popow orchids

[tmoney]

POPOW-ORCHIDS - POPOW-ORCHIDS

man, i wrote up this in depth review and it had logged me out and i lost it! dang, ok, here is the summary...

plants look mostly good, but not as nice out of the box as some other nurseries. ours had some signs of dehydration and what i would consider some inconsistencies in growing at the nursery. roots are healthy on 2 of the 3 we got, the third hasn’t been repotted yet but i assume its healthy as well.

the svo black pearl is in a grade lower condition than the plant gotten from a large competitor, and popow charged us over twice as much. paid 20 euro at one vendor for our first and 50 thru popow for a plant that is slightly worse condition and the exact same size.

perhaps my biggest gripe is that there were no labels shipped with the plants. strange i think, and i am not fully trusting now that the black pearl is an actual one and that both phals are the same species given their difference in growth.

anyways, the plants are healthy enough, the site is good enough, they have a huge selection of some weird stuff, and they ship quickly and efficiently. what else could you ask for i suppose? besides shipping labels....

[Shadeflower]

this site loves logging you off. If you get the password right its ok but if you type in the wrong password your message is lost forever.

50 euros is way too much but it could be worse you could end up spending 175 euros at wichman for a walkeriana and realize you can get them eslewhere for 20 euros too

Cattleya walkeriana 'coerulea' | Orchideen-Wichmann.de - Hochste gartnerische Qualitat und Erfahrung seit 1897

[tmoney]

yeah, it is really weird about the prices on some orchids. when i started looking around for the first black pearl i saw that wichmann listing and was amazed, and confused. then when i found the one for 20 I had to triple check thinking it may not be an actual one, or perhaps the flowers are of lower quality/less black, i dunno. looking for some reason as to why the price disparity. perhaps wichmann only carried them awhile ago, and only had a couple or something but then haven’t updated the online listing in awhile? that was the only thing i could think....

[nhbeek]

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

this site loves logging you off. If you get the password right its ok but if you type in the wrong password your message is lost forever.

50 euros is way too much but it could be worse you could end up spending 175 euros at wichman for a walkeriana and realize you can get them eslewhere for 20 euros too

Cattleya walkeriana 'coerulea' | Orchideen-Wichmann.de - Hochste gartnerische Qualitat und Erfahrung seit 1897

That one has good form at least, but what the heck is going on with the name?

[Shadeflower]

Originally Posted by tmoney

yeah, it is really weird about the prices on some orchids. when i started looking around for the first black pearl i saw that wichmann listing and was amazed, and confused.

ha, I hadn't even noticed that they were selling a black pearl for even more.

Glad you found one from schwerter. I like the darks but that one is too gothic looking.

Their new Cattleya range is amazing, it's such a shame they charge like 150 euros to send to the UK now.

[camille1585]

At first I was going to say that I find your evaluation of them odd, but then again I haven't ordered from there in years, and I was usually buying only from ebay since you can see the specific plant for sale. I don't recall if the plants had labels or not.

Based on your photos though I wouldn't doubt that both Phals are the same species, as Phal deliciosa seems to develop the characteristic wavy leaves on older plants, while younger/seedlings not always being like that. My little bitty plant for instance has very round and smooth edged leaves.

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

this site loves logging you off. If you get the password right its ok but if you type in the wrong password your message is lost forever.

If you tick 'remember me' under the login box then you won't be logged out anymore, and no more timing out when writing messages. Though if you have your browser set to clear cookies when you close it, ticking the box won't help you much.

[tmoney]

hey camille, yeah, i probably was a bit too harsh and hasty with my remarks. i know better than to post reviews before such a short time. these plants will most likely all be fine and dandy, and if anything befalls them will be our own fault!

really, i should have summarized the whole thing even further to say, “the plants look great, but just something on first seeing them i personally felt they were in not as good of shape as other vendors.”

really though, one of the buds on the spiked one has pushed and looks like it might actually mature, fingers crossed we didn’t lose all the little buds! so yeah, the plants are fine or more correctly quite good. it also doesn’t help that the one other direct plant comparison i have to make between popow and any other is up against a plant that came to me in perfect - literally perfect- condition. so, the competition was stiff. and i also believe this clouds my observation of these 2 deliciosas. i really have no basis to even question that they are different plants, only simple looks which i know aren’t enough. (edit to add: and no id tags, which i still feel is strange)

but, if you coulda seen the two phals when we first unwrapped them the two plants looked quite different. maybe part of it was that one is blooming? i dunno.

[camille1585]

I wasn't questioning your evaluation at all!! It wouldn't be the first time that quality changes somewhat over the years, and I thought your assessment was fair.

[Shadeflower]

In time one learns more of the signs to look for too. Some might even look good when they first arrive but then over the next 3 months is the real test to see if they grow well, produce new roots or if they stagnate a bit. If one has grown a variety before one knows exactly how the roots, leaves etc should look like but when one gets a new variety this can all be new. The signs to look for on a dendrobium are, apart from the basics, usually quite different to a phal because dendrobium are such seasonal growers and drop leaves. I have a chytroglossa that is only producing terminal spikes, I think due to too high winter heat but I have no clue if it is struggling or not. In time I will learn what this plant needs too. Maybe I should make a seperate post about that as I do want to find out if anyone grows a chytroglossa aurata and whether it needs a cool winter rest.

I got two phal dragon Tree eagle's last year. One came sent from Taiwan, the other from Schwerter. Both looked great when I first got them but the one from Schwerter adapted faster. The other one ended up losing a leaf and now looks behind.

[SADE2020]

Hi,
Sorry Tmoney, I am going to hack this thread cu just got 3 plants from Popow and I am under the impression that they have been repotting before shipping...

What do you 🤔 think??