Silva orchids may not have a red phal, but they have the most beautiful Christmas red Potinara Redheart "Neptune" that I ever saw. Carter and Holmes wanted $75 for their red one, but Silva only wanted $35. My plant is fully grown now and I get six or nine gorgeous red flowers every year. Parkside is well worth the effort to see. The six greenhouses are all neat and clean, and the plants are meticulously well groomed. The staff is very patient and helpful. They have far more plants than they list on their website. Thirty-five dollars may seem like a lot of money, but a healthy plant doesn't require money spent on insecticides and weeks of trying to eradicate a seige of insects or weeks of trying to coax roots on a plant that was overwatered, or months of patiently waiting for a flower spike.

Maggie, I really can't pinpoint the location of this place. I just know it was on the North side of the highway and it sits out in a field. It is not a huge operation. We were just driving along and I saw the sign stuck up on a fence post saying Orchid Sale. It was a tiny sign, hand lettered, and looked very temporary. You pulled into a field and drove back to the greenhouse facility. There was a shed built on the end of the greenhouse and that is where we went in. There was no driveway, just ruts through the field. I wish I had paid more attention but it was really a chance encounter. The next time we go up that way I will try to get a better location. The people just wrote a receipt on a piece of paper; no business name. I think it is a mom & pop operation run by the little asian couple we met. They just invited us in, left us alone to wander until we were ready to pay for our purchases. I even got on Google Earth to try to locate it but no luck. I did realize that it is on Route 44 instead of 46. We take 46 from I95 over to 44 which then takes us into Leesburg. If you go to Leesburg you should check out the Simon's Seed and Garden Store on Magnolia Street. I got some good deals on Orchids and other plants there. I live in Lehigh Acres. Do you know of other people in our area on GW? We should try to get a group together to share knowledge and experiences if there are enough in our area. I have only been here about a year and we have been putting most of our energy into building walls, decks, walkways, and getting ready to plant. I am about to the planting point now. We went to ECHO Farm Day last week and picked up some good ideas and some citrus trees. I am really trying to get the info-structure completed before hot weather sets in. Bill

I've seen some 'dwarf' varieties of arundina on EBay. If they are IN FACT a dwarf variety, I'd like to have one. While staying on Hawaii Is I picked so many from their road ditches (They grow like weeds) and they kept well in vases too!

I cut the plants off the stalks, leaving what they were attached to and just sort of stuck them in little pots with orchid planing soil -which looks like is just bark and vermiculite. They were looking good but last night I think they were discovered by some slugs. I am soaking them and I'll put them back in their pots. Oh, and I fertilized them with some very weak fertilizer. I need to get the little wooden baskets. They're pretty fugly as is, between the chewed up leaves and their temp pots. I'll post pictures when they are looking a little better.