Orchid prices & availability.

[Team Ferret]

I was reading another thread in this forum about moving a collection of orchids, 1000 plants worth $1Mil. Umm, that averages at $1000 per orchid. Now, I have always heard that orchids were expensive, but to my surprise I have found that the prices are very reasonable for the most part. The average I find for flowering orchids is around $50 (I am being generous), the highest price I have found was about $500 for one of flowering size.

Cruzing the web I find what I consider a small sampling available for sale. Small, considering that there are over 25k species and over 100k hybrids, or so I have read.

So, where are all the orchids, and, where are the high priced ones?

Dave

[Djarum Black]

I've seen some pretty expensive orchids. A few I saw when I was at a show up in Santa Barbara. They were speciem size of course. Huge..but they were for sale.
I think the most expensive I have seen was $6,000.

Sometimes orchids get pricey depending on what they are. Divisions or awarded plants, stud plants used for breeding and rare crosses not seen outside of very old collections.

[slipperfreak]

Collections that include a lot of awarded clones can be worth a lot of money - I've seen such plants selling for $10K before. The MOST expensive plant I've seen is a div of Paph sanderianum 'Rapunzel' FCC/AOS for $20K from Zephyrus Orchids. This is basically the largest flowered orchid in the world.

[Bolero]

Despite the fact that some plants are indeed expensive I would personally doubt one person owns 1000 orchids that are worth that amount of money.

But I could be wrong......I am always skeptical......I feel that just because someone says they're worth that much, it doesn't mean they are.

[Dorothy]

You never know .. it could be worth a million to them

[Ray]

The single, most expensive orchid I have ever seen advertised was a single, blue, Phalaenopsis violacea, wild collected in Borneo. $30k in 1982 dollars, yet. When it was collected, it constituted the entire population of blue phals.

If you consider that every blue phal out there has that one plant in its ancestry, whoever got it, for whatever price, made one hell of an investment!

[Team Ferret]

Ok, so there are out there and I just need to keep looking.

I did go to the Zephyrus Orchids website and saw the Paph sanderianum 'Rapunzel', or at least what they were showing of it. Not to gripe, but, for $20K they could at least provide a closer pic and better marketing. But then again, maybe it is as ugly as it is big.

Yes, the Phalaenopsis violacea is one that I havent been able to find. But if I find it with a $30k price tag I will just have to take a pic because that is about all I could afford of that orchid.

Dave

[cb977]

Originally Posted by Ray

The single, most expensive orchid I have ever seen advertised was a single, blue, Phalaenopsis violacea, wild collected in Borneo. $30k in 1982 dollars, yet. When it was collected, it constituted the entire population of blue phals.

If you consider that every blue phal out there has that one plant in its ancestry, whoever got it, for whatever price, made one hell of an investment!

Very interesting, Ray...thanks