Andy's Open House
 

So I went to Andy's annual open house today, bought a few plants, overspent. The same old story. But what else happened was that most of the plants he had were unlabeled (with prices), and a number of them had "not for sale" written in bold red font. It turns out that some of them are for sale anyways, as I luckily ran into a regular that explained this to me, as he snatched the "not for sale" Stanhopea wardii that I was eyeing.

Most of the staff were friendly. But they were also busy. So to inquire about the price of something requires you flag one of them down, if you could find them (only one was wearing a company t-shirt), then get them to print out the label using a wireless handheld -- but the label is at the central office. Needless to say, you couldn't do this more than a couple times.

So now I have a list of orchids on my mind, half of them I know the names of, that I can't find anywhere. I'm mainly interested in fragrant orchids, so going just by what I smelled, the Stanhopea wardii smelled like alcoholic chocolate, the Pescataria coronaria had a fresh fruity smell, the Bulbophyllum micholitzii smelled like fresh scrisp Granny Smith apples or something, the Bulbophyllum grandifolium smells like a sugary milky drink. And that's just the ones I remember. Now I know most places name the micholitzii as a synonym of grandiflorum and say the grandiflorum smells foul, and therein lies the problem with collecting species. Once you find one, you can't just buy them anywhere. There's variation in the smell, and most places don't list the smell!

I digress. There is something I assume is Aerides houlletiana that has a somewhat powdery smell, and another unlabeled plant (both name and price) that looks like an Aeranthe or some sort that smells sweet. Then, there are of course the tons of plants that were not in flower at the time, or only smells at night.

Long story short, I came out a couple hundred dollars broker (and picked up some tropical blueberry plants, interestingly), but the new plants added to the ever-growing list would probably dwarf that. I did a cursory search for any of the plants listed and could not find a single source for them. A frustrating experience. :biggrin:

If I remember correctly, a lot of those "not for sale" plants are Andy's personal collection. His brother Harry used to have a lot of his there as well and may still.
Andy's is a fun place to go hang out for awhile. I have never been to the open house but have been there with a personal appointment and Andy personally gave me the tour. As most of the plants are hanging in very closely spaced rows, I describe it to people as "swimming" through orchids as you make your way between the rows.
Definitely one of my favorite orchid nurseries.

Actually, there are several reasons why Andy may have plants labeled Not for Sale. Some are his personal plants not to be parted with . Others he may be saving for propagation, others yet he may be just growing until they are large enough to divide. Or has a limited number, for which he's still working on determining the best culture. Especially in the last category, plants may move from the "not for sale" to "for sale for the right price" ... it is dynamic, and labels don't get switched out. So yes, some things are in the "ask Andy" category... can depend on how desperate he is for space. As for labeling, it's getting better but there are still plenty that don't have them... often there will be one or two on the rack that do and the others don't... and Andy and Katrin know exactly what they are. And for something specific you're looking for, they know where. (I find both amazing) If you could find everything in one go, you'd have to rob a bank... so it's OK to leave a "few" for next time. :biggrin: I have a standing joke with Andy that there is a vortex from my bank to his cash register, sucking vast numbers of dollars.

Some strategies for navigating Andy's Open Houses...
If you have that list, bring it with you... then if you can buttonhole someone fairly early in the process, you get get things found for you. Finding specific things on your own, when they could be anyplace on any of 3-4 different vertical levels, the highest only reachable with a "grabber", is impossible. Sunday mornings are the lightest crowds in my experience. Unlike shows where you have to be early to get "pick of the litter", the nursery is so vast that there are plenty of plants to choose from on any day.

Yep, the Stanhopea was his brother's, and it had the most intoxicating smell of anything there at the time. I know what you mean about "swimming" through the orchids. They managed to use the space very efficiently, to say the least.

I figured so. Also some of the "Not For Sale" ones have some suspicious looking spots, but I won't speculate.

I'm guessing the labels they print aren't inexpensive, so it's pointless to print all of them before the point of sale.

Wish I'd known Sunday mornings are light. I assumed that the weekends would have more people, so I risked rush hour traffic going there Friday. It's an 80-100 minute trip, not one I would make often. Since I know the names of some of the ones that caught my eye, I could just ask about them through email. The shipping cost is worth the 3-4 hour round trip and gas, in my opinion. But I do think that any orchid fan in SoCal should visit at least once. It was an interesting experience.

Unfortunately, Norman's place is nowhere near as interesting even though it's much closer.

Also, the sheer volume of plants makes wholesale printing of tags impossible... and those fancy tags don't stand up to weather long term (a couple of years and they get brittle... be forewarned, make your own tags too) so it would be a never-ending task. When there were shows you'd find a higher percentage of plants with them because there would be the ones they brought back. But since there haven't been any shows for so many months, those are mostly gone I'm sure. Those little "sticker" tags help when looking up plants (Before I hunkered down avoiding human contact, I usually helped out at Open Houses printing tags for plants that people had selected, but now just don't want to take the chance of being exposed even though it's outside. I'm not the only "old poop" who is being cautious among his usual helpers so I suspect some short-handedness too)

Well there will likely be another Open House at the beginning of December, so there will be another chance...

Even though I've never been to Andy's and SVO ------- pretty sure they're the equivalent of Disneyland ..... Disney on Orchids.

But also not surprisingly ----- OrchidBoard is also a form of Disney on Orchids too.

That's good to know! I passed by Andy's on Friday afternoon on my way home from work and that area was swamped with cars and people. Decided to pass on the open house!

No guarantee that Sunday morning will be light, but in the past that has been the lightest time. If it was still mobbed on Friday afternoon, clearly there's a lot of pent-up demand due to the lack of shows and other orchid events. People need their orchid fix!

Ecuagenera appears to have Stan. wardii. 30% off till tomorrrow 9/21. Let me know if you want to tack on with my order if you are in LA.