Transcripts

Orchids: The New Popular Blossom

SUSIE GHARIB: Well, speaking of a nice Valentine's gift, roses are the traditional flower to give a sweetheart. But another flower is becoming a popular gift: the orchid. Jeff Yastine reports on the orchid's rise from collectors' item to gift staple.

JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: From above, it looks like an ordinary flower-growing operation finishing out a very busy time just before Valentine's Day. But get up close, and these are not roses or tulips. They're orchids, millions of orchids, being prepared and shipped for retailers nationwide, like Home Depot and Costco. Kerry Herndon is the entrepreneur -- and lifelong orchid fan -- behind this operation.

KERRY HERNDON, CEO, KERRY'S BROMELIAD NURSERY: This is what we start with, which is a baby orchid.

YASTINE: Herndon saw an opportunity 20 years ago to make orchids, once the province of collectors, into a mass-market item.

HERNDON: The way they were being grown was the same way amateurs had been growing them since the 1700s. It didn't make sense to me at all, and I concluded that the only reason why orchids were so expensive is because they were. There was no real other market reason for it.

YASTINE: But growing mass-produced quality orchids is not easy. Some are grown from seeds, but millions of these plants are actually created from tissue samples -- clones-created in a laboratory environment. And then it'll take another two to three years before those orchids get to even this size, where they're ready to be shipped out to our mass-market retailer. Herndon's operation uses computer automation, industrial robots and rolling metal pallets to boost efficiency and keep costs low. It also helps in growing top quality orchids. In the process, it has turned what was once an exotic, expensive plant -- the white phelanopsis (ph) or the yellow Belden's kaleidoscope -- into a long- lasting $25 Valentine's Day alternative for flower-buying consumers.

HERNDON: They want to buy the flowers. They want to possess them, but they're afraid they won't last and they'll be cheated. As an industry, we have to do something to make sure that they're not cheated, that they get good value for their money.

YASTINE: And winning fans on Valentine's Day, one orchid at a time. Jeff Yastine, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Homestead, Florida.