Dendrobium orchid

Dendrobium orchid
Dendrobium orchid from my collection

Friday, May 20, 2011

Where to buy cheap orchid plants

It used to be the case that you had to buy orchids from specialty orchid suppliers, and they also were quite expensive. Of course, even now rare varieties of orchids can run into the thousands of dollars for a plant. However, you can now find relatively cheap orchids for sale. They are becoming more and more common on supermarket shelves, and in home improvement stores like Home Depot. Many of these are the very common varieties like Phalaenopsis, which are actually excellent starter orchids as they are easy to grow and produce very showy blooms with little needed by way of specialized care.

However, less common varieties are getting to be found in supermarkets too. Trader Joe's grocery stores often stock a nice variety of orchids, not just the common Phals, but also Miltoniopsis (the Pansy orchid), Dendrobium, Oncidium and even the the very desirable Paphiopedilum or slipper orchids. It used to be hard to get such orchids anywhere except from a specialty supplier or at an orchid show. The other nice thing is that Trader Joe's sells all these orchids for relatively cheap, at about $15 for a plant in bloom! While it is not unusual to see Phalaenopsis on sale at these prices, the other varieties are rarely found in the less than $35-40 range, if not higher.

The internet has made it easy to buy a wide variety of orchids at good prices. Amazon.com has a nice selection from a number of breeders.

Finally, please be an ethical buyer if you do decide to take up orchid growing as a hobby. There are plenty of legally available, showy and domesticated varieties of orchids to choose from, without endangering wild populations of orchids.

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