With orchids, sometimes you just have to wait it out! Whenever I go to a grocery store or Home Depot, I sometimes do a quick look to see if there are new or interesting varieties. Another good place to look is a Trader Joes, if you have any near you. They often have a surprising selection, and almost always have more than just Phalaenopsis.

Most people when they go to purchase an orchid, look for flowering ones (the more flowers the better). The problem is the more flowers the more it cost!

Go to your local Wal-Mart, K-Mart or Home Depot stores and ask the garden area assistants when new stocks are delivered. The day before, go visit the store and see what was left over unsold. You'll see mostly unlabeled orchids, orchids with NO flower and unattended orchids which looks like they're dying.

Sometimes the prices on these are greatly reduced, and other times they're just thrown into a corner of the store for sales or be thrown away. Here's where you can talk to the area manager and make a deal.

Go to your local garden fair if there are any (we have them here once a year), wait until they're about to close and see what kind of a deal you can make. People that go there (and other swap meets), ....after spending hours, don't want to pack their stuff to take back home. So ... they will deal just to get rid of their stock.

And yes, if you can ... join an orchid society group and go to their meetings, because sometimes they will give away cuttings. Go Luck on your new hobby.

Really,making friends as always in life is the best way. For great and free furniture to Orchids. So society's of like minded people are the best way to go..their knowledge also short cuts the learning curve and keeps you from wasting time and space,and money, on junk plants.

Commercially? around here Flea Markets,Farmer Markets,..then down to Trader Joes and local nursery's and box stores. Try them all,since some no matter how close together in the same city? Have some plants the others don't have.

EBAY and Amazon if you want it and don't care that shipping is 3x the cost of the plant. They I think, are about the most expensive way to buy a plant. You don't even get to pick them out.

Or you can move next to me ... LOL! I'm always giving away potted cattleyas to my neighbors. ... And I don't give away small plants, I give away large potted plants and usually blooming which cost around $50.00 if you purchase at a nursery.

Why? Because who needs 10 orchids of the same type? Besides, I'm running out of space and I need room for new additions! LOL! Guess I'm a popular guy in my neighborhood.

What do you have them potted in KG?

Until about late 2014, I had them in Oak Bark and Perlite. However with over 120 orchids, it's hard to keep track of which orchid needs re-potting due to the Bark breaking down.

Some of my orchids started dying due to the breakdown of the bark which has turned to mush, followed by a white mold and fungus.

IMO this environment which is now loaded with Anaerobic bacteria is what kills most orchids even tho people are following the proper procedure for taking care of their orchids, and still lose them.

Then I ran into a Horticultural site where they used nothing but coarse perlite, and so I went that route.

The beauty about that is that it's ALMOST impossible to over water because perlite drains quickly, doesn't deteriorate and holds enough moisture to keep the orchids happy.

All of my orchids (with the exception of my Phals) are in this medium, and here's what I do:

1) I use an 8" clay pot which used to be called Azelea pots but are now called orchid pots. LOL.

3) I put in some large gravel on the bottom for additional drainage and air circulation.

4) I place my orchid in and fill all around with coarse perlite which I buy in large bags from Amazon.

5) I leave about 1 1/2" of space on top and top the perlite with either small pea gravel or Lava rocks to keep the perlite from blowing in the wind.

So far so good and one of the benefits of doing this other than what I already mentioned is that ANTS no longer nests inside the pots which happens when the bark starts to break down. If you have your pots outdoors, you'll probably know what I mean.

If you decide to try this, be sure to place the perlite in a tub of water prior to use to keep the dust down because that's nasty stuff. The bottom line is that it works for me!

Hummm, interesting. Wonder how it would work with thrips?

Jane

I have many, many orchids and most of them I did not pay full price for. I often find them at grocery stores with no flowers, looking quite dry and in the bin for quick sale. I usually pay just a few dollars. However, I read all of the above posts and I am now going to join an orchid society so I can get freebies! Good luck with your new obsession!

Plant society's are where you can get collectors plants from kindly like minded people. Some of my rarest most valuable plants- of all types- were given to me. And its always fun when somebody give you something that you have no idea of .....and it turns out to be something special.

Vice versa too. I gave away some very hard to find Aloe cuttings to a school teacher..and I saw that same big eyed "What is that?" look. In the years to come?- more happyness-lol.

"now going to join an orchid society so I can get freebies!" Some people believe in the tooth fairy!

Lets see.....at a local orchid society meeting the other night, there were a few freebies.

Lucky birthday draw. One free plant

Lucky Novice draw. One free plant (but you had to have a plant or plants in bloom in the Novice section of the benching)

Best plant of the night. One free plant

Every other plant handed out was a raffle prize.

Members had plants for sale, No freebies there.

Our OS is a great group of hobbyists. We love to show off our blooming plants and oooh and ahhh over erveryone else's plants. We always have a program and/or speaker. So we always have the opportunity to advance and/ or share knowledge re: growing orchids. We always have a raffle table, cost of $5., very nice plants. But like Arthur says not often complete ""freebies" . Probably a couple times a year someone will bring small divisions to share with members. Please find and join a society, I don't think you'll regret it!

If you were interested in Phals, I'd say take mine! I am friends with a florist who gives me all her phals that come back from client arrangements. My husband's office also replaces their reception-desk phal every 3-6 weeks and my husband brings home any of the interesting ones...otherwise they go in the trash.

