Some Fun Facts about Orchids!!!

Orchids are one of the most popular house plants in the United States. They are easy to care for and are beautiful, did you know they are also the largest family of flowering plants in the world! Here are some fun facts about these popular plants.

  • Orchids are one of the oldest family of flowering plants. Orchid varieties have been found all over the world. This leads experts to believe they have been around since before the continents separated!
  • Orchids are the largest family of flowering plants. With more than 25,000 species, there are more orchids on the planet than mammals and birds!
  • The smallest orchid is the size of a dime. The largest weighs several hundred pounds!
  • Orchid flowers are symmetrical. Each flower can be divided perfectly in half, with two equal parts.
  • The vanilla bean comes from a species of Orchid.  The Vanilla Orchid is the only commercial grown and harvested Orchid plant.
  • Orchids take about 5-7 years to bloom once germinated. Plants sold in stores are already decades old! At home, they’re easy to grow and can re-bloom several times a year.
  • Mature Orchids grow upside down. The blooms are so heavy that the plants end up growing upside down.
  • Orchids have the tiniest seeds in the world. A single seedpod can have up to 3 million seeds inside! The seeds are so small they can only be seen under a microscope.
  • Long live the orchid. Orchids can live up to 100 years!
  • Some orchids bloom for mere hours, others for months. Depending on the species, some orchid flowers will only bloom for a few hours. Other varieties can have blooms lasting months.


Websites that sell Orchids

Below are links to websites that BROS members indicate they use to purchase orchids for thier collections.

https://laorchid.com/  Louisianna Orchid Connection is a Baton Rouge based orchid vendor.  Proprietors, John Nelson and Tin-Wein Yu are both members of BROS and provide a wide variety of orchids for sale.  Please click on the link above to visit thier site for more information.

https://akatsukaorchid.com/  Akatuka Orchids is based in Hawaii and provides not only orchids but tropical plants as well.  They send monthly newsletter with new offerings and videos of plant care tips.  At least a couple of BROS members purchase plants from this vendor with good success.

https://www.motesorchids.com/  Martin Motes is known for his Vandas but does provide monthly email advice as well.  You can sign up for his newsletter on his website.

https://carmelaorchids.net/  I like Carmela Orchids in Hawaii. We used to order from them about once a year for Orchids for Seniors. They have good prices, and our plants always arrived in good shape.  Danna Spayde 

https://www.sunsetvalleyorchids.com/ They give several discounts, especially to AOS members. They also send out a newsletter quarterly, I think, with a lot of good information, especially about catasetums, which are Fred's favorites.  Danna Spayde

Cattleyaorchidshawaii.com   A very nice variety of Cattleya Orchids.

https://rforchids.com/  Robert Fuchs orchids are long standing goto location for especially Vanda's.  They have a very nice tour the nursery and have several water features, statues, antiques and of course wide variety of orchids.

https://swroga.org/  Southwest Regional Orchid Growers Association -Orchid shows and Events around Southwest USA 
Websites that provide Orchid information

We are providing the links below to various websites that the BROS membership has suggested as ones they visit to find Orchid information.  

http://AOS.org  The American Orchid Society (AOS) website provides both member and public information.  AOS provides not only written material but dozens of webinars for both members and public information.  You can see by the "Green Dot" on the name of the webinar if it is available to the public.  I have found the AOS website to be slow in response so please be patient if you do a search for information.

https://staugorchidsociety.org/   Some members find the St Augustine Florida Orchid Society website helpful.

https://herebutnot.com/   herebutnot.com provides information on not only orchids but other tropicals.  It provides articles with how long it should take you to read those articles.  Many good ones.

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