Orchids belong to the most diverse family of plants known to man. There are over 880 genera, 28,000 species and well over 300,000 registered cultivars currently documented. These numbers only begin to tell the true story behind the evolutionary success of modern day orchids. Orchids are the most rapidly (genetically) changing group of plants on earth and more new species have been discovered over the last few thousand years than any other plant group known.

Orchids are also one of the most adaptable plant groups on earth. Some Australian orchids grow entirely underground, and many tropical jungle orchids grow in the upper branches of trees. Tundra, rainforest, mountain, grassy plain, desert and swamp environments contain numerous orchid species.

Orchids produce seed pods with literally hundreds of thousands of seed that are released and scattered by the wind. Orchid seeds must establish a symbiotic relationship with a special fungus to survive its first year of life. The fungi gathers water and minerals for itself and the seedling, and the seedling shares its sugars from photosynthesis with the fungus. Only one or two orchid seeds will ever germinate and survive on that perfect crevice or depression that is both moist and has the fungus present. Even then, its chances to survive in the wild long enough to bloom are slim.

To avoid this problem, greenhouse growers sow orchid seeds on moist, sugar-rich, sterile agar, or they cut out growing clumps of orchid cells and place them on the agar. These techniques allow many hundreds of orchid plants to survive to maturity. New and improved hybrids can be mass produced rapidly. This is important as orchids are very slow growing. Many orchids take five to seven years to mature to flowering. You can see why breeding three or four orchid generations could span a person's lifetime just to get one new hybrid propagated sufficiently for sale.