Black November
Black November!
What is Black November?
Well, starting in 2021, instead of waiting for Black Friday, we’ve made the entire month of November an insane deal blowout event with ridiculous deals on all of our wonderful plants.
Why?
Well, in years past, what we discovered was that we received an overwhelming number of orders on Black Friday. As exciting as this was to watch in real time, it created huge problems for us due to the cold weather and frankly just the volume of orders.
Consequently, we found ourselves in January still working on Black Friday orders.
Last year we debuted the Black November concept and people immediately got into it.
Our Black November guarantee is: there may be other deals, but there won’t be any better deals this year.
So you can feel comfortable jumping into Black November at any point and getting some great deals.
If you want to see what other deals are coming, you can also ask us to hold your order until some later time (though we recommend shipping before the end of the month, especially if you’re in a cold climate). To do that, just place your order, then forward the order confirmation to info@motesorchids.com and we’ll give you more instructions on how to add to your order without additional shipping fees.
Thanks and enjoy Black November!
Hurricane Prep for Your Orchid Collection
When a hurricane is looming one should run all the orchids as dry as possible to reduce the threat of fungus and bacteria. But contra-intuitively, just before the storm strikes one should saturate the orchids to the max. You should do this five to twelve hours before landfall, depending on your schedule.
First, because we want the plants to be as heavy as possible to help prevent them being blown away or about. Second, because if one's water source is a well, electricity for the pump may be off for days or even weeks. Thoroughly watered plants will be much happier should this occur. Even if you are able to bring all your collection inside, water them thoroughly with two to three applications spaced a few minutes apart. They will be perfectly happy for a day or two without water and we will all have enough mess to deal with without watering orchids in the house.
Remember, wind velocity increases exponentially as height increases. Get your plants as close to the ground as possible but off the ground as flooding may saturate them with fungus and bacteria. Usually it is not wise to attempt to cover them with a tarp or shade cloth as the whipping of the cloth by the wind likely will cause more harm than the wind itself.
If you are growing under shade cloth, the cloth should be furled tightly to protect it. Bright burning sun is typical in the wake of a hurricane and shade will be invaluable If you are growing under trees be prepared for the possibility that the protective canopy will be destroyed. Have a plan to protect your plants from sun burn.
We will send out advice on post-hurricane orchid recovery after the storm.
Good luck and please feel free to share this information with whomever may benefit from it.
For more advice like this, subscribe to our newsletter and consider getting your own copy of Florida Orchid Growing: Month by Month.
Made in the USA
Our Made in the USA sale is now live! Eight new hybrids, including the dazzling Vanda Motes Starfall and Motes Interstellar and colorful insignis hybrids. Click here!
Black Friday Doorbusters Start Now with Special Deals all Week
Our Black Friday deals are famous as being the best in the business and 2020 is no exception!
Sign up to receive as they launch specials for Black Friday by clicking here.
Our first deals are live! Click to check out our seedling deals now.
On Black Friday:
Starting AT 10 am
Starting AT Noon
Private Collection plants 25% off until 5pm
Starting AT 2 pm
Anyone who has made a Black Friday or pre-Black Friday purchase this week of over $200 will be emailed a password to access Vanda Motes Purple Rain (pictured above) on sale for $200. At least ten plants will be made available at this discounted price exclusively to these customers.
Limit one per customer between 2 pm and 4 pm. Orders exceeding quantity one will be canceled. If any plants are left over at 4 pm, you may order however many you like.
This post will be updated with new Black Friday Specials soon after they are offered. To be the first to know, sign up.
Get Minis 30% off with free shipping on orders over $60 this weekend!
Like ‘em small? Hate shipping and handling fees? Get our Miniatures for 30% off this weekend! Plus: use code SHIPMINISFREE for FREE SHIPPING on orders over $60 of miniatures only! Please note, this is only for miniatures only, and including any non-miniatures in your order will void your order.
Go Big or Go Small!
