Orchids - America's Most Popular Flowering Plant? At Least I Think So...

Every morning I have the privilege of entering a large greenhouse filled with one of the world's most amazing plants - Orchids! Just being around these plants makes me feel good. I can't help but smile when I admire there elegance and beauty.

My name is Delia Villegas and I am the "orchid picker" or the person that hand selects Orchid plants and flowers for a large Orchid mail order company. The plants I select are sent all over the country to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and other special events. One day when I was selecting Orchid plants, I thought... what is America's most popular flowering plant? It has to be the Orchid! I set out to do some research to find out what is America's most popular flowering plant.

First of all, I must confess that I am biased (so much for journalistic guidelines). More than any other plant, I love Orchid plants and as I learn more about them, my attraction becomes even stronger. There is always something new to be learned about Orchids. For example, did you know that Orchids existed when dinosaurs roamed the earth? This discovery was made when a prehistoric bee was found in amber and when analyzed they found Orchid seeds on the bee. Pretty cool, huh? Does this mean orchids have always existed? Ok, back to my story - What is America's most popular flowering plant?

The top three potted flowering plants in terms of 2005 sales in the United States are Poinsettias, Orchids and Chrysanthemums. California accounts for 25 percent of this category's total value. Poinsettia value, which adds $242 million to this category, is down 2 percent from 2004. The value of Potted Orchids is $144 million, up 11 percent from the previous year. Go Orchids! Florist Chrysanthemum value is up 1 percent, to $68.9 million. Through my research I have discovered that sales of potted Orchids have improved over the previous years sales, year after year. That means orchids are becoming more and more popular! Woo-hoo!!

In an article in FloraCulture International titled "The world’s fascination with potted Orchids" the author writes, "The United States Department of Agriculture reports that 15.6 million pots of Orchids valued at $121 million were sold in 2003, up 18% in units from 2002. By value, California potted Orchid growers sold 40%, Florida growers sold 33% and Hawaii growers sold 14%. Orchids have become the second most popular flowering plant (after the Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) sold in the United States. In other words, sales of potted Orchids around the world are booming."

In terms of sales, the potted Poinsettia is the most popular flowering plant with almost double the sales of potted orchids. There, I said it! But, the Poinsettia's 2005 sales are down 2% from 2004 sales yet the wholesale value of potted orchids grew by 5 percent and the number of pots sold increased by 14 percent to 17.2 million pots. If sales continue at the same rate, orchids will exceed the value of poinsettias by 2020 to become the most valued flowering plant - that's only 12 years from now! Hey, maybe if we declare orchids the official plant for Mother's Day we'll be there sooner. Heck, let's include Valentine's Day too.

Sales statistics for potted Poinsettias is down. Sales statistics for potted Orchids is up. That means Orchids are becoming more and more popular. Nevertheless, Poinsettias are popular plants otherwise we wouldn't buy them. I love Poinsettia plants too - they're beautiful! But, I have a feeling if we conducted a survey that asked, "What do you think is America's most popular flowering plant: the Poinsettia, the Orchid or the Chrysanthemum" I think the Orchid may come up on top. Why? Because we are seeing more orchids in markets and flower shops. They're everywhere. Don't worry, Orchids will never be a commodity. There are too many varieties some highly prized and rare. This adds to their mystic and umm... popularity.

Delia Villegas
OrchidGram! Newsletter Contributing Writer & Orchid Lover
www.1888orchids.com

Miltonia Orchid

"Miltonia orchids are native of [Colombia] South America... Miltoniopsis roezlii...
fragrant...
bloom once or twice a year, and the flowers of the miltonia orchid often remain attractive for a
month or more [or less...].

... roots must be kept evenly moist.
Too much water will cause root rot.
Too little causes the plants to dehydrate and die.

... lack of moisture. The new leaves will become crinkled.
Smooth leaves indicate the proper amount of water.
... difficult to grow in the typical home...

can best be enjoyed in Hilbert Conservatory at White River Gardens
[Indianapolis]

URL :
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080126/COLUMNISTS18/801260386/-1/LOCAL17

Enjoy,
Steve
1888Orchids.com

Our itty bitty orchid shop on Blogger

Buy an orchid so I can retire to a sunny beach. Ehem... you can also share this application and add it to your profile. :)

Applications like this (known as ShopBots) can be found all over the internet. Now that you have come across mine, click "Share" and follow the instructions.

Quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

South Florida's Winter Orchid Extravaganza - Tamiami International Orchid Festival

Miami International Orchid Festival, a major orchid event now in its
fifth year, is coming to the Sunshine Pavilion of Tamiami Fair Expo
Center(10900 Coral Way) on January 25th, 26th, and 27th 2008. The Festival has become in some aspects the largest annual orchid event of the season and
hence is billed as "South Florida's Winter Orchid Extravaganza".

