Commercial Cyp grower from the Netherlands

[Marc]

A couple of weeks ago a story reached my ears that was to good to be true. Close to were I live there is a store that specializes in DIY goods ( german = baumarkt ) selling cypripediums. :drool:

Now the best part is that price is nothing to complain about either. 20,- euros for a pot with 3-4 growths. Best of all as the plants were loosing their flowers they cut the price down to 10,- per pot.

Now the only thing I'm not sure about if it they are selling species or hybrids.

I found the site that is linked to this product line and this is what I found.

They sell for instance the following

Cyp. Kentucky: Looks like kentuckiense but I lack the expertise to tell the difference
Other expamples can be seen on their site. Regina / reginae or Parville / parviflorum.

Garden Orchid supplies strong hybrids of various varieties which guarantee good growth and flowering in ornamental gardens. The plants have been grown under monitored conditions, and these strong, healthy plants survive the transfer to ornamental gardens very well.

As you can read above they state they are producing hybrids, but the plants seem to be very close to the original species.

http://www.gardenorchid.com/en

One of the reasons I post this here is because I've never heard of cyp's being sold in a non specialised enviroment. Normally it's the work of small scale special nursery's.

 

[tocarmar]

I am not possitive but they all looked like species to me, not hybrids. Maybe they are working on hybrids of them all??? Why don't you contact/ask them what they are? I am not sure of the currency exchange but their prices seem very cheap for the size of the plants you get!!

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

I've not heard of this nursery before, but based on those prices they seem like one of those orchid megafactories that Holland is well known for. A good friend of mine is a "plant person" in your country and can give me the skinny on them.

It is likely they do produce high quality plants even at those prices since they no doubt have them growing in near industrial quantities. All are indeed species. Buying a flowering sized multigrowthed C. reginae alba for 20 Euro is insanely cheap. In Japan the same plant would retail for 10-20 times that much

Buy away!

 

[monocotman]

Marc -these look to be true species or very close. Have you checked out the plants yet?

David

 

[Marc]

I've not heard of this nursery before, but based on those prices they seem like one of those orchid megafactories that Holland is well known for. A good friend of mine is a "plant person" in your country and can give me the skinny on them.

It is likely they do produce high quality plants even at those prices since they no doubt have them growing in near industrial quantities. All are indeed species. Buying a flowering sized multigrowthed C. reginae alba for 20 Euro is insanely cheap. In Japan the same plant would retail for 10-20 times that much

Buy away!

I'm not sure if the reginae alba is also 20,- euro's.

I'm thinking about contacting them this evening to see if they are willing to disclose if they are hybrids and if so what crosses they are. Another thought that I had is that they might be calling them hybrids to avoid CITES paperwork?

I'm also curious which Dutch plant person your talking about. Might even be someone that I know.

Marc -these look to be true species or very close. Have you checked out the plants yet?

David

One of the plants wasn't in bloom anymore, but the other two look very similar to foto's I've seen on the net. I've never seen any flowering cyp's in a collection yet so that is the only reference that I have.

 

[Roth]

I've not heard of this nursery before, but based on those prices they seem like one of those orchid megafactories that Holland is well known for. A good friend of mine is a "plant person" in your country and can give me the skinny on them.

It is likely they do produce high quality plants even at those prices since they no doubt have them growing in near industrial quantities. All are indeed species. Buying a flowering sized multigrowthed C. reginae alba for 20 Euro is insanely cheap. In Japan the same plant would retail for 10-20 times that much

Buy away!

It is indeed the real reginae alba. One nursery in Belgium (not Phytesia/cevie, but another one known by very few people only) made some years ago hundreds of capsules of cypripedium species, hoping for a big market.

Unfortunately, like for many things ( and quite a few paphs species), people think about massive quantities, propagation, etc... where the market is in fact made of few people, many with an attitude too. Cypripedium margaritaceum, palangshanense, farrerii, how many customers in Europe? Maybe 50, surely not a hundred).

Making seedlings, growing the plants for such a small temperamental market was not viable ( the same would apply to paph wentworthianum, intaniae, ooii, zieckianum, etc... how many people REALLY want to buy those species worldwide? 100-200, certainely not more).

So the belgians closed their operation, and passed some key plants that could be suitable for everyone's garden, including the reginae, reginae album, flavum.

This company in Netherlands now selling those is a joint venture with Anthura, the largest anthurium wholesaler and breeder, and one of the leading phalaenopsis pot plant nursery. The wholesale price per pot, in bloom, is more or less 8 euros.