I get several a month and really could happily re-gift them!

I do the same with the local dentists and doctors. In Florida, we have a lot of 'snowbirds' who go North in May but spend the winter here. They buy orchids, most all Phals and then don't want them to die. I take them and grow them over the summer.

I'm running out of space so I'm cutting back.

Jane

I would also suggest seeing if there are companies in your area that take care of interior plants for businesses. I live near Atlanta and have one of these jobs. We always have leftover orchids that were in live plant arrangements and once done blooming we give them away. They are usually phals but we are starting to use other kinds as well.

Josh,

If you go to HD or WM, seeing the "beat up" ones, talk to manager. Tell him or her "who would be silly enough to buy these ready to go in the garbage for the price of the healthy pretty ones?" That's what I did, sometimes it works, sometimes don't. But I did a couple of times like that, not knowing what color the flowers will be is kind of nice surprise when they bloom. I have a few like that and they really give me a very nice pleasant surprise. Beside, being 15 years old. You must be really cute when it come to bargaining!! Try that! Here are my unknown rescued orchids just bloom for me first time.

Tanie

It also depends on the store manager. I notice at some stores, there are some orchids in good condition in the reduced price rack consistently marked down 50%. But at other stores, even in the same chain, they keep the ones with tattered blooms at full price.

If you have a chance, visit the flower market in LA, there are lots of cheap Phals if that's your thing. There is also a shop that has out-of-bloom phals for $1 each with gigantic leaves.

Trader Joe's has the best bang for your buck IMO. You have to check constantly because all the non-Phalaenopsis orchids are snatched up quickly. They often have Den kingianums and nobiles for around $13 there.

I wished I live somewhere near by those stores!!. Where I live, if I am lucky and it's very seldom I got 1 or 2 for 1/2 price at WM. Even with that, still $8.99!! We have 2 WM in this city and only one of them have the "almost dead" for 1/2 price. The other store, they don't do anything about it. Let them die... How cruel... because nobody willing to pay full price for the "more that half dead" ones....In HD, the little tiny phals are still $19.99. Safeway is even worst of all. No phal is under $26 but once in the blue moon, they have Miltoniopsis for $40 ea.!! and it happens to be this time.. I went there yesterday and saw 1 of the milts exact the same one I had a couple of years ago but perished by the heat last year. I grind my teeth to buy one and promised myself will not let it die this time....

Tanie

Living in So. Calif., you must have lots of Trader Joe's nearby. Mine has started carrying some rare varieties. Ask when they get delivery, and be there when they come in if you can. The rare ones have not been popular with the general public here, so maybe you'll find a real treasure at your store. Ask to talk to the person in charge of florals. They will go out of their way to please their customers.

Check at Fred Meyers/Ralphs/Krogers grocery stores. My local Fred Meyers goes in for orchids in a big way, and mark them all down 50% after a few weeks. There are always still some very nice ones.

In my northern VT area, the largest garden center (Gardeners Supply) usually has only the most common types, such as phals and oncidiums. They used to get in more unusual ones, but I guess most first-time buyers only think a phal is a true orchid so they've stopped ordering more interesting types. I've had good luck at Lowe's buying fairly small ones for around $13, such as a maxillaria and quite a few catts. Trader Joe's had some gorgeous zygopetalums last year for around $13 or $14, so I grabbed 2. Those actually rebloomed for me.

I buy mainly online and buy the smaller plants to grow to blooming size. Check out Carmela’s, Carter and Holmes, and Orchids by Hausermann. The all have specials and lots of the specials are free shipping.

I just started the orchid hobby too! I'm on a tight budget as well and I find that besides joining an orchid society in your state, the best deal on orchids for me has been at Trader Joe's! They usually carry 3 different sized single orchids. Mini/medium/large which are about 6.99/12.99/19.99 respectively where I live (NY). They also have pots containing 2 orchids which I think are 24.99? I can't remember anymore. I stopped going to Trader Joe's because I kept buying a mini phal each time I was there lol. Compared to other big stores like IKEA, they know how not to drown most of the orchids. Most of TJ's orchids are in pretty good condition if they haven't been sitting in the store for too long. Just make sure to lift them out to check the roots and crown before purchasing.

If you google information about Trader Joe's orchid sources many people on forums talk about where TJ's source their orchids. It seems to come from a decent nursery and I find that TJ's has the largest variety in color and pattern when it comes to orchids especially the phals. All other big stores or small shops I visit carry the same solid white, solid pink, solid purple types. Only one small flower/plant shop carried interesting phals and some non-phal orchids for an inexpensive price. Good luck on your hunt!

Some Ebay sellers are collectors who sell off plants from time to time so that they can buy more. I found one of these and got a nice shipment of Vandas, and some extra plants for a reasonable price plus he was such a nice person. I also found some reasonably priced phals from an Etsy vendor.

Depending on how much of a hurry you are in, flasks/baby plants are available on Ebay and compots can be found at Carmelas.

Memories.

When I lived in Hawaii there as a store called GEM that used to sell 1.5 to 2 inch potted orchids for 25 cents and up. Some went as high as a dollar, I didn't get many of those. I guessed they were surplus from someone that was deflasking seedlings. All were labeled with the parents used in the cross. I had lots of plants, could never get them to bloom.

This was back in the early 1970's, things are probably different now.