Truly national and international in scope, the Miami International Festival brings
together fifty growers from the US and around the world. Orchidists from
Malaya, Taiwan, the Philippines will join growers from Brazil, Venezuela,
Equador, Singapore and Peru as well as local and national growers. Some of
these leading orchid nurseries have never before exhibited in South Florida
and will be offering the public new varieties of orchid species and hybrids
not previously available here.

The Tamiami Festival is a community based event with the sponsorship of the
not for profit Greater Miami Orchid Festivals, and with participation by
Orchid Society of Coral Gables, the South Dade Amateur Orchid Society, the
American Orchid Society's Florida Carribean Judging Center, the Coalition on
Orchid Species and Orchid Mania(the children's AIDS charity), all of whom
will be contributing to the staffing of the event and sharing in its
success. An overwhelming majority of local commercial orchid growers will
also be exhibiting and vending. The event is intended to bring the entire
orchid community of South Florida together.

Staged exhibits will be mounted by both commercial and amateur groups. The
latter will, in a unique feature, be competing for cash prizes for the best
exhibits. Both individual plants and exhibits will be eligible for ribbons,
trophies and the much coveted American Orchid Society awards. The public is
also invited to bring plants for exhibit and judging on Thursday January
24th between 12 and 5 PM.

Orchid theme arts and crafts will be offered for sale as well as a full
range of supplies, materials and tools for all the orchid grower's needs.

Lectures by internationally renowned experts as well as growing classes for
amateurs and more advanced hobbyists will be presented. Local orchid
societies will be there during the entire show to recruit new members and to
help the public with their orchid related problems.

Miami's first orchid event of the year promises in many aspects to be not
only the first but the best!

The festival is open to the public from 10:00AM- 8:00 PM Friday and Saturday
and 10-6 on Sunday. Plan to be there! Take either the 8th Street or Bird
Road exits of the Fla. Turnpike and follow the signs about a mile and a half
to the Fair Expo Center. The Festival is also easily accessed from the
Palmetto Expressway(826) at Coral Way. Proceed West to 109St.

Admission is only $7.00 and there is ample free parking convenient to the
fully air conditioned hall.

For further information or to arrange photo shoots or other extended
coverage of this colorful tropical event, contact Dr. Martin Motes at 305
2474398 or email at vandas@mindpring.com or visit

Blue orchid at 1888Orchids.com

www.miamiorchidfestival.com.

Orchids - America's Most Popular Flowering Plant? At Least We Think So

Every morning I have the privilege of entering a large greenhouse filled with one of the world's most amazing plants - orchids! Just being around these plants makes me feel good. I can't help but smile when I admire there elegance and beauty. My name is Delia Villegas and I am the "orchid picker" or the person that hand selects orchid plants and flowers for a large orchid mail order company. The plants I select are sent all over the country to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and other special events. One day when I was selecting orchid plants, I wondered, what is America's most popular flowering plant? I thought, it has to be the orchid! I set out to do some research to find out what is America's most popular flowering plant.

First of all, I must confess that I am a biased. More than any other plant, I love orchid plants and as I learn more about them, my attraction becomes even stronger. There is always something new to be learned about orchids. For example, did you know that orchids existed when dinosaurs roamed the earth? This discovery was made when a prehistoric bee was found in amber and when analyzed they found orchid seeds on the bee. Pretty cool, huh? Ok, back to my story - What is America's most popular flowering plant?

The top three potted flowering plants in terms of sales in the US are Poinsettias, Orchids and Chrysanthemums. California accounts for 25 percent of the category's total value. Poinsettia value, which adds $242 million to this category, is down 2
percent from 2004. The value of Potted Orchids is $144 million, up 11 percent from the previous year. Florist Chrysanthemum value is up 1 percent, to $68.9 million.

In an article in FloraCulture International titled "The world’s fascination with potted orchids" the author writes, "The United States Department of Agriculture reports that 15.6 million pots of orchids valued at $121 million were sold in
2003, up 18% in units from 2002. By value, California potted orchid growers sold 40%, Florida growers sold 33% and Hawaii growers sold 14%. Orchids have become the second most popular flowering plant (after the poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) sold in the United States. In other words, sales of potted orchids around the world are booming."

