The Trouble with Orchid Shows

 By The Plant Lady

          I love orchid shows. I've been to four already this season.
But I am beginning to find them a little frustrating. 
          In recent years, many vendors have started putting their most glorious blooms on display as "not for sale, samples only." Okay, this is fine, sometimes these are larger plants with multiple flowers, and they want to show them off during the whole two or three-day show as the best this particular kind of orchid has to offer. 
            But instead of offering single or less dramatic blooms for sale, the ones you can actually buy usually have no blooms at all, perhaps a bud or two, but not always. Sometimes they are small, immature orchid plants that could take several years to produce flowers. I have several like this: they look healthy, they are growing steadily, but not yet ready to bloom after more than two years.
             The sad part is that these boring non-blooming orchid plants--let's face it, the foliage on most orchids is just plain ugly-- are not especially cheap. I just don't get the same thrill out of buying a homely green plant as I do out of buying a flower or at least a few buds, especially when I am paying $20 or $30. I want to know that the  orchid I am buying is going to bloom at least once! 
            The really small plants are usually a bargain--if you have the patience to wait them out, or maybe a shade house to baby them along. I find myself taking pictures of the lovely "sample" so that I can remember what I bought during the years it takes to coax a bloom out of them. 
            I much prefer instant gratification.
\           I always buy at the booths that have bloomers for sale, or at least plants with a few buds, and there still are some. But just recently I noticed that when some varieties of orchids have a nice spike or two, the prices are jumping up into the $45 range and beyond.  
             It also seems there are certain "in" species or colors that pop up all over a show. I have more than 50 orchids, and sometimes I have a hard time finding something that is not the same or close to what I already have.

Den. Roy Tokunaga 

             This year the trendy orchid at a recent show seemed to be Den. Roy Tokunaga. It was everywhere. At another show, nearly every booth seemed to have  Beallara Marfitch "Howard's Dream." Always I see my yellow and red LC Gold Digger, or something similar enough that I don't want to buy it. And the speckled Kaleidoscope Phalaenopsis: everywhere, for years. You can even find this one at Home Depot.
            I get it, selling orchids at a show where booth space is costly is a business, and if a variety is popular, you go with it. But it isn't like there aren't hundreds of varieties of orchids out there, and I can guarantee, virtually all of them are appealing to orchid lovers. I have a book with pictures of 1,500 different orchids. 
           Surely the vendors could give us a break from the blush- colored Phals, the deep burgundy Dendrobiums and the Oncidiums that smell like chocolate.