Orchid Tourism in Florida and Georgia

Playing Orchid Tourist

Last week, my husband and I took a six-day vacation to Orlando, Savannah, and Charleston. When I travel I always like to find out if there are orchids I can see along the way. John did a little research and found an orchid nursery called EFG Orchids in DeLand, Florida that was only a bit out of our way on the drive from Orlando to Savannah. So we took a tiny detour from our road trip to see some orchids!

EFG Orchids

EFG is fairly small compared to some other orchid nurseries we’ve visited, but they have a nice variety. I of course took lots of photos and wanted to share them here. I didn’t catch the names of all of these, so if you can ID any of them, please let me know in the comments. First up, I particularly loved this Phaleanopsis schilleriana:

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Orchid Haul from Santa Barbara Orchid Estate

Over the holidays last year I received a lovely gift from my in-laws: a gift certificate for Santa Barbara Orchid Estate. My husband and I visited the place way back in May 2011; it was my first ever visit to an orchid nursery, and I loved it. I didn’t buy anything when we visited because I was worried about transporting orchids safely on a plane (which I have since done successfully). So I was excited to have the opportunity to have some orchids shipped directly to me from the estate!

From our 2011 visit
From our 2011 visit
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Visiting Norman’s Orchids in Montclair, California

My husband and I recently returned from a much-needed vacation in Southern California. He’s from Glendale (a Los Angeles suburb) so we started off there, then spent a few nights in Hermosa Beach. From HB we drove to Palm Desert and stayed a few nights, then returned to Glendale for a night before flying back home.

For some reason it didn’t occur to me to research local orchid growers prior to our trip, but a couple minutes into our drive to Palm Desert I thought, “hey, we should see if there are any orchid nurseries along the way!” So I searched “orchid nursery” on Google Maps’ new pit stop feature…and lo and behold, a whole bunch of places popped up. The first one I saw was Norman’s Orchids—whose website I’ve browsed many times before—and it was only located about 10 minutes out of the way on our drive. The decision was a no-brainer: we had to stop by on our mini road trip!

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Visiting R.F. Orchids in Homestead, Florida

Vanda at R.F. Orchids
Vanda at R.F. Orchids

A few days ago my husband and I returned from an eight-day trip to southern Florida, and it was a much-needed escape from the Brooklyn winter. We flew into Fort Lauderdale and drove to Miami to stay in South Beach for a night; then we drove down to the Keys, with a 3 night stay in Islamorada and a 4 night stay in Key West. Of course I knew I had to look out for orchids in this tropical climate, and I was not disappointed! Needless to say, I pretty much photographed every orchid that I saw, so I’ll be splitting this vacation up into two posts: the first will be photos of our visit to R.F. Orchids, a nursery and showroom in Homestead, and the second will be photos of orchids that we saw throughout our trip.

Let’s get started with R.F. Orchids!

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A Very Belated Update: My Orchids, and Visiting Orchid Farms

It’s been way, way too long since I last updated this blog and for that I apologize. I’ve actually been traveling quite a bit this summer: Puerto Rico, San Diego, Minneapolis, and most recently, LA and Santa Barbara. But I’m finally getting settled back in and feeling like I have a moment to write a blog post. Plus, I have some fun updates on my own orchid collection to share with you!

First (and most exciting), my NOID Oncidium from Ikea is in spike! This is the second time that it has spiked for me. There are a ton of little spike offshoots growing off of the main spike, so I’m looking forward to seeing tons of beautiful little fragrant flowers in the next few weeks:

Blooms coming soon!
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