The latest USDA statistics now show orchids near the top of best-selling potted flowering plants in the U.S., second only to poinsettias.
"Between 2003 and 2004, while most plants declined in sales,"
Wang [Yin-Tung Wang, horticulturist at the Texas A&M University System Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Weslaco]
said, "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...
Wang said 90 percent of the potted orchids sold in the U.S. are ... Phalaenopsis
...
By the end of 1990, Wang began his original studies to improve cultural production techniques and to control flowering so growers could produce moth orchids that bloomed year round.
Once Wang began publishing his findings, the nursery industry began feeling the impact. Sales in the United States began to rise steadily, as much as 15 percent to 20 percent each year in the late 1990s.
...
Wang now has collaborative research programs with colleagues at Michigan State University and in Taiwan.
... the country's largest potted orchid producer, Matsui Nursery in Salinas, Caif., recently gave Wang a $20,000 research grant. Matsui produces about one-fourth of the nation's orchids, with an annual wholesale value of about $30 million.
...
"... commercial growers are attracted to the plants because they can produce revenues of $60 to $200 per year per square foot of nursery space, versus $5 for poinsettias or $4 for tropical plants."
source : (Texas A&M University) http://agnews.tamu.edu/dailynews/stories/HORT/May2005a.htm
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