Norman's offers a lot of uncommon and species orchids that are not easy to find at other nurseries. Viewing their booths at shows is an opportunity to see live plants I have never seen outside of photos. I don't order orchids online, and they may well be truly awful. I cannot say. But the buyers for the rare and unusual likely keep them in business.

Maybe it's OK to buy at the store, but they are shipping bad and sick plants.

I also had a bad experience with Norman's Orchids. They sent me plants infested with mealybug and a virused plant. Some of the plants I got from them look healthy -- but I'm not going to order from them again. It IS a shame because they have lots of wonderful orchids that I'd like to order.

They are selling good plants at the store, but for online orders they shipping plants out of garbage can.

Where do you buy mail order that's good ??

I would NOT buy online anymore. It's good to buy in store and see what you're buying.

I recently bought more than a dozen different seedlings (vanda, milt, cat.) online from Olympic orchids. Good plants all in all and very reasonable prices. I previously bough some seedlings on Etsy from Premiumorchids. That was a complete waste of money.

Thank you, I'll look!

you could also checkout Hausermann orchids.

Norman's (orchids.com) and Seattle orchid both carry some hard to find orchids, and I've gotten some good ones from them both, but also some bad ones so their quality is very mixed.

However There are many excellent online growers. Hausermann's, Carter and Holmes, JLorchids, Sunset valley orchids, Odom's, all stand out as I've ordered many great plants from them with no issues. There are many others with great reputations that I haven't ordered from such as , RF orchids, Marlow, Waldor to name just a few. I would prefer to buy my orchids in person and choose the plant I like, but there aren't nurseries near me.

Thank you for the list of the orchid growers!

The quality of the selling products should not be mixed. It means the seller is not good. I agreed that it's better to buy in person, but not always possible. So, when we don't have this choice we're going online.

I've gotten amazingly healthy plants from Big Leaf Orchids.

I just got 4 phals from Hausermans and they are big healthy beasts!

I've ordered many plants from Orchids.com and have never had an issue. 30+ plants so if they were so terrible you would think I would have had many issues.

Hausermann's is also very good. I used to live about 25 min from them and that is where my addiction was originally fed......

I've had good-ish luck with Andy's orchids. I really like Mountain Orchids. I won't buy from Seattle Orchids any more. As someone else mentioned Olympic Orchids has good prices, but many of their orchids have not reached Blooming age. I'm ok with that. :)

I bought 3 phals and 1 paph from Norman's Orchids and they were great and in spike with flowers! Good packaging, great plants, fast and affordable shipping. The problem with all of the other sites listed is that they don't have many phals. Sunset specializes on Catts, others have 1-4 pages worth of species and some common hybrids of phals, and then all the other novelty orchids. That's great, but I love phals, since they have done the best in my home growing conditions, and flower multiple times a year again and again with minimum effort and plenty of neglect. I don't care for cattleyas, dendrobiums, and other high light orchids, I don't want to worry about when to repot, or rest period, or cool period. I just want my phals, and Norman's has GAZILLION of them to choose from: species, simple hybrids, complex hybrids, intergenic hybrids, whatever your heart didn't even know it desired! Yes, my plants had some minor bugs, but they came from a large nursery. You can't keep a greenhouse completely bug free unless you douse it in pesticides. I don't expect my other nursery plants I buy to be completely free of animal life, I take it upon myself to exterminate it. Upon arrival I ignored all of the "don't repot within 30 days" instructions, washed the entire plant under a spray of warm water, sprayed the shit out of entire plants with roots with Neem oil/detergent mix, then planted in new media, and quarantined them for a couple of months. They are growing very well with new leaves and roots, and about to bloom again! I will buy from Norman's Orchids again.

If you have any other online sources that have 200+ phals for sale I would love to know!

Old thread but I've been off this forum for a long while. Though I've read the complaints for years, I've ordered from Norman's multiple times over the last 15 years and never had a single problem. In fact I'm going to be ordering again next month. Mostly Phals. Norman's has an incredible variety of them that I can't find anywhere else.

Judy, that is exactly what I get from them too. Come spring I will get more. NO problems with mines either)

Lucky you guys! You can see what I've got from them and it's not the first time.

hi,

I'm planning to buy some moth plants as gift. I saw one of the seller offer plant with buds. Is it ship well with buds? Also when is the best time to buy. I'm in zone 7, is the plant withstand the cold in shipping?

thanks
elsa

Hi Elsa, no they are not OK with cold.

I said I paid extra $15 to Norman's Orchids to get a plant in bloom and they sent me a plant without a bloom stalk even. And no tag. So, I would NOT RECOMMEND TO BUY FROM THIS SELLER orchids.com. It was not just one time - 4 times in the row. I was still hoping they will send me good plants. I am afraid to buy online after this bad experience, but heard that there are better sellers.

beauty lover,

I saw other people suggested other vendors here. I would like to try order when the weather is warm. This pandemic is so inconvenient. it's better to see the plant in person.

You are right. Try to look at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's - they have good plants. I bought some good orchids at Kroger.

I've bought a couple plants from Trader Joe's and threw them out because they covered with mealybugs under the soil. Same from Safeway. Haven't had issues with Whole Foods.

Elsa, In general I don't have plants shipped in bud in the cold. You're really better off waiting, regardless of where you order from.

judyj,

thanks, I will wait until spring and order online. I hope it's not difficult to ship a plant with flower.
the orchid flowers is getting smaller and smaller after years even I put fertilizer. is it do with the age or is it because of the quality? I used to bought them from home depot or costco.
thanks

Elsa, I didn't have this - the flowers stay the same size. Maybe you don't feed them enough?

Polina.

I should have researched orchid sellers prior to buying with Norman's... they do not answer their phones, voicemails or emails. Very disappointed and will NOT order again. Hopefully my plants are not sick. We will see.