Eric,
I must respectfully disagree with your posting. Most of the people you refer to are not hybridizing and there is hardly a SECOND generation orchid person amongst them. With the bank enforced closure of Stewart Orchids just after Christmas we saw yet another historic orchid establishment (incorporating Armacost and Royston) disappear.
The hobbyist orchid industry in the USA is in a sorry state. Very few original hybrids or original meristems are available anywhere in all the major hobbyist genera like Cattleya, Cymbidium, Odontoglossum Alliance etc. Did Merrit Huntingdon's sons follow him and keep Kensington Orchids going, did Bill Stewart's children continue at Stewarts, is the next generation of Hausermanns going to be growing orchids in Chicago in ten years time? No, no and probably not!
However I certainly don't blame the orchid folk. Most hybridizers selling within the USA get a dismal return on their efforts. When the opportunity (or if the opportunity) comes to sell their property at a good profit, all power to them. Most are extremely hard-working, like the names you mention in the Californian scene but I don't see any multi-millionaires amongst them! I always remember Andy Phillips on the Monday after the July Santa Barbara Orchid Fair, going to places like Cal-Orchid and reinvesting his earnings from the weekend in new young stock. It was obvious then that he would be a future major player in the hobbyist orchid scene.
Andy Easton
Florida
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