We’ve never had a Labor Day sale like this before! Go big (but be patient) with our Direct from Thailand sale. You can get 10 big standards for just $195 plus s&h—or mix it up a bit and get six standards plus a few more compact Motes originals.
Or, get twelve quarter teretes for just $132 plus shipping and handling. Because these plants are so durable, we can now ship them ground nationwide, even though they are huge! Exciting! Order now for pre-order savings. Plants will ship in early October.
Like ‘em small? Hate shipping and handling fees? Get our Miniatures for 30% off Labor Day only! Plus: use code SHIPMINISFREE for FREE SHIPPING on orders over $60 of miniatures only! Please note, this is only for miniatures only, and including any non-miniatures in your order will void your order.
Last but not least, enjoy select BOGOs on the Direct from Thailand page.
All Direct from Thailand plants will ship in early October.
Miniatures will ship within two weeks. We remain short staffed but are trying our best to succeed in these trying times. Thank you for your continued support.
We're back!
Happy to report things are back to normal at the nursery. We are excited to resume sending you the best vanda hybrids in the world. Click here to browse our hybrids.
Corona virus and shipping updates
Miami-Dade is now the world epicenter of the coronavirus. We’ve been shut down for the past two weeks due to coronavirus concerns. We will be resuming shipping on Monday, provided there are no more adverse external events beyond our control.
We will be preparing orders the rest of this week to ship next week. In order to avoid confusion with the huge backlog of orders, we will be suspending the use of the ADDON code until later this month. However, you can still place new orders. Existing orders will be shipped by the end of the month. New orders will be shipped in the first week of August.
We will continue to celebrate our Made in the USA hybrids very soon.
Stay safe!
The artists formerly known as asocentrum...
Vanda garayi and vanda ampullacea are gorgeous little miniatures with an interesting back story.
Did you know that they used to classified as "ascocentrums?" Then, in 2012, taxonomists determined that they were really vandas after all. Boom! A whole category of plants reorganized.
Dr. Motes wrote articles about then ascocentrum garayi and then ascocentrum ampullaceum for the American Orchid Society, which are available for free on our website by clicking here (garayi) and here (ampullacea) explaining why they deserve a spot in everyone's collection.
And after you check them out, take advantage of our special two for one deal by clicking here.
What makes Hybrids so cool?
What makes Hybrids so cool?
Glad you asked!
Of course, all orchids are pretty amazing. When people make fun of the "basic b" white and pink phals at the supermarket, we always want to pause and pay a little homage to the process that resulted in those plants being in your supermarket. (We often do this while standing in line for a Publix sub. Seriously they are delicious.)
Generations of breeding went into that plant. Then it was mericloned and mass produced overseas, then shipped here, then finished in a local mega-grower's complex, then distributed to supermarkets and home improvement stores around the country.
It's a miracle of science and logistical capability.
And they are beautiful! But our hope is always that those mass produced plants will be the key to opening a new curiosity about orchids that cannot be fulfilled with mass produced, assembly line plants.
A desire that can only be fulfilled by owning your own unique plant, that no one else in the world owns. Having the magic of blooming a plant--and knowing, when you see it open in your garden or greenhouse or apartment or house--wherever it blooms, you are the first person in the world to see that flower. Ever. Period. No one else in the world has the exact same plant.
And then you post it on Facebook to make everyone jealous.
But that's the magic! And that's what Motes Orchids offers you. A little piece of bespoke magic.
[The sale is over but be sure to join our mailing list to be the first to know about our promotions, learn about orchids, and see beautiful pictures!]
We also invite you to join our community on Facebook, where you can see beautiful pictures of our plants, share your own, learn and participate in a friendly community of orchid lovers. Click here to join our Facebook group.
As always, your comments and questions are very welcome. Just drop us a line on the contact form.
Thanks,
Your Friends at Motes Orchids
(Discount shown at check out, no code required. Eligible plants are on linked page, private collection, bundles, and species are not eligible.)
