• IndefiniteBen
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    1 year ago

    It’s that expensive because it’s hard to farm. If it can be reliably farmed the price would likely go down.

        • Magnetar@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          You do now, that’s the point. It used to be basically impossible to cultivate orchids, then they found the trick to doing it (some fungus or bacteria or something), and now you can buy them everywhere.

        • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Those are usually phalaenopsis orchids- the white button mushrooms of the orchid world. If you can remember to water them every 11 days and keep them in bright indirect light, you’ll have a couple months of nice flowers and then you can throw it away once it doesn’t look pretty anymore, because it was $9.99 at Safeway.

          You aren’t going to find habenarias at the grocery store. They need precise lighting, humidity and watering/drying conditions that mimic their monsoon/dry seasons, with proper differences in day and nighttime temps. They aren’t that much more expensive, usually in the $30 range, but they are only sold at specialty shops, and are usually purchased by people who don’t consider an out of bloom orchid to be ready for the trash.

          https://orchidden.com.au/2022/02/16/habenaria-orchids/