What are your favorite USA orchid nurseries in 2022?

[PuiPuiMolcar]

Many Californian and nearby states in this thread lol

I have bought of my orchids from Andy's, SVO, and ecuagenera.

But most of my collection are from orchid events like South coast plaza mall, orchid at the zoo, society.
There are strange places that sell orchids like the California Carnivorous plant society and literally the local Asian grocers that sometime drop random rare orchids right next to the cashier booths like Den Amabile, Rossioglossum grande, and Phaph delanatii.

Andy's is trust worthy, but half of his collection find them hard to keep up with for the newer orchid growers. He collect species after all.

I find SVO to be the most middle ground and most affordable for everyone.

Ecuagenera-CA is new here in the state, just barely this summer. I'll be honest their plants might need a longer time in cultivation to adapt to the Californian climate. But If you have a good set up, their orchids will survive. They offer their orchid at a very cheap price.

[Jeff214]

Originally Posted by PuiPuiMolcar

Ecuagenera-CA is new here in the state, just barely this summer. I'll be honest their plants might need a longer time in cultivation to adapt to the Californian climate. But If you have a good set up, their orchids will survive. They offer their orchid at a very cheap price.

Oh! They opened in North County San Diego! I had no idea. Thats great since their plants definitively look sad after the trek from SA to FL to CA… I may go take a peek after the new year.

I like SVO, Hausermann, Brookside, and Waldor. I think the individual growers like Peter L, Ruben C, and Ben O have great plants too

[Dusty Ol' Man]

I just checked out the Ecuagenera Ca website. None of the links embedded work. I guess they just need time to work out the bugs.

[Roberta]

I also think that their main focus will be Aroids and other non-orchids at the CA nursery, at least for a start. That's been their emphasis at shows lately - which is disappointing. But I guess that's what sells, at the moment.

[Keysguy]

We had Equaflor-A as a vendor for several New Hampshire shows but they advised me recently they have abandoned orchids all together in favor of the aroids so I hope Ecuagenera doesn't go down that path.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Keysguy

We had Equaflor-A as a vendor for several New Hampshire shows but they advised me recently they have abandoned orchids all together in favor of the aroids so I hope Ecuagenera doesn't go down that path.

At the last show where I saw Ecuagenera (end of September, southern California at the Santa Ana Zoo) they had maybe 75-80% aroids and other tropical plants. and 20-25% orchids. Last year at the same show they had hardly any orchids at all, so this one was better from an orchid point of view, but the small and unusual plants weren't there. Their emphasis is definitely aroids. For which they were charging some very fancy prices, which people were willingly paying. So they're making a lot more money on the tropical plants than on orchids.

[Jeff214]

That's a shame with Ecuagenera. I hope that they pity us orchid folk and continue to sell non-aroids.

I'll add Andy's to the list too. Finally got to their open house, despite living 15 min away... It was a fantastic experience to visit and all the people there were extremely helpful. Plants, of course, were great.

[Roberta]

Andy's for sure...certainly was on my list (page 1). For those fortunate enough to be in driving range of Andy's, you need to spend some time there and see what grows where. Almost like visiting places where orchids grow natively... and for us locals, a whole lot easier than traveling to distant lands.

I wonder if this shift to aroids and similar tropicals will persist or fade... What happens when people discover that keeping them alive is not all that easy... And if successful they get big? Will people stay as passionate about their tropical house plants as orchid people are about their orchids?

[PuiPuiMolcar]

Originally Posted by Dusty Ol' Man

I just checked out the Ecuagenera Ca website. None of the links embedded work. I guess they just need time to work out the bugs.

They do sell Orchids if you go directly to their nursery. I was there during the blackfriday sale, most of which I saw were cattleya, paph, bulbophyllum and some dendrobium species.
I dont think they'll be focusing on orchids, as the table for orchids made up only 1/4 of spaces among the aroids.
They probably will not update the rest of the orchids catalog until next year since not even half of their aroids are on the website yet.

[stonedragonfarms]

From a ROI perspective, Aroids likely make more sense--there's not the considerable grow-out time as with orchids & the market is considerably larger. The thing that I still can not figure out with Ecuagenera, especially since they have opened the Florida location [and now the California one], is why their entire collection is not made 'available' on those sites--ie simply list items on hand as available for immediate order, and key everything else to the following months delivery...