For what price?

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Orchid display in the Orchid House

Black and white lantern slide. ca. 1900.

The orchid registers and purchasing books stored in the archives of the National Botanic Gardens are a valuable insight into the cost of orchids at this period in time. From the late 1800s into the early 20th century, Frederick Moore was spending approximately £300 on plants per year, half that amount reserved for orchids, ferns, palms and indoor plants.

 

'...the price I paid for it...'

In 1839 Loddiges was the first nursery to issue a catalogue devoted solely to orchids, many of which commanded an outrageous price. The highest price paid at auction for a single orchid in 1856 was £68 5 shillings for a Phalaenopsis amabilis. Moore was not immune to the extravagance of paying an inordinate amount for what he craved to cultivate.

 In Lesser known Orchids, Moore mentions a little pygmy that had “given so much pleasure to visitors. This diminutive character was Pleurothallis astrophora, which stood all of “3 inches high”. Moore stated he “felt ashamed of the price I paid for it” at £2 10 shillings.

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Pleurothallis astrophora

Lydia Shackleton.

Watercolour on paper. 1892.

The amount, which today equals approximately €230, is what a gardener would have been paid for a 2 and a half week period. Moore often purchased orchids that were more expensive. In 1894 he spent £5 5shillings on Cymbidium dayanum and in 1895 bought Eulophiella peetersiana for the same price.

Yesterday and Today

Prior to the abolition of the tax on glass in 1845 orchids were seen as a hobby of the rich nobility and businessmen. Once the tax was removed, orchid species and the ever-increasing number of hybrids continued to command high prices at sales and auctions.

Glasshouses started to became more affordable and by the 1850s there was a boom in glasshouse production for the middle class. Growers started to concentrate on temperate and cool growing orchids as heating costs were still prohibitive. 

Following the closure of the famous Loddiges nursery in 1850s, James Veitch, William Bull, Hugh & Stuart Low and Frederick Sander began to open nurseries. Such was the delirium for rare and unusual orchids; it was common for orchids to be sold for anything up to $1000 per plant.

Today certain orchids still command high prices; two examples are a South East Asian slipper orchid named 'Gold of Kinabalu' which in recent years sold for €4800 and a hybrid Cymbidium ‘Shenzhen Nongke' exchanged hands at auction for €180,000 in 2005.

‘Gold of Kinabalu' is a clone of a naturally occurring species, Paphiopedilum rothschildianum. The species is endangered and on the verge of extinction due to over collecting. It now grows in fenced-off parts of Malaysia’s Kinabalu National Park.

On the other hand, Cymbidium 'Shenzhen Nongke' is a hybrid that blooms once every 4 to 5 years. It took researchers eight years to create the delicate bloom. It remains the most expensive flower ever sold. So maybe orchid fever is still alive and well.

Orchid growers can do well with their best plants. Each year, in February, The Tokyo Dome hosts the Japan Grand Prix International Orchid Festival. Competition for Grand Champion attracted over 970 plants. In 2017, The Grand Champion, winning €15,000 and a Mercedes car, was Mr. Kiyoshi Nagi, an amateur grower, with a plant of Dendrobium glomeratum ‘Long Well’.

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Two Paphiopedilum, probably Paphiopedilum insigne (right) and Paphiopedilum insigne var. sanderae.

Black and white lantern slide. ca. 1900.

For what price?