 

[Marc]

It is indeed the real reginae alba. One nursery in Belgium (not Phytesia/cevie, but another one known by very few people only) made some years ago hundreds of capsules of cypripedium species, hoping for a big market.

Unfortunately, like for many things ( and quite a few paphs species), people think about massive quantities, propagation, etc... where the market is in fact made of few people, many with an attitude too. Cypripedium margaritaceum, palangshanense, farrerii, how many customers in Europe? Maybe 50, surely not a hundred).

Making seedlings, growing the plants for such a small temperamental market was not viable ( the same would apply to paph wentworthianum, intaniae, ooii, zieckianum, etc... how many people REALLY want to buy those species worldwide? 100-200, certainely not more).

So the belgians closed their operation, and passed some key plants that could be suitable for everyone's garden, including the reginae, reginae album, flavum.

This company in Netherlands now selling those is a joint venture with Anthura, the largest anthurium wholesaler and breeder, and one of the leading phalaenopsis pot plant nursery. The wholesale price per pot, in bloom, is more or less 8 euros.

Thanks for the information, I allready linked this operation to Anthura with some google'fu and a bit of searching on the website of the Dutch Chamer of commerce.

 

[NYEric]

If you can get BS Cyps for 8 Eu get them!

 

[Marc]

I've send out an E-mail this evening to get some clarification about their products.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Thanks for the skinny on that Roth - certainly it makes sense. So, provided the plants are healthy, then I'd say this is a real buying opportunity. Go for it.

Cyps, indeed all terrestrial orchids, will remain a hobbyist niche for the duration. Who is willing to fork over big bucks for a plant that keeps its flower for just a couple weeks and is essentially hard to grow long term? A very addicted person, that's who! :rollhappy:

Having said that, if you can produce rare/coveted types then you can sell your whole stock quite easily since this market isn't saturated by any means. Here in Japan any of the native varieties of macranthos, in particular v. rebunense, hold very high value. Typically, a flowering size division fetches no less than $100US, and a nice yellow flower goes for significantly more. Given the difficulty in raising and keeping these, the situation is not likely to change since there is no incentive to mass produce them.

Now, the interesting thing to watch were the relatively easy hybrids like Gisela, Aki, Sabine, and so on - could they make it into the high volume retail market? Well, looks like not, especially with these economic times in the big potential markets - the US, the EU, and Japan. Ah well!

Probably the species that was closest to being mass produced was reginae or perhaps pubescens, but I imagine their production levels was a far cry from petunias :rollhappy:

 

[Marc]

I've send out another E-mail but so far no answer.

Still there are various sources that keep confirming that they are species.

 

[NYEric]

Can you find info regarding export to usa?

 

[peter.orchid]

A couple of weeks ago a story reached my ears that was to good to be true. Close to were I live there is a store that specializes in DIY goods ( german = baumarkt ) selling cypripediums. :drool:

Hello Marc,
some weeks ago I also had bought a Cypripedium Kentucky in a local
german baumarkt. It had three growth with two flowers. They were
looking like the species but the petals are different. So I googled the
cypripedium and I found the hybrid Cypripedium Lothar Pinkepank.
The parents are Cypr. kentuckiense and Cypr. pubescens.
Peter

 

[NYEric]

How much did it cost?

 

[Leo Schordje]

Beautiful, very nice intense color. I do think it is a hybrid, Lothar Pinekeplank seems very likely.

 

[peter.orchid]

How much did it cost?

Hello NYEric,
it costs 20 Euro.
In Dresden I have seen the same Cypripedium Plants
outside the exhibition hall and there the price was 29 Euro.
Peter

 

[peter.orchid]

Beautiful, very nice intense color. I do think it is a hybrid, Lothar Pinekeplank seems very likely.

Thank you Leo Schordje
for the confirmation of my supposition
of Cypr. Lothar Pinkepank.
Peter

 

[NYEric]

20 euro is still only like $30 which is a great price.

 

[Marc]

A couple of days ago I recieved an E-mail from the producer of the cyps I mentioned earlier.

They confirmed that they are pure species and allthough they are working on a product line with hybrids these are the real deal.

They chose for the names from a marketing point of view.

To bad I didn't have this information earlier.

 

[Lycaste53]

The plants looked very healthy, when I bought them, the hybrids had 9 spikes, the species normally 3 spikes in buds. Not all came to bloom in the garden. It was about 6 weeks to early for flowering in munich (elder plants which I have for years flowered 6 weeks later) Here some pics of the new ones:

hybrid

kentuckiense

parviflorum

pubescens

reginae alba

reginae

Best regards, Gina