No Roots

No Roots? No Problem.

Conventional wisdom says that plants need roots to survive. Yet, we regularly receive healthy looking orchids from clients which have few, if any, roots. Apparently, general horticulture rules do not apply to orchids.

Back in the 1920’s when corsages were the fashion in America, cut flower nurseries imported cattleya plants by the tens of thousands from the jungles of South America. Each orchid was removed from its host tree with a machete and nearly all the roots were lost in the scuffle. The hapless epiphytes were then slung into burlap bags for a weeks-long voyage at sea. 

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