Ordering orchids by mail without surprises

Almost every orchid that is not on a supermarket shelf reached its owner through the post. The specialist orchid trade is a mail order trade: species and rare hybrids ship bare-root across the country, sometimes across the world, wrapped in damp sphagnum and newspaper. A plant that would kill most houseplants shrugs off the journey, because orchids are built to survive with roots in air. The buying decisions, though, happen before the box is sealed, and they rest on three words.

Seedlings, mericlones and flasks

Orchids raised from seed are each unique; a seedling of a species is the species, but a seedling of a hybrid is a lottery ticket the nursery has already bought for you. When a grower wants the exact clone in the photograph, it is propagated by tissue culture and sold as a mericlone, genetically identical to the parent. Both kinds ship at sizes the trade names honestly: near-blooming-size plants flower within a year or two, while a flask is a sterile jar of dozens of tiny seedlings you raise on yourself, potted first into a community pot, the cheapest and slowest way into a variety. Each step up in size costs money and saves a year; the honest catalog prices the years rather than the pot. None of these steps is better than another, and the right one is simply the gap between your windowsill and your patience.

What arrives and what to do first

A bare-root orchid usually arrives with roots washed clean of old bark, wrapped in damp moss. The first task is not water but a home: a pot only just larger than the root mass, a bark or moss mix matched to the genus, and the roots settled with the base of the plant at the rim, never buried. Water lightly after a few days rather than immediately, let a cut root tip seal, and hold the plant in bright shade for two weeks. Species orchids shipped in growth may sulk briefly; a leaf lost in transit is routine, a collapsed root system is grounds for a conversation under the guarantee. The unpacking checks take two minutes:

• Roots firm and plump when squeezed, not hollow or papery.
• Growing point intact at the base of the newest leaf.
• The label naming genus, species and clone, matched to the packing slip.
• One photograph taken in the first hour, as record and as evidence.

Reading an orchid catalog

Orchid catalogs read like field notes, and that is their charm: genus, species, the collection or clone name, the size shipped, and often a line about altitude or habitat that tells you more than any photograph. The temperature classes are the trade’s own sorting system, and a species bought outside its class sulks no matter how well it is potted.

A nursery that states blooming season and temperature class on every listing has grown the plant itself; one that only quotes flower photographs is reselling, and the plant guarantee often hides behind the prettier site.

Mistakes to avoid

Orchid buyers repeat a short list of errors. Buying for the flower without reading the temperature line, so a cool cloud forest species melts in a warm living room. Potting into a container far too large, where wet mix rotting around the roots finishes what transit started. Watering the day the box opens, before cut root tips have sealed. Burying the base of the plant below the rim, which is how crown rot begins. Skipping a few weeks of quarantine on a shelf apart, so scale or mealybug on a new arrival walks into the whole collection. Discarding a leafless bulb too early, when some species carry their reserves through a rest that looks exactly like death. And collecting flasks without first building the shaded shelf, the humidity tray and the patience a jar of seedlings demands; the flask is the cheapest plant in the catalog and the most expensive hobby.

Why mail order suits orchids

Travel dormant or dry-rooted is what orchids evolved for, and the specialty growers exploit it: a plant posted on Monday can be potted on Thursday and growing by the weekend. Fit the order to your conditions rather than your wishes, read the temperature lines twice, and the post brings what greenhouses elsewhere keep behind glass.