our area, so I don't know about his shipping practices. Alan himself is very approachable, though, so if you have specific questions I'm sure he would answer gladly. His plants are always healthy and well-grown, in my experience.

I too have ordered from him a couple times; I don't remember if it was FedEx shipped or not, though I'm just a state away (and it seldom is cold long west of the Cascades), so overnight is often overkill.

Thanks for the replies. I was just curious about how he does it. Some vendors ship them even in the coldest weather and some hold them. He does send tracking information so at least I will know when to watch for them.

The orchids should be shipped this week! :)

This vendor, so far, seems to be a class act. He does hold the orchids when the weather is too cold/risky so I now know that I can order without any worries in the winter. He also will be using a heat pack and two day delivery (ships on Tuesday and arrives Thursday), with tracking. He answers email and seems very friendly. I will post pictures of the orchids when they arrive. :)

Alan is a great guy.

That is the impression I got from his email.

This is just great and I am really excited about this order. I have been looking for small, fragrant Cattleyas that bloom more than once a year (my favorite species is C. aclandiae). :)

Is the shipping really that high?

$29 is rather expensive for shipping but maybe he is including insurance. I almost ordered from Carmelas instead and it would have been $30 so I saved a dollar and am getting some orchids I like better. With this being winter, I am pretty happy that the order will be two-day shipping and include a heat pack. :)

yeah I get it!

Okay, so there was no heat pack but the orchids are all fine. Only one has bloomed previously but they were all bought as blooming-size so I will likely get to see blooms after the next set of pseudobulbs mature. All have many pseudobulbs and healthy roots. :)

What I bought:

1. Cattleya aclandiae Green Dragon x self
2. Cattleya Royal Walk 'Snowdrift'
3. Cattleya Petite Doll
4. Lc. Love Knot v. coerulea
5. Rth. Dal's Moon x C. Garrett Collins

Nice. Is the number sequence (1-5) in line with the photo
(top to bottom plant)?

The plants I bought from him were in excellent shape.

The first (top) is the royal walk, then the Rth. Dal's Moon x C. Garrett Collin, then the aclandiae, and at the bottom are the Love Knot and the Petite Doll.

---------- Post added at 10:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:41 PM ----------

What did you buy from him? He had so many nice ones that I really had trouble limiting myself.

I got a mixture - some time ago. I can't recall them right now. Just today I saw a small blue Cattleya hybrid that is growing again.

The plants look very nice.

The orchids are super healthy and many have new growths just starting. Even the medium, whatever type of bark he is using, is in good condition so I will not need to worry about moving these guys to lava rock until spring. He has the Cattleya aclandiae bare root in a net pot set in another pot so that I will not need to disturb it at all and can just set the entire thing in a plastic Vanda basket and surround it with some red lava rock. It is obvious that he knows his Cattleyas.

I would recommend Gold Country Orchids if anyone is looking for smaller, fragrant Cattleyas that bloom more than once a year. He has an impressive variety, great descriptions and, when I had a question, he did reply to it. He packs the orchids for shipping very well, too. Sure, his shipping is expensive but when I look at the orchids, I think it is worth it. I think there will definitely be a next time. :)

It had been a cold spell in NY. Hope that it get's here soon though.
I have been patient for over a month now!

If you haven't heard anything after the initial confirmation and paid with pay pal, you might want to write a friendly letter and make sure he got your order and payment. In my case, there was a problem with pay pal and as soon as I contacted him, he checked paypal and discovered that they had not forwarded the order with the payment. Good luck!