Carter and Holmes Orchid Nursery, Newberry, South Carolina

 

“The orchid is Mother Nature’s masterpiece.”

Robyn

While visiting the lovely town of Newberry, South Carolina, we heard about the Carter and Holmes Orchid Nursery and were told it is a great place to visit. Since we are flower and plant lovers and the nursery was not far from town, we figured let's go check them out.   Before then,  I honestly had never thought about buying an orchid since I figured they would be too hard to grow, but thought they were beautiful. 

We got to the property which looks just a house from the street and were greeted by Mac Holmes, who led us back into one of the large greenhouses so we could see the beautiful plants.   He was super nice and said, “Just walk around and explore and if you have any questions, please ask.” The greenhouse we were in was huge and packed with plants. They were all labeled and the ones that were not blooming  had pictures of what they looked like blooming so you knew what you were buying.  They sell an amazing variety of plants. They specialize in Cattleyas Alliance Hybrids, Phalaenopsis, Oncidiums,  Ladyslippers orchids as well as many unique species and beautiful house plants.

Mac explained to us why this place is so unique. They have a successful hybridizing program here that was started in the 1950’s. They are one of the worlds longest running orchid hybridizing programs. They make new breeds of Orchids every day and because they invent them, they are allowed to register them under the names they give them. We noticed many of the names of the plants were named after areas of of South Carolina.

Mac gave us some of the background of this nursery.  It started when Bill Carter and his father, Owens Holmes who first owned a florist shop together before getting into the orchid, cut flower business in 1947 right here on the property where they grew up. After WWII, cut orchids became very popular and there was a great demand especially on Mother’s Day, Easter, proms, and weddings as they make beautiful corsages that stay looking fresh for a long time.  Then in the 1960’s, less formal lifestyles was in and that was a time when corsages were not ordered as much. It was during that time they decided to change the nursery over to growing orchid plants and tropical foliage.

He passionately described the different types of orchids they had to sell and in many sizes from pin head size to 10” to 15” across. I told him I had never taken care of an orchid and he explained how easy they were to grow and said, “There is nothing to it.  Just water them about once a week, put them in a sunny window on the south side of your home and they will bloom for 2 to 3 months at a time. If African Violets grow well with the light you get from a window, orchids will thrive there also."  We learned some orchids have scents such as chocolate, vanilla, coconut, and even Dr. Pepper. We saw orchids that would not bloom for up to three years as well as full grown orchids that were brilliantly blooming. You must be dedicated to care for them until they bloom and how exciting it will be when they bloom after waiting the three years. The choices of color and varieties was incredible with so many unique varieties of plants. They have over 40,000 types of orchids not including the ones they make and the lab has some 80,000 plants in the “Grow Room” at a given time. Just incredible.

That day, we only had time to see the one green house, but we were told there are 17 greenhouses on the property. I know next time, we will set some extra time aside to visit more of them. We chose a couple lovely orchids, one was as Yu Pin Orchid that is a lovely lavender orchid with lots of blooms on it about 4”, Hunting Island Majestic which is one they hybridized that will produce a beautiful red bloom in three years (once again, patience is the word), and a nice houseplant that is called a Leather Leaf Vein plant or Fittonia from South America. Mac was very knowledgeable, kind, and patient with us as we chose our plants.

Carter and Holmes Orchid Nursery is still a family run business where you can either stop by the nursery and see their variety of plants and buy directly from them, or order off their website, or buy from through the Amazon Market. They ship worldwide to commercial orchid growers and hobbyist alike and are known to ship out between 100 – 150 orders a week.

We highly recommend that you visit this nursery as the people running it are very nice and knowledgeable and the green house is very well run and interesting to see. The plants are very affordable and it is a fun shopping experience. They are open 9 – 5 on Mondays through Saturdays and visitors are welcome to tour their facility; all but the lab which is closed to the public to keep it as sterile as possible. They are located at 629 Mendenhall Road, Newberry, South Carolina. You can check them out at: www.carterandholmes.com.

As a conclusion to this post, we have had our plants for over a month now and the plants are doing great and our orchid is still in full bloom. Our thanks to Mac who gave us great information to be able to grow these beautiful plants.

Till next time. Bye for now.