In terms of sales, the potted Poinsettia is the most popular flowering plant with almost double the sales of potted orchids. There, I said it! But, the Poinsettias 2005 sales are down 2% from 2004 sales yet the wholesale value of potted orchids grew by 5 percent and the number of pots sold increased by 14 percent to 17.2 million pots. If sales continue at the same rate, orchids will exceed the value of poinsettias by 2020 to become the most valued flowering plant - that's only 12 years from now! Hey, maybe if we declare orchids the official plant for Mother's Day we'll be there sooner.

Delia Villegas
OrchidGram! Newsletter Contributing Writer & Orchid Lover



The top three potted flowering plants in the US are poinsettias, orchids and chrysanthemums.


poinsettia U.S. Total: $242,305,000
orchid U.S. Total: $143,968,000
crysanthenum U.S. Total: $68,944,000

2005
2004


With the poinsettia being the most popular. I'll discuss the attributes of each plant and then you decide which you consider most popular.

Rare orchid found in South Island

"rare endangered North Island native orchid has been rediscovered in the South Island.

... Georgina Upson, of Nelson, found the 10cm orchid while searchingscrubland at the base of Farewell Spit.

... Upson presented photographic evidence of her find of Pterostylispuberula... She... recognised the plant as one only found in the far north of the North
Island and near Thames... She was looking for another orchid when she stumbled across a colony of 120 plants, which were last seen south of Motueka 20 years ago.

Before her discovery only 200 of the plants were known to exist in the North Island...

the tiny plant lived in poor soil amid manuka and gorse scrub... up there -- it's windy and cold and exposed, an unpleasant place, and will
take quite a lot of work to relocate it...

unusual to find a plant so far outside its known range"

FULL STORY URL : http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/4357481a19754.html

The Orchid Conservatory at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

"Art at the Garden 2008, presented by Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden... in honor of the opening of the garden's Orchid Conservatory.

The art celebration will continue through March 18 and include paintings on silk, photographs and watercolors.

Featured artists include Silk Synergy artists Janet Haefner, Julianne Jennings, Karen Sistek and Merridee Joan Smith. Silk Synergy is a group of
four artists who work individually and as a group specializing in paintings
on silk.

... Greg Allikas will display a variety of his... photographs. His work appears regularly in "Orchids" magazine and in several books,
including three he co-authored with Ned Nash.

Rose Ganucheau has been painting orchids in watercolor for 20 years...

The Orchid Conservatory at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden is scheduled to open at noon Jan. 19.
...
The conservatory will... serve as a learning environment introducing visitors to... biology of orchids."

URL: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking_news/story/440631.html

Enjoy,
Steve Peralta

11th World Orchid Conference - Miami, Florida January 23-27

"Robert Fuchs...
In 1984, the third generation orchidist won the Grand Champion award at the 11th World Orchid Conference in Miami with his Vanda Deva 'Robert.'
... Fuchs, president of R.F. Orchids in Homestead and one of the... vandal breeders in the United States.

Fuchs is now president of the 19th World Orchid Conference set for Jan. 23-27 at the Exhibition Center of the Sheraton Miami Mart Hotel &
Convention Center in Miami... Sponsors are the Fort Lauderdale Orchid Society and the South Florida Orchid Society.
... there will be more than 100 displays from the world's leading orchid houses. More than 50 countries will be represented...

the Quilt Guild of America and the Cake Decorators of South Florida (smile...) will sponsor competitions and demonstrations.

The United States Postal Service is offering five orchid design cancellations for collectors.

Conference organizers estimate the show will attract 200,000 attendees.

Gordon Dillon, former executive secretary of the American Orchid Society, is credited with the idea of creating an international, weeklong event that
would attract the best amateurs, professionals and botanists in the orchid world. His idea grew into the first World Orchid Conference that was held
in October 1954 in St. Louis. Since then, the conferences have been held in locations as varied as Honolulu, London, Singapore, Sydney, Medellin,
Frankfurt, Bangkok, Durban, Miami, Tokyo, Auckland, Glasgow, Rio de Janeiro, Vancouver, Shah Alam, Dijon and Long Beach, Calif."

URL:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/home/sfl-flhg12orchidsbjan12,0,610868.story

Enjoy,
Steve Peralta
www.1888orchids.com

Orchid Discovery of the Century

Almost every orchid grower dreams of seeing the rarest of orchids, the Holy Grail, just once in their lifetime. Alexandria resident Ken Meier is one such lucky grower.

A fiber optic technician by profession, he has been growing orchids for more than two decades. His backyard greenhouse is crammed with orchids that spill out into his yard during the warm summer months. Ken, who has more than two thousand orchids in his collection, is constantly in pursuit of new and unusual orchids.

While others kick back and head for the beach during their summer vacation, Ken can be found deep in the jungles of Asia and South America looking for orchids growing wild in their native habitat.

