Orchid shopping in DC
 

I'm traveling to the DC area in the next couple of weeks for work. Are there any orchid growers that I could visit while I'm there? I found Al's Orchids Greenhouse (: Home), but they're closed on Monday's and Tuesday's, the two days I'll be there.

You can check out Orchids For You in Vienna, Va. I bought my first 3 or 4 orchids from them and always got nice, healthy plants. Very nice man runs the place, likes to talk and I learned a lot from him in the early days. He runs various manager special sales throughout the year. His summer clearance sale is really good, I can get very nice orchids for $8-10. My favorite three orchids came from there: a Neo. Lou Sneary, Iwan. Apple Blossom and Den. Proud Appeal 'Ace'.

Orchids For You

Edited to add:

Forgot to mention Floradis Orchids. They are probably too far away for you to visit, about 2 hours south of DC in the Virginia countryside. Getting there takes you through very beautiful VA country and they have a wide range of orchids and have some of the most perfectly grown Orchids I have ever seen. The owners are really nice and will happily talk to you for hours.

Floradise Orchids

Thanks for the info. I can definitely visit Orchids for You, but the other one is probably to far. Now I just have to limit myself to what I can stuff in my carry on bag for the flight home.

Pack old clothes and get rid of them in DC.
(You can tell I've done this before.)

Lol, that's a good idea! I'll have to remember that next time I go to Chicago and swing by Hausermans.

I like the way you think, but unfortunately I have to dress nicer than I usually have to for work. However I am cold-natured enough that I could just wear more clothes home. That would add some room to my bag. I'm also planning on making one pair of dress pants last two days.

---------- Post added at 06:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:44 PM ----------

Any tips on packing them for carry on? I'm thinking of warping them up in paper and maybe go bareroot? Also I'm traveling out of Dulles, will I need anything from the grower to transport them?

I would only bare-root if it would otherwise be appropriate to repot them now. Many well-packed orchids arrive wrapped in newspaper and nestled into the box. Some of the best-wrapped (Carter & Holmes, Carmela's) have lots of shredded waxed paper pushed among the growths, then wrapped in newspaper. Since it's just a few hours you can be less diligent.

You could consider shipping them to yourself.

I would have suggested that but I didn't want to appear completely insane. I do it all the time. To be honest, I ship my clothes back and carry the plants with me.

This time of year I'd be more inclined to ship my clothes.