"Like parents packing children off to camp, orchid lovers... are paying hundreds of dollars each month to professionals take care of the plants when they're not in bloom.
... Jeff Doney, a San Francisco architect... estimates his collection of 200 orchids is worth about $10,000. He spends $300 a month boarding his plants at California Orchids in Bolinas... ... Vienna Anderson... Richmond, Va.... spends about $50 a month boarding her 45 plants at Chadwick and Son Orchids in Powhatan, Va. "We find we're much like the guy in the wealthy neighborhood where someone's cutting the lawn, someone's trimming the bushes," owner Art Chadwick says. "We're taking care of the orchids." ... A former wholesaler, Chadwick began boarding orchids 17 years ago. "Once they buy them, they send them back to us to baby-sit," he says, adding that he and his staff currently house about 11,000 plants for about 2,000 customers. Mary Nisbet, who owns California Orchids, came to California in the 1970s to learn about orchids. She boards about 12,000 plants in five temperature-controlled greenhouses for 200 customers. She and five employees repot, fertilize and water the orchids in their care. Every Friday, they set aside the plants that are beginning to bloom, notify their owners and deliver them to their homes. When the blooms fade, the customer calls Nisbet, who sends a driver back to retrieve the plant. "They grow slower when people take them home and they come back weaker," she says, surveying thousands of plants on pallets in the humid greenhouse. ... Worldwide, the retail economy in orchids adds up to about $9 billion; in the United States, wholesalers ship nearly 8.5 million plants a year." source : http://www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/APN/606180619 ********** regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
