How Orchids Became So Cheap

“An orchid is no longer worth what it used to be,” said Wu Po-Hung, one of Tainan’s largest orchid growers. “We learned how to grow them too well.”

Orchids are the best-selling potted flower in the U.S., even beating the poinsettia, which are bought to decorate homes all across the U.S. during the Christmas season. Rare orchids also sold for as much as $100,000, and were sometimes hunted by wealthy collectors who sometimes killed each other to get a new breed (see Susan Orleans’s The Orchid Thief). Now, big box retailers like Lowe’s sell orchids for as little as $5.48. How did the orchid get so cheap? According to The Wall Street Journal, places like Taiwan and the Netherlands have figured out a process of breeding orchids into a mass-production business, and now anyone can pop into home improvement or gardening shop and scoop up an orchid for a few dollars.

Photo: Seokhee Kim

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