For many years, Carter and Holmes Orchids has been the premier source for orchids of every variety. We invite you to search our on line catalog for your orchid and supply needs and to visit our extensive orchid care section.
For a limited time we are now offering free packing and shipping for orders of ten or more plants from our website, from our 2008 Spring Catalog, and from our 2008 Summer Listings!
Retail customers still get bonus plants of our choice for every five plants they order. Wholesale customers get wholesale discounts on bare-root orchids and on orchids in pots. (Our regular packing and shipping charges apply to orders for less than ten plants.)
Many of the orchids offered in our 2008 Summer Listings are new and have never appeared in our catalog. Many of these are larger plants in 3.5" pots and all are healthy, growing plants like you expect from Carter And Holmes Orchids. All are limited, so order soon!
Carter and Holmes has started auctioning select orchids on eBay and we have set the starting bids for any plants that we have offered previously dramatically lower than the previous prices. To find our auctions, you can use eBay's Advanced Search with our ID, carterandholmes, or you can simply click the this link.
New selections will be entered each week, with the auction set to end the following week in the evening. Please be sure to check these auctions regularly, so you do not miss any of these one-of-a-kind offerings.
The Latest C&H News
August 2008 Calendar -- Friday, August 1 2008 The August 2008 calendar features Paphiopedilum purpuratum. You can download the calendar in a variety of screen resolutions by right-clicking on one of the links below and choosing "Save Target As" to your desktop.
To make the downloaded picture into wallpaper on a PC, follow these steps:
right-click on your desktop and select "Properties"
click on the "Desktop" tab
click on the "browse" button
click on the "desktop" icon
click on the file you just downloaded and click "Open"
in the "Position" drop-down, choose "Center" or "Stretch"
click "OK" and you're done!
Spring 2008 Catalog Available On-Line -- Friday, February 22 2008
Our 2008 catalog items are on the website and and you can download the catalog at no charge in PDF format. Bear in mind that this is a 24MB file, so you will need the Adobe Reader and a high-speed connection (DSL or better recommended - a dial-up connection could take an hour or more).
C&H TV! -- Saturday, August 11 2007
Discover how Carter and Holmes Orchids prepares orchids for shipment and how we guarantee safe delivery. Just click the "PLAY" button in the center of the screen below.
About Us
Bill Carter and Owen Holmes began selling orchids as cut flowers in the years following World War II when corsage flowers were in great demand for Valentine's Day, Easter, and Mother's Day. As lifestyles became less formal in the 1960's and the demand for cut flowers decreased, we began producing orchids for home growing.
We started hybridizing orchids in the 1950's and developed our own modern laboratory for seed and tissue culture in the 1970's. Our hybridizing program has resulted in worldwide recognition for Carter & Holmes as a source for outstanding orchids - in particular, art-shade cattleyas. Today, we ship orchid plants of many genera to hobbyists and commercial growers throughout the United States and to many countries around the world.
If you have received an award on one of our plants, please let us know about it.
We welcome visitors to our 18 greenhouses Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you cannot visit us in person, we hope you will telephone, write or e-mail your questions about our orchids, pricing or other matters.
Monday-Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Closed on Sunday
Carter & Holmes Orchids PO Box 668 629 Mendenhall Rd. Newberry, SC 29108 Visit C&H
For example, orchids that we generally refer to as cattleyas are actually members of the cattleya alliance, which is made up of several genera as follows that can be bred together:
Cattleya
Laelia
Sophronitis
Brassavola
Epidendrum
Broughtonia
Encyclia
Because the names are so lengthy the genus is abbreviated. There are a number of species within each genus, and these species all have Latin names. When hybrids are made between two or more species they are given hybrid names – usually in English, but they may be in Spanish, German or other languages depending on where the crosses are made.
Blc. stands for Brassolaeliocattleya and means that the hybrid includes Brassavola, Laelia, and Cattleya in the background.
Similarly,
Lc. = Laeliocattleya
Slc. = Sophrolaeliocattleya
Bc. = Brassocattleya
Eplc. = Epilaeliocattleya
Bpl. = Brassoepilaelia
Ctna. = Cattleytonia = Cattleya x Broughtonia
Sc. = Sophrocattleya
Pot. = Potinara = Cattleya x Laelia x Sophronitis x Brassavola (When four genera are used in a cross it is given a name plus –ara, so this combination was named for a Mr. Potin)
L. = Laelia and means only Laelias were used in the hybrid, although several Laelia species might be in the ancestry
L. lucasiana, L. anceps, and L. tenebrosa are all species. Species names are not in capital letters. Hybrid names do begin with a capital letter
Lctna. = Laeliocatonia= Laelia x Cattleya x Broughtonia
Enc. = Encyclia
Other orchid families are named similarly:
Dtps. = Doritaenopis = Doritis x Phalaenopsis (Most of these look and grow exactly like Phalaenopsis)
Ascda. = Ascocenda = Ascocentrum x Vanda
Vandafinetia = Vanda x Neofinetia
Asconopsis = Ascocentrum x Phalaenopsis
Paraphalaenopsis is a genus related to Vandas
Books like Growing Orchids published by the American Orchid Society and All About Growing Orchids published by Ortho have sections with more information about orchid names.
