Description
IMPORTANT NOTES:
***Please look at all the pictures carefully (and read the text in the photos) so you’ll know the sizes of the plants we’re offering in this listing.***
Plants are NOT in-bud/bloom when shipped. Blooming Size plants will be shipped BARE ROOT (no pot).
QUICK FACTS:
– FINALLY — we’re able to offer BIG Vanilla planifolia vines! It is quite difficult to find Vanilla planifolia plants of this size in the US outside of Florida or in various botanical gardens. These vines are around 3 feet tall, and will thrive in humid, warm growing conditions. Under good growth conditions, they could bloom in 12 months or so. Plants will be carefully packed and shipped via USPS Priority Mail. UPS 3-Day is also available (please inquire).
– Genuine real live vanilla orchid plant! Grows like a vine!
– Fascinating, historical, important plant. Perfect gift for orchid collectors who think they have everything (chances are they won’t have one this size!), and also for doomsday preppers who need their vanilla chai lattes when the stuff hits the fan.
– These are established vanilla vine cuttings potted up with sphagnum moss in 3.25” square pots. The cuttings are around 3 feet tall, please see photos of representative plants. IMPORTANT: Vanilla plants are propagated by taking cuttings of larger vines.
– SIMPLE GROWING INSTRUCTIONS: Thrives in warm, humid, bright conditions, but avoid direct sun. Water 2X/week. Do not let temps drop below 50 F for prolonged periods (45 – 55 F during shipment is OK). Fertilize with dilute balanced fertilizer weekly during growing season. As vine lengthens, wrap a stick with sphagnum moss for the vine to grow on.
-NOTE: This is not the easiest plant to grow inside the home. It can be done (some people grow theirs in a bathroom, and one guy I know takes showers with his, although it’s at the other end of the tub so it doesn’t get too much hot water on it), but you’ll have to be creative. As alluring as this might be for a new orchid grower, it’s not one we’d recommend if you’re new to growing orchids. Vanilla plants are actually very hardy, but they won’t thrive unless you can provide HIGH HUMIDITY conditions, which most new growers are not able to provide right away.
VERY IMPORTANT: KEEP PLANT IN HUMID CONDITIONS!
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FULL and EXCITING DESCRIPTION
Yes, your favorite vanilla ice cream gets its flavor from an orchid! Many people are shocked that vanilla is an orchid, probably because most of them think an orchid is one of those nice flowers you see in offices and supermarkets. Here’s news for you: the orchid family is massive, with around 30,000 known species, many with amazing forms, colors, shapes, and uses. The quest for new flavors has been going on since humans could eat, and some people will eat just about anything, so it’s no surprise that a hungry Aztec one day decided to eat a vanilla “bean” (note: they’re NOT beans, they’re seed capsules that result from the pollination of the Vanilla orchid flower), and decided it tasted pretty good. Since chocolate also comes from the same Central and South American region, they started adding vanilla flavoring to their chocolate drinks, and when the Spanish took over, the conquistadors sent vanilla and chocolate back to the Old World. The rest is history.
Vanilla planifolia is the most economically important orchid, by far. If all other orchid types were to disappear from stores tomorrow, folks would simply switch to other flowers. But if vanilla disappeared tomorrow, things would get bad, with civil unrest soon to follow. Actually, that’s not quite true, as some clever chemist has already figured out how to make vanilla flavoring from, of all things, wood pulp. But wouldn’t you prefer all-natural REAL vanilla that you grew yourself? Well, get on the bandwagon and grow your own! Vanilla thrives in warm, humid conditions and as a vine (unlike the vast majority of orchids) will eventually grow up and around trees, stakes, etc. The plants we’re offering are still about three years from blooming, but once they bloom, you can pollinate it with its own pollen (plenty of videos online that show you how), and six to nine months later, dry that seed capsule out, drop it into a bottle of vodka, and you’ve got your own vanilla extract, or a fancy new cocktail.
