Hi,
I've never ordered from Zephyrus, but I have several of their orchids that I purchased here in Michigan from greenhouses and also the Palm Sunday orchid show that is held in the metro Detroit area every year. They attend. All the orchids that I've gotten from them are in great shape and very healthy. Never had a problem in several years or purchasing anything from Zephyrus.

Cathy

Cathy, thanks. Their plants have always looked yummy. Maybe they could mail from a US show for less. I'll check their schedule. WC8

Hi WC8,

Fred Clarke is actually Sunset Valley Orchids on your side of the border. Zephyrus is John Doherty.

And my recommendation to you is to go for it - I've bought several plants from Zephyrus and they've always been stunning. He actually knows what he grows and he tells it like it is. His Paphs are... words fail me. I haven't purchased Phals from him, but plants I've seen at shows are impeccable and incredibly health. His jewel orchids are also very nice. And his Disa's. Admittedly, I can't grow them, but I love looking at them.

Hope this helps you reverse your downsizing trend [evil, enabling grin]... I'm going a similar way, but he always has something new to tempt me. (Did you see the sanderianum outcrosses on his specials page?)

Julie

Julie, the newest trick of my ever-increasingly-outdated software is to paste the previous email address I copied and pasted, instead of the address I just copied. Not too long after emailing Fred @ Zephyrus, I figured it out.

Not only am I reducing the # of orchids, but I just lost my job - bummer, so additional charges for paperwork could be a factor, depending on the amount.

Did I say earlier that their site doesn't list any US shows through the end of April?

In the meantime, there are a couple of other Phals on their site that are caaaaaallllliiiinnnnggggg from your side of our border.

These days, Paphs & Phrags don't do it for me, so I'm safe from the sanderianums. His look gorgeous, though.

Thanks for the good info about Zephyrus.

WC8

Hi WC8,
I don't know if Zephyrus is coming to Michigan the weekend of Palm Sunday, but they've always been at that orchid show before. It's held in the metro Detroit area. I've been going for several years and they always have a table with product for sale.

Cathy

Thanks, Cathy. I'll keep an eye on their site, plus email. WC8

Talked to John yesterday.

There's no charge for the paperwork. However, they don't ship till May because it can take a week for plants to clear Canadian Customs. Just one day of cold weather might kill the plant.

So, I'm reserving a plant now for delivery in May. Agony to wait.

WC8

WC - just wanted to chime in and give a two thumbs up to Zephyrus...I see them at various local shows and they always have high quality plants. It's fortunate that there isn't any charge for paper work...I wonder why it's such a nightmare getting plants from the US into Canada, but not the other way around. I've been itching to put in an Oakhill/Andy's order for several months now, and I can't figure out how to do it without breaking the piggy bank / breaking too many laws. :( I spoke to someone who recently got goods shipped to Detroit, then just drove across the border from the US to Canada. He declared at customs that he had orchids, and they just waved him through. If only I were sure that it's this easy...but the thought of those poor plants getting confiscated and destroyed just scares me too much.

Glad to know you'll get your Phals, WC8. I can sympathize - I'm leaving for France in a few weeks and don't want to leave new plants at home with my non-orchid growing plant sitter. So I won't get my sanderianum crosses until the end of April. Ditto for a division I've been drooling over for almost a year now which is finally available.

And Calvin, it's all about supply and demand. HUGE US market, small Canadian market. The Canadian growers make more of an effort to be able to export than the US growers do. If you want to do it legally, PM me. A friend and I ordered from Andy's this past summer, got our import and CITES certificates ourselves, picked up the plants in Watertown (I think) at a shipping depot type of place, barerooted them (a pain in the you know where since they're all mounted with tons of roots), had them inspected ourselves in Syracuse for the phyto and then brought them back across the border, completely legally and without confiscations. The cost of all certificates/inspections was probably around $150. We did have to order enough plants to make that and the effort worth it. Or that's our rationalization at least. And boy, are the plants we got gorgeous! [Another evil, enabling grin]

Julie

Calvin, thanks for the testimony for Zephyrus. It's good to know about another solid grower out there.

Julie - speaking of another solid grower... I've always got an Andy's wish list going and have gotten some yummy plants from him. Ingenious way to get plants that you and your buddy devised.

Here's to productive nail-biting while waiting on Zephyrus plants.

Calvin, our OS placed a mass order w/ Equagenera (misspelled) and brought down the cost a lot. If you belong to an OS, this might be an option for Andy's.

WC8

Andy's does not do export orders of any kind - I'm program chair for our OS and in charge of these, so he was tops on my list. That's why my friend and I had to go to so much trouble. Ditto for Oak Hill - they're getting out of exporting and when they did, they only did it for selected vendors, not individuals. If they have something you want, talk to Doug and Terry Kennedy. They regularly go down to get plants from Oak Hill.

But, Calvin, if your OS wants to go the group order way, I can't say enough good things about Exotic Orchids of Maui. Plants are amazing and so incredibly vigorous. Yes, most roots will be goners by the time you get them and they clear customs, but the plants are so healthy you'll see tons of new root growth within a couple of weeks of good care. Mike at EOM is also very helpful. Only caveat - not all of their plants are on their CITES export list. No Paph's, Phal's or Vandas. But that still leaves a lot of nice plants to choose from. And the minimum order for export is $1,000. No problem for a group order.

Julie