orchid buying seasons

For those of you who have 4 seasons in your climate like I do here, is it best to buy your orchids from March through September or October? The winter is cloudy and dull here so is it better to wait than to bring an orchid into dormant conditions?

Maybe it doesn't matter as much for Phals and Paphs? Or maybe it doesn't matter at all and you all buy orchids all year?? Of course that would mean shipping with heat packs when ordering on-line?

I say unless it is below freezing it is always orchid ordering season!

You can buy orchids all year long but most vendors will not ship during cold winter months.

Actually I bought um...7 plants (had to look that up...) last Feb. and March - shipping from Florida to MA w/ no trouble. Heat packs were included, plants did just fine. I recall most days during the times these were shipped were around the freezing mark, not much below. In retrospect I'd likely not ship some of the ones I've purchased recently in mid-winter, would I order a paph. sanderianum in January, now knowing what I do, no, likely not, but the ones I ordered were all pretty cheap plants.

I buy in any month that starts with a capital letter. I stick to those rules and they have helped me with many decisions

Indeed. and if that proves to be too difficult there si always the old faill safe of only on days that end in y.

Ok, then no buying moratorium.

Heather, what did you mean that you should not have bought some of those during the winter? Were they tougher to get accustomed to your conditions that way?

when I can't buy in person. Lots of shows will be held in my area during the fall/winter/spring, so summer isn't a show time for us. The exception is the fab sales the local vendors will have to boost summer sales--you don't find much in bloom and it is hotter than he## to shop in August, but good deals to be found if you can bear it!

The best time to buy a orchid is when:

You see something you like.
It appears healthy.
That expensive seedling has POTENTIAL!!!
The price is right (generally non-blooming)
You have the money.
You can give it the conditions that it requires.
It's your birthday.
It's your wife's birthday (heh heh heh).

I'm sure there are many other good reasons!!!

__________________
Garland
Midlothian, VA
"You know, the only people that are weirder than us are the dog show people...and we are not a distant second by any means." Joe Kunisch

No, sorry Debbie, I confused you - the ones I bought are pretty easy growing Catt. hybrids. Also, at the time, they were my only plants, so they got all of my attention. No trouble getting them adjusted. Bought one Maudeae paph., and a St. Swithin, which tho slow growing I also had no trouble with. All from the same vendor, all Feb-March.

However, now knowing what I do about certain paph. seedlings, I would think twice about ordering a tough slow growing fragile paph seedling, such as sanderianum, at that time of year. We are talking 15.99 eBay plants vs. (at least) $80 collector plants. *NOT* worth that risk, IMO.

Also, this is for me in *Massachusetts*! And to boot, we had a fairly mild, around 32-40° average winter. If you are in a warmer growing state, ordering from a warmer grower, I would imagine it would not be an issue at all. I would also imagine someone like Pete, in Maine, might not want to risk ordering at all in the winter.

Just my experiences..YMMV!