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Larry's Orchids is a prime example of a hobby outgrowing itself. In 1986, our oldest son Larry Jr. purchased a Dendrobium at a local building supply store. When it was finished blooming, instead of throwing it away, he gave it to me and said, "You're the Biology Professor - get it to bloom again". I did get it to re-bloom and thus my Orchid hobby began. I now have a personal collection of over 400 specimen plants from many genera. As a member of both the American Orchid Society and the Michigan Orchid Society I became aware of the large number of people in the Orchid hobby. When my personal collection began to outgrow my bench space I sold my doubles online. Surfing the Net I realized this was an easy way to buy different orchids to increase my collection and sell my overstock.

From a simple hobby setting we have now grown and become an Online Orchid Nursery and have expanded to have three growing locations. 90% of our sales market share is coming from online sales with the remaining 10% local wholesale florists and the retail hobby trade. We grow under glass, lights and during the summer months shade houses. We import flasks, compots, plugs, seedlings and mature plants from the Philippines, Canada, Mexico, South and Central America the Caribbean and Hawaii. With the high utility and labor costs here in the USA we are now using more and more contract growers off shore to supply our inventories. We still however, deflask, repot, and grow some seedlings along with holding some larger plants until they are put up for sale.

As a mechanism to create sales numbers more constant year round, in 2009, we introduced into our product line Patio Citrus, Edibles and Tropical Plants. As natural partners to Orchids in many growing conditions etc. this has proven to be a great addition. Orchid sales take a big slump in sales during the warm summer months. Those months however are the time plant buyers are interested in plants for their patio, porch and lanai. The hobbyist ends up parking his orchids under a tree for the summer and really gets into his patio plants. In the fall they are all moved indoors and again the Orchids become the main thrust and the Tropical's can still fruit and flower inside, up against the door wall. Stocking 30 different varerites of Citrus that are grafted and made for container growing, but producing full size fruit, have us now maintaining o ur sales numbers all through the warm months. This sales trend also now provides year-long employment for our very dedicated staff.