Hurricane advice and Sale Postponed to Sept 7, 2019
Friends,
Hurricane Dorian is a dangerous and unpredictable storm. Although we initially believed that the track had us in the clear, the most recent advisories have moved its track southward. So, while our thoughts remain mostly with our friends up the coast, Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties cannot rule out a direct hit. Therefore we are postponing our sale this Saturday until the next Saturday, September 7, 2019. And, we are reproducing our hurricane preparation advice.
When a hurricane is looming one should run all the orchids as dry as possible to reduce the threat of fungus and bacteria. But contra-intuitively, just before the storm strikes one should saturate the orchids to the max. You should do this five to twelve hours before landfall, depending on your schedule.
First, because we want the plants to be as heavy as possible to help prevent them being blown away or about. Second, because if one's water source is a well, electricity for the pump may be off for days or even weeks. Thoroughly watered plants will be much happier should this occur. Even if you are able to bring all your collection inside, water them thoroughly with two to three applications spaced a few minutes apart. They will be perfectly happy for a day or two without water and we will all have enough mess to deal with without watering orchids in the house.
Remember, wind velocity increases exponentially as height increases. Get your plants as close to the ground as possible but off the ground as flooding may saturate them with fungus and bacteria. Usually it is not wise to attempt to cover them with a tarp or shade cloth as the whipping of the cloth by the wind likely will cause more harm than the wind itself.
If you are growing under shade cloth, the cloth should be furled tightly to protect it. Bright burning sun is typical in the wake of a hurricane and shade will be invaluable If you are growing under trees be prepared for the possibility that the protective canopy will be destroyed. Have a plan to protect your plants from sun burn.
Good luck and please feel free to share this information with whomever may benefit from it.
One Day Sale August 31, 2019
We’re rarely open to the public, but whenever we are, it’s an incredible opportunity to get great plants at amazing prices. Plus, get plants that would be super expensive to ship for really really cheap!!
If that wasn’t good enough, you can enjoy our relaxing country nursery and get educated with Dr. Motes’s free lecture at 11am on growing orchids.
All the action is at Motes Orchids from 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday August 31, 2019. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to add some amazing flowering plants to your collection.
Motes Orchids
25000 S.W. 162 Ave
Homestead, FL 33031
Caribe Plants Going Out of Business Sale
Caribe Plants are hanging it up! Robert and Diane Randall are some of the best and will be missed. Go to their going out of business sale this weekend June 14-16, 2019. Here’s all the details:
Where:
Carib Plants, Inc.
26505 SW 203 Avenue
Homestead, FL 33031
Email: caribplants@att.net
When:
June 14th, 15th, 16th 2019
9:00AM - 5:00PM each day
Vanda Motes Purple Rain Raffle to Benefit Alexis and Jim Solly
This Sunday we will be drawing a raffle to benefit Alexis and Jim Solly. 100% of the proceeds will go to Alexis and Jim Solly.
Click here to enter the raffle.
We are donating the plant and shipping and handling to any destination in the continental United States.
You can buy raffle entries for $10. Your odds are at worst 1/100 because we will draw another raffle name for every 100 entries.
Alexis and Jim are stalwarts of the Florida orchid growing community. Jim is battling cancer. Here’s Jim and Alexis’s statement from their GoFundMe page:
In December, 2013, my young, vibrant husband and best friend, Jim, was diagnosed with colon cancer. There hasn’t been a moment gone by since that horrible day that cancer hasn’t lived in our home. For a short time, we thought the cancer had been beaten into remission, but it quickly came back. When it did, it was much more aggressive. It had metastasized to his liver, his abdomen, both lungs, and his lymph system.
We have battled this disease, and the financial burdens it brings with it, for nearly 5 years. Luckily, our health insurance has paid most of the medical bills; but the rising premiums, and out of pocket expenses have been more than we ever dreamed. All through these long years, full of debilitating chemo, radiation, and 16 surgeries, Jim has kept our landscape business afloat.
