Color Orchids was our second stop on this year's "Culpeper Harvest Days Farm Tour" Saturday. Who knew that there was a wholesale greenhouse orchid operation right here in Culpeper County? Not us. This was their first year on the tour.
From the outside it just looks like your everyday large industrial building, but taking the tour (which ran every hour or so) & passing through the doors into the greenhouses - wow! Two acres of Phalaenopsis orchids in all stages of growth & bloom!
The woman giving the tour was very knowledgeable & definitely seemed to enjoy her job/work. In just 7 years, Color Orchids is now one of the largest orchid growers in the United States. Their plants are sold in supermarkets, big-box stores, florists, & even on Amazon. The young plants are initially grown in Taiwan where the growing conditions are perfect for that stage of growth in quantity, then the young plants are shipped to Culpeper where they are grown on until bloom size. While we were there we got to see workers grading (& sometimes tossing) plants for quality along a large conveyor belt, & also got to see the workings of the climate-control system & a few of their patented Phalaenopsis varieties.
The tour/talk was very interesting, & they also had a small display of miniature orchids for sale, as well as a raffle going on to win a large planter with around half a dozen Phalaenopsis. (Although I bought six tickets (6/$5), I haven't heard yet so someone else must've walked off with that prize - boo hoo!) Very unfortunately they do not sell to the public from the greenhouse - they are wholesale only except for during the tour.
Bottom Line: This was a very interesting & new spot on the farm tour, & if they participate again in future years, we'll visit again. read more