Cat Baby Face Orchid real?

[ma_sha1]

Saw this listing on eBay, selling orchid "baby face" seeds. Never seen anything like this, looks kind of made up to me.

Is it real or a scam?





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[Subrosa]

Scam, and likely illegal as well. Most of these seed scammers are in China and other foreign countries, which makes you a criminal when you buy from them without the proper permits.

[Ray]

It's a cattleya photo inverted, with eyes Photoshopped in.

While it is not illegal to sell or ship orchid seed, I suspect what you would get is not orchid seed at all.

[Subrosa]

Make no mistake, paperwork is required to bring seed of any kind into the US. There is a small lot exemption for hobbyists which eliminates the need for relatively expensive phytosanitary certification, but you still need to go through APHIS to get the permit.

[pipsxlch]

It's not even a Photoshopped picture of an inverted Cattleya- it's a quilted piece of fabric from the look of it. You can see the stitch marks and folds if you look closely.

Sad thing is, not only are they scamming people with imaginary flowers ("baby face", blues, rainbows etc.), not even orchids (lots of pansies lately), and highly unlikely to be orchid seeds (perhaps fortunate, since the people buying them are almost certain to be unable to grow actual orchid seed)- the vendors are getting positive feedback since their customers/victims are receiving seeds and don't know enough to tell they aren't orchid seeds. I don't know how you could warn people/stop it in a way the potential customers will actually see and hopefully believe. I doubt eBay would do anything because the vendors ARE getting good feedback. By the time the seed may sprout and the people may realize it's not orchids, it will be too late for them to take any action.

[snowflake311]

OMG I was just thinking the same thing when I saw that photo in adds. I googled to find a flower like that and NONE popped up. It looks just too funny to be real. Who ever photoshopped that and is trying to selling must be laugh all the way to the bank or just laughing.

[Ray]

Stitched! Ha! I didn't even notice that. Good catch.

[cordryg]

I'm an American teacher in Jakarta.

We were buying pots and other sundries at a street side nursery on the edge of Jakarta. We have an assortment of porch plants some of which need repotting, and I have some dragonfruit, spinach, and cucumber seedlings from a kindergarten science demonstration that need to be transferred out of tupperware 'greenhouses'. It was a good enough excuse to get out of the house before my evening IELTS class.

At the nursery, on a rack of various garden seed, I found these.



WhatsApp Image 2021-02-25 at 9.08.26 PM.jpeg - Google Drive

(Bell orchid and babyface orchid seed packs)
This is the same packet form an Indonesian online shop.


https://shopee.co.id/Benih-Bell-Orch...5144.975543806

I thought that for 2 dollars I could give them a try. I'm in Jakarta and the packaging looks local for export. The information on the back of the packets is the same mistranslated generic mess with no specific information.

I thought that with the multitude of orchid types that these might be some of the few that can be grown from seed.

The instructions from the nursery worker was to place the seeds on top of the soil instead of putting them in the soil.

I figured 'what the hell, if they don't sprout I'll just put cucumbers in the pot later."

The paper packets contain smaller foil packets, which I haven't opened yet.

My (brief) attempts to find care instructions for either species have lead only to sites selling 'bell orchid seeds' that look like the picture on my package, care instructions for bell orchids that look nothing like the picture I have, a suspicion that the "bell" seeds I have aren't really orchids, claims that the babyface orchid is a hoax, and this forum.

So, any hints here? Has anyone gotten these to sprout?

I'm near MacDonald's Cipayung in Jakarta Timur if microclimate data helps.

[jcec1]

The second packet is Convallaria (Lily of the Valley), the first as previously mentioned is a photoshopped image.

Who knows what you will get?

[cordryg]

Right now I have no faith at all about the contents of either packet.

I'll post the pictures of the seeds tomorrow after my morning classes.

For now, let's speculate.

A) if the viewing of the seeds determines that these are in fact orchids, what would be the best medium for sprouting unidentified orchid seeds? I will not be using sterile media. I have access to coconut fiber, Spanish moss, sand (low grade construction), shredded bark, and generic potting soil. I also have tissue and tupperware, which is how I got dragonfruit seedlings in the first place.

B) if the viewing gives a verdict 'not orchid' or 'who knows', what is the best bet of spouting random seeds of assumedly tropical origin? I mean these seeds were probably produced locally, even if they are really squash or something.

c) If one package is really lily of the valley, how do those react to growing in the tropics? The temperature here is usually in the 80's even at night and my porch/parking area gets a lot of indirect light along the house wall.. The peace lilies seem to like it and are 4.5 ft tall. Closer to the fence gets direct light. I have mango trees that seem happy in their pots (kitchen scrap experiment). I have a full sun balcony available as well.

d) if they are bell orchids and the picture is wrong, what then?

Anyway, thanks for indulging me.