But Jim’s significantly diminished ability to keep our business producing at capacity over the past few years has tapped out every resource we once had. Our safety net has been spent keeping a roof over our head while income dwindled and expenses rose. Now Jim’s leg is swelling at an alarming rate, as the result of tumors in his groin lymph nodes. Walking is becoming uncomfortable; and soon, Jim will no longer be able to complete his physically-exhausting responsibilities to our customers. We are in the process of selling our business while it is still viable, but that will take many months or longer.
We don’t know what the next year holds for us, but we are not giving up our fight to beat this! Next week, because of the generosity of friends, Jim and I are able to travel to MD Anderson in Houston for a second opinion.
It is not easy for either of us to swallow our pride and ask for help, but that’s the position we find ourselves in now. If we could find the financial support to ease our burden and stress about paying the mortgage and health insurance, we could dedicate our energy to finding a way to heal Jim.
We would be grateful beyond words.
If you would like to make a donation directly to the GoFundMe, click here.
How Does This Work?
You buy raffle tickets. Each raffle ticket gets you an entry. We will print the names of every entrant and print them and put them in a hat. If you buy multiple tickets, you will get multiple entries. You must be located within the continental United States or have the plant shipped to someone in the continental United States. No international shipping or shipping to Hawaii. Sorry.
What are my odds?
That’s a good question and we’ve got good news. Your odds are at least as good as 1/100. If we get more than 100 raffle entries, we will draw two names and ship two plants. And so on, i.e., if we get 420 entries, we will draw five names and ship five plants.
What will I get?
You will get a large seedling/near blooming size Vanda Motes Purple Rain, the most desired vanda on the planet. Every time we have offered these plants they have sold out in under 18 hours. These plants are priced at $160 and that’s not a made up list price, that’s the price that we get for them. Every week we get emails from people begging us to sell them. We simply don’t have enough to sell. But we are reaching into our private stash this one time only to give you a chance to get this exotic, beautiful, unique plant for only $10.
When does the raffle end?
We will stop selling raffle tickets at midnight Pacific time on Saturday August 11, 2018.
When will the drawing happen?
The drawing will take place at our nursery at 12:30pm on Sunday, August 12, 2018. We will be having an open house on Sunday from 10am to 5pm, and we will ask a customer who is not a raffle entrant to draw the name or names of the raffle. The winner or winners will be immediately announced on our Facebook page. If you are not a member of the Facebook page, you can join or view it by clicking here.
The winner or winners will subsequently be emailed. Plant or plants will be shipped next week.
We will present a check to Alexis or a designated surrogate on Sunday August 12, 2018 for the entire value of the raffle entries. We will absorb the transaction fees. If Alexis cannot make it or send a surrogate, we mail Alexis and Jim a check on Monday.
Shop the Private Collection for exclusive plants
In order to offer some of our very select plants, we created a new section on our website: the Private Collection. You can click here to check it out. This is where we will be offering very limited editions--such as seedlings that we may only have a dozen or less of, legacy plants when they become available, and larger size blooming vandas from limited edition lines of breeding.
If you are just starting your collection, you will likely find our other plants to make more sense. But for true connoisseurs, the Private Collection is where you'll find breathtaking treasures.
When ascocentrum became vanda.
Vanda garayi and vanda ampullacea are gorgeous little miniatures with an interesting back story.
Did you know that they used to classified as "ascocentrums?" Then, in 2012, taxonomists determined that they were really vandas after all. Boom! A whole category of plants reorganized. There's an article about it here if you're interested.
Dr. Motes wrote articles about then ascocentrum garayi and then ascocentrum ampullaceum for the American Orchid Society, which are available for free on our website by clicking here (garayi) and here (ampullacea) explaining why they deserve a spot in everyone's collection.
All read up? Now click here to get both of them in spike right now for only $60! (Please note, if you are reading this after publication date, the deal may be gone.)
Come join us this weekend: February 16-18, 2018
This weekend, visit Motes Orchids for free classes and super deals! Click here for great open house deals!
Classes at Motes Orchids:
Friday 1:00 pm: Growing Dendrobiums in South Florida and
Sunday 10:30 am Growing Vandas in South Florida
Complete class schedule:
