{"id":307,"date":"2009-05-06T09:34:29","date_gmt":"2009-05-06T17:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/06\/how-to-buy-orchids\/"},"modified":"2010-04-27T10:52:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-27T18:52:00","slug":"how-to-buy-orchids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/06\/how-to-buy-orchids\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Buy Orchids"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that Mother&#8217;s Day was not started by a greeting card company, but by Julia Ward Howe in 1870 as an anti-war holiday? And speaking of Mother&#8217;s Day, there&#8217;s no better gift for mom than an orchid. Whatever the occasion for an orchid purchase, here are some tips on getting the most for your money:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Look for freshly opened flowers, with no shriveled buds. If the orchid has multiple blooms and they&#8217;re all already open, it can be tough to tell how long they&#8217;ll last. If there are a few unopened buds, chances are that the flowers are fresh, and you&#8217;ll have the bonus of watching the buds unfurl over time.<\/li>\n<li>Leaves should appear healthy-looking and firm, not floppy or too soft. A few small blemishes may not indicate any problem, so if the plant seems to be in good shape, don&#8217;t make that an automatic disqualifier. Some varieties of orchids can have darker or lighter green leaf coloration, but yellow or black leaves are bad.<\/li>\n<li>If you find <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/problems\/index.html\">insect pests<\/a> on any flowers or leaves, find another vendor.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s ok if a few roots are sticking out of the pot. These should be firm and white or silvery in color. Green tips mean the roots are actively growing.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/identify\/orchids\/phalaenopsis.html\">Phals<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/identify\/orchids\/paphiopedilum.html\">Paphs<\/a> are great choices since their blooms can last for months, and they can survive in lower <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/care\/details\/light.html\">light levels<\/a> often found in homes and offices.<\/li>\n<li>If you&#8217;re looking for an orchid with scented flowers, remember that some varieties may only have a scent at certain times of the day. Smell the flowers to determine if it&#8217;s a scent that you like.<\/li>\n<li>For care purposes, it will really help <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/identify\/index.html\">to identify your orchid<\/a>. Look for a plant with a name tag, or ask the vendor. It&#8217;s not always necessary to know the exact name, just the family of orchids to which it belongs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that Mother&#8217;s Day was not started by a greeting card company, but by Julia Ward Howe in 1870 as an anti-war holiday? And speaking of Mother&#8217;s Day, there&#8217;s no better gift for mom than an orchid. Whatever the occasion for an orchid purchase, here are some tips on getting the most for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buying-tips","category-misc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3221,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions\/3221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}