question about Ecuagenera and ordering from other country.
 

I have heard a lot of story about Ecuagenera's plant where you'll have to deal with year of rehabilitating.
Atleast for their rare plants, but dont know much about their orchid shipping services. Have anyone here ordered from them and how rough or easy it was for you to get your orchid back on track?

---------- Post added at 09:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:39 PM ----------

actually I have just read the past threads about them, it seems like they are either a blessing to my wallet or a ticking time bomb.
I'm still curious, because they are the only vendor that seem to have what I wanted.

If the orchid is deciduous, since they're in the southern hemisphere, there's a seasonal mismatch. For example, if you get Catasetums in the spring or summer where it's sprouting new growths here, over there it's going into dormancy. Then it might take a while for the plant to adapt.

Another case is if the root system is nearly dead, which sometimes happens.

But most of the time, you're going to get a decent sized plant that's probably bigger than what most domestic vendors would give you for the price, and as long as your culture is good, there should be no problem.

Unless you want to pay exorbitant shipping, they usually ship when they have shows. They'll ship your order along with their show plants to their processing facility in Florida, and then ship your order from there, so you don't have to pay for CITES or the phytosanitary certificate.

If you're avoidant of viruses at all (and I think most people aren't), I would avoid the "commonly" collected plants that are probably mechanically propagated e.g. Den. nobile, Onc. sotoanum, Epi. hugomedinae, Cyc. peruvianum (or any exotic Cyc/Morm for that matter). Basically, if there is particular demand for something stateside, I would avoid buying it from Ecuagenera, but that might be just me.

Just a note with regard to seasons... Ecuador is squarely on the equator...one can stand with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern. So seasonality is not really a problem with Ecuagenera plants. It can be an issue for those from farther south such as Peru or southern Brazil.

Also since Ecuagenera has a US nursery and an an an ongoing presence they do ship more often... They say twice a month. Then plants are shipped from the Florida nursery.

I like Ecuagenera and but a lot of plants from them because they have a fabulous list to choose from.
If you are concerned about shipment from South America as bare root, call Dayaneth at their Apopka, FL facility and see what she has there available that has been potted.

The trick to bare root is to give them a good 24 hour minimum soak before you pot them.

Are you sure Ecuagenera grows all the plants they sell? I get the sense they import a lot from further south. They sell a lot of cool and cold growers which I can't imagine doing well in Ecuador.

Ecuagenera has an intermediate growing area and a second, high-elevation growing area.

They ship US orders to Florida or the EU with all the paperwork. Individual orders are repacked and sent inside the political entity so the customer doesn't need to deal with that.

Most of the plants I've bought from them are in good shape on arrival. Very small plants are of course at greater risk.

I had my "Aha" moment when I was visiting Ecuador and saw a bunch of happy blooming standard Cymbidiums in Gualaceo. At 8000-9000 ft. it gets cool! That is when I gained the insight that' helped me learn what can grow in my back yard.

Sounds like a pilgrimage that I need to make :)

Absolutely. Best orchid trip ever.

I ordered a Dendrobium Spectabile from their US location. I got a fairly good sized specimen (it also had a small seedling in the pot), but it looked terrible. It had black spots all over the leaves and some of the canes. I thought for sure it was diseased. I tested it and it came back virus free.

It has grown well, but I still haven’t had any luck getting it to bloom even though it is blooming size.

I just decided to pull the trigger on some of their Black Friday sales and purchased some aroids and Anthuriums from their Ecuador location. The prices from their Florida location were markedly higher, but from what I’ve read don’t usually need much in the way of rehabbing. The specimens that come from Ecuador usually need much more, but I decided to take a gamble because the prices were 1/3 of the US location.