"Santa Barbara Orchid Estate... Dendrobium speciosum var. hillii 'Santa Barbara' an 8-foot-wide, 800-pound... no fewer than 200 spikes... quarter-size white flowers... with sweet perfume... a $25,000 specimen...
the Santa Barbara International Orchid Show... The event is one of the largest of its kind in the [US]... Forty-three percent of all orchid plants and cut flowers in the U.S. hail from the Golden State [California], principally Santa Barbara County... Santa Barbara Orchid Estate... sits on 5 seaside acres... 50-year-old operation... The inventory includes more than 1,000 species... Laelia anceps... cold-tolerant [California cold !] species native to Mexico... Cal-Orchid Owners Lauris and James Rose met while working at the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate and have run their own nursery here for 20 years... Dendrobium kingianum... compact, floriferous and as easy to grow... Neofinetia falcata, a dwarf Japanese species with white coconut-scented flowers, thrives on a windowsill. Masdevallia veitchiana 'Highland' is tricky, Lauris Rose says, but men in particular love its kite-shaped blossoms that glow red. ... Bulbophyllum picturatum, which has parts that twitch just like the flies that pollinate them. (The twitching attracts the pollinators.) "Those are hard," Lauris Rose says. ... Gallup & Stribling Orchids ... one of the largest growers in United States. This 40-year-old company, owned and run by brothers Jim and Rodney Stribling and their children, sits on 48 acres with 1.3 million square feet under glass and 1.4 million plants on any given day. Half a million more are growing from seed or tissue culture in the company's lab. The main crop... are cymbidiums, the easiest of all orchids for home growers in this climate... Kevin Costner stops by regularly to purchase his stems; Arnold Schwarzenegger has been known to order flowers here as well. ... Gallup & Stribling's cymbidiums are cold-grown for plant vigor and longevity in the garden... says John Ernest, the nursery's lab manager... Some people... are born with the orchid gene, and once they get their first plant, "they're done for." ... Orchids Royale ... Owner Jim Burkey... opened his nursery in 1981. Jim's brother Don joined the business a few years later" article URL : http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/home/la-hm-orchids15mar15,1,2867895,full.story?coll=la-home-printedition&ctrack=1&cset=true ************ Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
