I just returned yesterday from a 2 week vacation in Hawaii. While there I had the opportunity to visit and leave money at two orchid greenhouses one of which was
Welcome to Carmela Orchids. It is located on the Hilo side of the Big Island of Hawaii, and looks like a family business. There are probably about 8 very large greenhouses and they are in the process of building another. It doesn't really have a storefront. You just go into the work room and ask if you can look around and pick out plants to ship home. When we arrived they were in the middle of deflasking seedlings and setting them in seedling trays. We wandered around for at least an hour in the suffocating heat. It had to be 90+ and about the same humidity. There were lots of very young plants, very few mature blooming size that I could see. I found two I had to have. C. Summer Spot 'Carmela', and Brassia Eternal Wind 'Summer's Dream'. Summer Spot was small (2.5" pot) and only $7, while the Eternal Wind was large (5" pot) and a mere $10. I took them back up to the work room and they wrote up my order. Shipping by FedEx to the west coast was only $15. When I called my son the next week to see if they had arrived he said they had and the packing was phenomenal.
My only criticisim would be that as I was walking around looking at plants there appeared to be quite a few that had gone a long time without water. The Pbulbs were wrinkled and as flat as a pancake. My mom also saw a rather large pile of throw aways. Since I hand picked my plants I got very healthy ones with lots of new growth and fat Pbulbs. I've not ordered from them online, but they have some very nice hybrids which makes it very tempting since their prices are so good.
Given the amount of care that went into the packing I feel certain they would pick out healthy plants to ship and not send the dregs of the greenhouse. They told me they had been doing this longer than anyone else in the state.
I would say for the price I would try ordering from them. I don't think you'd be disappointed.
Carmela Orchids
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