How I Would Find the Perfect Orchid to Buy
So lets say you want to buy the perfect Orchid for yourself or a loved one. Here are six ways I would recommend you can find that perfect Orchid.
- Excellent. Go to an Orchid Show display booths and selling booths and compare.
Wait for the next big Orchid show. For example, every year in San Francisco Pacific Orchid Exposition (POE) happens. I would go to the show, look around the displays and note prolific or beautiful Orchids in the displays. Here you will see Orchids growing and flowering at their best. Go to the sellers booths or tables who set up the displays and see what their plants for sale look like. If they look well grown and taken care of, go ahead and purchase. - Excellent. Go to an Orchid Show selling booths.
Same as number one, but just go through selling booths. If an Orchid looks great in terms of growing and flowering at a small size, you know it will look at least that good as it increases in size over the years. pay close attention to the general look and feel of plants by each grower. Some growers have plants with weak roots or leaves. Some have waxed the leaves. Some have exposed their plants to cold on the way into the show. Look for this by finding yellowing buds. - Very good. Niche stores.
Go to a high quality store or flower nursery. Don’t just buy the one Orchid that looks the best. First, take careful note how all their Orchids look. Do you see bud blast? Do you see many withering flowers from care problems? Are the roots drying out? What you want to ensure is that you can tell they have been taking care of all of their Orchids well in house. The reason here is that Orchids can be slow to react. You may have an Orchid that looks great the day you buy it and one week later reacts to bad care conditions that happened to it before you bought it, such as sunburn on leaves, bud blast or withering flowers. - Ok to great depending on what you find. Grocery stores, department stores, etc.
If you go to any grocery store, Home Depot, Trader Joes, Target, Walmart or other larger store, pay careful attention to how their Orchids look. Do they look good overall? Are they at the beginning or end of their blooming? How do the roots look? Although you can get a good deal here, make sure you get a good quality plant so you do not need to spend months or years bringing a plant back to health. - The best. Orchid growers.
Orchid growers. If you go to the store at an Orchid Nursery, this can be great. Look up local orchid nurseries. They will probably have some great plants to choose from for sale. This is because their staff are used to caring for Orchids. They probably took Orchids directly out of greenhouses and put them in the sales room. That means no care or condition issues. In addition, there is a good chance people working in the sales area have a lot of Orchids and love them. That way they can give you tips and you know you are getting a good plant. - Pretty good. Orchid Enthusiasts.
Some Orchid enthusiasts or members or Orchid Societies will sell their plants. You’ll find many care tips and such here. But, be careful. Since Orchids can have Orchid virus. The longer someone has cared at home for the Orchid, the more chance they could have cut the leaves of an orchid with virus without sterilizing and transmitted the virus to another plant.