Meier has the distinction of being one of the few westerners to have seen what has been called the “orchid discovery of the century,” growing wild in its native habitat; an orchid so spectacular, that many wonder how it could have gone undiscovered for so long.

The tale of its discovery is one filled with the drama and passion that only orchids can inspire. This orchid was brought into the United States and described as a new species by Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in 2002. It was named Phragmipedium kovachii in honor of its American discoverer, Michael Kovach, of Goldvein, Va. Eventually, its “discoverer” would be indicted for smuggling the plant into the United States, the prestigious Selby Gardens disgraced, and the original habitats of this orchid plundered by illegal collectors.

Recently, Meier led an orchid expedition to the Andes in the remote northern region of Peru. His guide knew of two habitats were the fabled phragmipedium could still be found. “We hiked for about five hours through the jungle to reach the first habitat,” recalls Ken. “It was tough going and only a few members of our group made it—the rest turned back.”

Disappointingly, while they found several of the rare orchid plants, none were in flower. While the rest of his team gave up, Meier pressed on with his guide. “It was a strenuous hike up almost vertical cliffs, shrouded in mist. We finally reached the second habitat, and there on a mossy outcrop, I saw a single flower that simply took my breath away, though I was already out of breath from the low oxygen levels at that altitude.”

Meier is as excited today, as he describes the orchid that he saw a year ago: a voluptuous fuchsia flower almost half a foot across. “The color was so rich and deep, the flower could have been made out of velvet,” he enthuses. After about half an hour of admiring the flower and taking photos it was time to leave and carefully climb back down the slippery treacherous cliffs before darkness fell.

When asked, Meiei said he had no seeds or plants of Phragmipedim kovachii from his trip. It’s illegal to remove any slipper orchid plants or seeds from their native habitat, especially so endangered a species. Soon, legally propagated plants from Peru will be exported and available in United States,” Meier said.

Even so, it will be several more years before they bloom. Meier smiles with the patience that only orchid growers know. “It’s worth the wait…and until then I have my photographs and memories from Peru to remind me why.”

Enjoy,
Steve Peralta
1888Orchids.com

Red Orchids

Red orchids will bring a big smile to even the orchid collector! Since Valentine's Day is right around the corner, I would like you to preview our collection of red orchids for Valentine's Day 2008.
Preview them here: http://www.1888orchids.com/red_orchids_s/146.htm

Sincerely,
Steve Peralta
www.1888Orchids.com

Orchid Craze

THE ORCHID CRAZE AT ITS HEIGHT IN FASHIONABLE NEW YORK; Unknown a Generation Ago, the Beau Brummel of Blossoms Reigns Supreme The Danger and Romance of Orchid-Hunting Millionaires Among those who Raise it for the Market

Here's the link again: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A05E2DF123EE033A25754C1A9649C946697D6CF

Enjoy,
Steve Peralta
1888Orchids.com

Nun's Orchid

"The nun?s orchid, Phaius tankervilliae...
easily grown...

... its common name... had to do with the fact that is[t]... was frequently found growing in convents.
... the origin of the plant?s name seems to be that its striking, tubular flowers and wing-like sepals resemble the head coverings worn by nuns long ago.

... low-maintenance plant that is a vigorous grower... multiple 4-foot tall flower spikes each bearing 10 to 20 fragrant flowers up to 5 inches across.

... sepals are white on the outside with red to dark burgundy interiors edged in pale yellow. The flower?s lip is a purple tube with a ruffled tip
and short spur. Each individual blossom can last up to one month.

... large, thin, pleated leaves that reach up to 3 feet...

brought into cultivation from China in the 1800s...
a terrestrial orchid...

prefers temperatures of 65 to 75 degrees during the day and 55 to 60 degrees at night...
a bright window located away from hot or cold drafts and soil that is kept quite moist but not soggy.

... can be taken outdoors to spend the summer in a moist, shady spot. It is very adaptable and will adjust to... summer temperatures when given plenty
of water and good drainage.

... heavy feeders... should be fertilized wee[a]kly with every watering during the growing season...
quite cold tolerant... can withstand temperatures to 40 degrees...

Repot every two or three years right after plants finish blooming. Frequent repotting keeps plants producing strong new growth. Use a large, deep sturdy pot that will allow plenty of room for the roots while giving
counterbalance to the large upper part of the plant. Use a good quality potting soil that holds moisture while providing good drainage.

... easy to propagate...
dividing the plants at the end of the growing season. Place at least three stems in each pot and keep the new divisions shady and moist while rooting.

... growing outdoors in northwest Florida and in Dothan."

URL :
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20071231/NEWS/326931503/1005/SPORTS0106