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!
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.
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.
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
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.