Orchids growing like weeds

[angelsamongus]

I assume I should be splitting/repotting these but should I keep the roots outside the bark medium or cut them. I think I heard them being called air roots.

I pick up orchids that are past peak at my local Home Depot for a couple bucks and enjoy getting them to bloom again.

PS. Just did some renovations and I really need to dust my little guys off.

[bomerman]

From what I see I think it's to early to repot them... Orchids like small pots... You should wait for new growth or till the pot is overcrowded... And with the roots it's fine to cover them with medium... Well Good Luck and keep on growing..

[prisana]

Hi Angelsamongus, welcome to the forum. I have a question for you, who do you talk to at Home Depot the sold off past-peak orchids to you? I've been talking to whomever would listen, but they all say the vendors pick them up . I live in South Fl, I'm sure they have different policy everywhere. Everytime I go to Home Depot and see all these sad looking orchids, it just breaks my heart how they're not taken care of. But my pocket book speaks another language, so unless they are dirt-cheap, I wouldn't be able to afford them all. Addiction has taken on the whole new meaning in my case. Prisana

[mayres]

Prisana - I am constantly amazed at these stories I hear about people picking up clearance orchids at places like Home Depot and Lowes for $1 and $2 and nursing them back to health. All the big box stores (those mentioned and others) in my area start out with plants in the $25-30 range, water and abuse them until they are nearly dead over the 3-4 week period that they have them in the store and then put them on what they call clearance at $12.50-15.00 and wonder why someone doesn't purchase them when they look so horrible - usually with one or two shriveled leaves left - sheesh. Whether they get picked up by the vendor or tossed is beyond me, but they never go for those rock bottom prices that we keep reading about. It is sad to see plants abused so. On a rare occasion I will find a half-descent plant for $5-7.00 clearance that is worth salvaging - a definate challenge to find. mike

[prisana]

Thanks Mike, it did sound a bit too good to be true, at least here in Fl . What I've just started doing is sharing with my neighbors, divisions of orchids that are big enough to be divided, it helps a bit, but the process is too slow. I will keep looking , though , hopefully somewhere out there there's an orchid god that will take pity on me (and the orchids).

[atcrosby]

I Have learned it never hurts to ask. I simply look for the manager and talk to them about the plant I am interested in. Often they'll let me take it and reduce the price down to $5.

If you don't ask, they definitely won't tell you they can do that. Also, the sales clerk usually is not the person to talk to unless you're asking them for the manager.

[angelsamongus]

Prisana - At my Home Depot in Northern Virginia they will put all the less past flower plants in a separate sectiion and spray paint a color dot on the pot denoting clearance price. Yellow seems to be the 1-2 dollar dot.

I have found the orchids in this section are just past peak flower and a little dry. Occasionally just a stem broken and one or two left still flowering.

There does not seem to be a schedule when they put these out so I just try to hit them as often as I can.

There also does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to what gets what price. Some with broken stem are 2 bucks and some yellow obvious dead ones are ten. Guess it is just a whim...

In my experience the dry ones come right back where the root rotted ones do not.

[nertel]

Hi! I also live in south Florida and have spoken to the grower that delivers the orchids to Home Depot here. I asked him about the orchids he was delivering and the ones that were being picked up. He told me that these are the only stores where they deliver those types of orchids that are not prepackaged and they never reduce them. They simply take them back and rebloom them and bring them back to the store in bloom. They switch out their orchids almost every week so they should always look their best.
I do know that Lowes in south Florida does sometimes clearance theirs if they are expecting a hurricane or freeze warnings to save what they can!
Hope this helps- I don't know what they do in other areas!

[prisana]

Thank you all..for the tips. I will talk to a manager this time.. if I can find one. I was once at Lows in my area and stumbled upon a half-dead Dancing Lady, with a price tag of 29.00 , I asked the guy there if I could talk to someone to get it reduced, he plainly said ..Oh, we don't do that, and walks off. Needless to say, that was the last time I visited Lows. The cold front is hitting FL, maybe I should drive up to Home Depot real quick.. thanks guys.

[jerrymeola]

I have commented before about whether selling bad plants like this is a disservice to the industry.

I am surprised that you think an overpriced plant at $25-30 is a bargain at $15 when it is half dead.

For those in South Florida you can buy Dendrobium, Phalaenopsis and many Oncidium for $15 for a young healthy plant in bloom. I was selling flowering size Dendrobium at the Mount Dora Garden show two weeks ago for 3 plants / $10. Why buy a sick plant? Go the garden shows and the Orchid Society shows and you will see many reasonably priced plants.

When you overly dry a plant (and that is what is happening here), the plant is greatly stressed and begins to hibernate. It can be 6 months to a year before the plant recovers enough to grow and bloom. I once bought a Blc Golden Tang from Home Depot in the little bags because it looked healthy and I wished to test the quality. In three years, it never flowered and my personal Golden Tang has bloomed three times a year for the last four years. So is any price a bargain for a non-flowering plant, and this is a plant that looked good.

The growers who sell Home Depot know that they will be charged back for the unsold plants and charge extra to Home Depot, who then doubles or triples the price. The game is to try to charge enough extra to more than pay for the ones they send to the dumpster. For example 10 $10 plants for which they do not get paid for 3 is $70. But the normal wholesale would have been $50 so the grower is ahead $20 even throwing away 3 plants. Now to sell the out of bloom plants at a discount cuts into sales of the full price plants and actually costs them more then destroying the plant.

Unfortunately the reality of American business.

[prisana]

That's sad, I've looked at one of the vendor's website, mass-producing means dumping out orchids that have bloomed for the season. It costs them more to rebloom them than to toss them out!! That should be a sin..If only I could get my paws on some of those plants..for me even if they don't bloom again, they are still beautiful .

[snowballsarebad]

The Lowe's in my area often has discount orchids...usually phals. Their clearances used to be great...I got a VERY healthy phal for $3 three to four months ago, and it is already in bud again. I consider myself very lucky! Lately though, I've been fairly disappointed as they put the orchids on clearance...they've only been marking them down to half price ($7-$10), and they haven't been half as healthy as they were this summer. So I haven't bought any more.
I guess you just get lucky once in a while! I for one though, won't be placing too much more hope on Lowe's or Home Depot. Around here, the variety in the orchids they sell is quite miniscule, and there's rarely plants that catch my eye. I'm waiting for the orchid show in April at Meijer Gardens so I can add to my collection...I hope I can find a neofinetia falcata and a maxillaria tenuifolia!
Good luck hunting everybody!

[Willc73]

I agree with Jerry. If you meet some growers and make friends, you will have more plants than you can handle. I made friends a few years ago with a good Phal breeder and now of my 250 phals, I haven't paid for a single one.
Also, be careful of the mass breeders/sellers. They are not usually selling quality plants. They will be hard to rebloom and bloom with only one or two spikes. My approach was to pick one species that grows well in my conditions and stick with it. It has been rewarding and easier than growing 6 different species like I did 10 years ago.

[Aniko]

Up here in Connecticut I'm afraid it's a bit different, you have to drive hours to find a grower or to see an orchid show - and their prices... I wish I could buy from you Jerry!
But of course you can choose from a greater selection of species than at the limited number at a box store...Anyway I would never buy a sick plant.
Aniko.

[peetree89]

I live near london, in the UK, and work for a big supermarket chain called sainsburys. They seem to take very good care of the plants they sell because everytime i look at the orchids on display (all phals unfortunately, i'd like a different one!!), they are moist but not rotted, with up to 3 flower spikes, healthy leaves and plentiful flowers. These orchids are out of my price range unfortunately, and they don't reduce many of them at all, but i was lucky enough to get a gorgeous mini phal for 99p (about $1.50) It has the healthiest roots i have ever seen(even though it was a little dry and needed a good soak), no dried or rotted ones, and a healthy flower spike that has been flowering for the entire 2 months since i got it, and has even put out another branch!! This has started an obsession that is starting to worry my BF as we live with his parents, and our 1 windowsill is rapidly filling with all kinds of plants

[Daniel S. Barrett]

Peetree!
Congratulations! Looks like your green thumb has sprouted all the way up to your armpit! Has taken root, & is blooming on your mind! Enjoy !!!

[journorchid]

Originally Posted by Aniko

Up here in Connecticut I'm afraid it's a bit different, you have to drive hours to find a grower or to see an orchid show - and their prices... I wish I could buy from you Jerry!
But of course you can choose from a greater selection of species than at the limited number at a box store...Anyway I would never buy a sick plant.
Aniko.

sorry to reply to something so old, aniko, but i am less than 24 hours old on this board (see my other posts for info on why -- premature wilt of gorgeous phal blooms) -- and i do have a thought for you: there is the philadelphia flower show each spring, and i have had a couple of good experiences in the past showing up during their last few hours and buying plants at rock-bottom prices. i had a great phal back then, too, but had to abandon it on a move. phila isn't too too far from us, and makes a nice weekend trip. think about heading down there and seeing if you can score anything nice...

[Fabolusus]

I live in center city philadelphia and attend the flower show every year. If you go on the last day, the marketplace area becomes a mad house! Every thing gets marked down, sometimes below 50%. The only problem is that all of the species/unusual orchids are gone by then

[Lucinda Brown]

If you like a good bargain, my friends at Heavenly Orchids on ebay or the internet store have a clearance sale every once in awhile. It's usually a grab-bag thing where you can purchase as many as you like,the more you purchase the cheaper the price. BUT, they choose the plants they send you. I kinda like a surprise now and then! How about you? Check them out,they have lots of species plants,also.Great with communication and customer service. Tell Keith,I said 'Hi" if you order from them. There's not many orchid shows or growers in Oklahoma,I've checked.So I do most of my shopping on ebay or the 'net'. When you gonna make it somewhere close to Oklahoma,JERRY? With some of your wonderful babies for sale? I'd love to meet you. We need to have a big "ORCHID GEEKS" convention someday for everybody! P.S. Heavenly Orchids on ebay is doing a clearance on vandas right now.