FAQ

Short answers to common questions.

Do you sell orchids?

No. Florafinders is an aggregator. We index listings from orchid nurseries and send you to their sites to buy. We never hold inventory and we never ship plants.

Where does the price history come from?

From our own crawl archive. Each time we check a nursery page we record any change in price or stock. The history on an orchid page is built from the changes we observed, starting from when we first tracked that listing. It is a guide to price movement, not a complete record of every price a nursery has charged.

Why do some orchids show as out of stock?

We may keep a canonical page visible even when no indexed grower currently has that orchid in stock, so you can find it again and save it to your watchlist. Most listings are re-checked every night, so a restock usually shows up within a day or two.

Can I trust the seller ratings?

We do not show seller ratings, and including a nursery is not an endorsement. Judge each grower on their own reputation: read the reviews on their site or on hobbyist forums.

What is CITES Appendix I?

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species lists all orchids in at least Appendix II, with a small set of species (notably the tropical slipper orchids) in Appendix I. Appendix I means international commercial trade in wild plants is effectively prohibited; any cross-border movement requires both export and import permits.

In practice this means you cannot legally import a wild-collected Appendix I slipper orchid. Artificially propagated plants can move under a different permit framework. If a seller offers Appendix I species without paperwork, walk away. Florafinders does not check sellers' permits.

CITES governs international trade. Nursery-propagated plants shipped within your own country generally need no CITES paperwork; cross-border orders do, and the seller handles the export side. You are responsible for the import rules in your own country.

How often is the data refreshed?

Listings are re-checked regularly, usually somewhere between every day and every three days depending on the nursery. Each seller row shows when that listing was last checked. "In stock" means the grower's page said so at the last check; confirm with the grower before ordering something time-sensitive.

Why are prices in US dollars?

So that listings from different countries compare directly. Where a nursery lists in another currency, we convert at a reference exchange rate that we update periodically, not a live rate, so the converted figure is approximate. The nursery charges in its own currency; the price at their checkout is the one that counts.

My orchid is not listed. What do I do?

Email us at hello@florafinders.com with the name and, if possible, a link to a grower currently selling it. We will look at whether to add the grower or, if we already index them, why the listing is not matching.

A nursery I trust is missing. Can you add them?

Send us the URL and we will take a look, or point them at Add your nursery. We look for a substantial orchid range and a maintained public catalogue; see our how-it-works page for details.

Why do you use the RHS register?

Because it is the authoritative record for orchid hybrid names. The Royal Horticultural Society has been the International Registration Authority for orchid hybrids since 1961 and holds well over one hundred thousand grex registrations. Where a hybrid on Florafinders shows an RHS grex record, we matched the name to the register with confidence. Not every hybrid has such a match yet; the rest are matched automatically or by review.

Do you ship internationally?

We do not ship anything. Most of the nurseries we index are in the United States, and we also index nurseries elsewhere, each labelled by country where we know it. Many will ship abroad on request, but phytosanitary certificates and CITES permits add cost and time. If you are in the US, the "US-based sellers" filter narrows results to domestic options; wherever you are, check each grower's shipping page before ordering.

Can I get alerts for specific orchids?

Not yet. Email alerts are coming soon. For now, tap the heart to save an orchid to your watchlist. The watchlist is a bookmark list that lives in this browser only, so open the orchid page to see current prices.

Is the watchlist saved on your servers?

No. The watchlist sits in your browser and never touches our servers. That also means it does not sync between devices or browsers, and clearing your site data clears it.

How do I report a bug or a data issue?

Email hello@florafinders.com. Include a URL and a short description.