Odonts for sale

[pauleyboy]

Hi, I'm always on the hunt for nice odonts so if you have any divisions for sale and live in the UK please message me on Facebook. Paul Knight

[MrCym]

Paul, it’s sad the dismal access to major genera of orchids in the UK. People need to be reminded that this awful situation should be laid squarely at the feet of assholes like Philip Cribb and Herr Hermans, neither of whom would actually grow a bloody orchid in a home greenhouse!

[Gary S]

Classic case of people in power controlling what the average man in the street can do and have access to.

[pauleyboy]

I just find it so disheartening that there doesn't seem to be anywhere to purchase odonts in the UK. It's great to see EYF at Chelsea but I still can't see the point of them and the Mathers Foundation producing wonderful plants that will never be in the public domain. It seems as though we should bow our heads and doff our hats to these growers as we who are unworthy.
Now we are out of Europe the task seems hopeless. I used to purchase the odd plant from Germany but now even this is verboten.

[Gary S]

Paul, do you think it is all getting too hard these days, for what used to be a simple exercise in years gone by.

[pauleyboy]

Heh Gary, yes I do. I grew a mixed collection in the 70s/80s when the number of nurseries was amazing. The likes of Wyld Court, Black and Flory, Radcliffes, Burnhams, Stonehouse, Simmons and Son, Keith Andrew, Mansell and Hatcher to name but a few. It was a great day out to go to a nursery and spend hours asking questions and admiring plants. The combined years of growing experience could have been counted in centuries. The nurseries have gone and I guess most of the expertise as well. Glorious times.

I've been back growing orchids for 12 years now and it certainly isn't what it was. There have been many things that have contributed to the malaise of the industry here. "Throw away" meristemmed plants grown in the millions and imported from overseas, high fuel and labour costs but most importantly, CITES and Brexit. Here in the UK it's perfectly ok for government and horticultural bodies to rant about saving wild plants as well as minimising the risk of introducing disease when we have Birch dieback introduced from Europe through legitimate route with the correct paperwork. As for protecting wild plants it's laughable. I have very few species in my collection at home but all my plants have been bought from nursery grown stock and CITES can't have any relevance to hybrids that never occur in nature. While a CITES type agreement is useful I believe the current version is not fit for purpose. Cites and any "do goody" groups for orchid conservation need to look at websites like Tao Bao where the vendors of orchids actually show you where they have been removed from the wild!

I'm really sorry for ranting like this but here in the UK I believe that the hobby grower may soon be as rare as the Odonts he wants to grow.

[MrCym]

Paul, it’s early days yet but don’t equate the Mathers’ Foundation with the EYOF! One’s in a foreign country! David Mathers is doing everything by the book and putting a huge effort into getting Odonts and other genera, into and out of the UK. You couldn’t imagine the needless paperwork that he has had to engage in! Put the the blame squarely on the evil Dr. Cribb and his fellow Kewites. Orchids are an employment vehicle for these types, not a passion. Alexander would weep at the current state of affairs!

[Gary S]

Well said Paul, have a good Christmas.

[royalarea]

It seems to be the way now, from politics to orchids organisations ect, Termites fane interest get in or its a career path , and they slowly but surely destroy it from within, such as Sanders, used to be a orchid horticultural stud book. Now its run by Taxonomists who have destroyed 100 years or more of records, I just don't get it. I noticed 5 to 10 years ago, when they sunk BLC ect into just cattleya. 4 names for different hybrids are now all cats, insane. Of course I don't need to mention the mess they created with Oncidium and odontoglossum and hybrid names .

Same people Andy is talking about, they must just hate orchids deep down. Vandals and Visigoths.

[wolfman]

And the situation is not too different here in Australia. Before the borders were clamped down afficionados could at least bring some plants into the country, but today that is an absolute no-no. I tried to import very precious, rare & historic tulip bulbs from a certified & virus-free nursery in Holland - even with all the paperwork (that in the end had cost me more than the bloody bulbs) importation into Australia was in the end impossible, UNLESS I would have been Dutch and had received an exemption for Dutch nursery trade. What the f... ; why are these guys able to bypass the legislation, and the common man on the street can't, even if he / she fully complies with the demands of Customs & Borders ? The bulbs are now growing happily in my mum's garden in Hamburg, Germany...

So if we as orchid afficionados want to improve the available genetics here in Australia we have to import flasks, which throws us back a number of years. How can our commercial nurseries ever be competitive again ?