Business & Finance: Orchids

Most expensive of flowers is, of course, the orchid, for which collectors have sometimes paid as much as $5,000 a plant. In the tropics orchids are found as brilliant patches of color at the top of high peaks or hidden in luxurious forests. In northern climates their reproduction and culture is an exacting scientific task over which specialists must labor for the seven years that elapse between the time the orchid seed is planted and the day the flower bursts into bloom.

Favored as the prime floral gift, the orchid has been an object on which many a Wall Street dollar has been spent. Last week, however, to the orchid industry went 2,500,000 Wall Street dollars, not squandered, but carefully invested. The investors were Selected Industries, Inc., an investment company headed by R. S. Revnolds and the affiliated Reybarn Co., both of which are units in the $200,000,000 group of holding companies headed by Chas. D. Barney & Co. The investment was the purchase of Thomas Young Nurseries, Inc., of Bound Brook, N. J.

To Selected Industries, Inc., whose holdings include a substantial interest in Kraft-Phenix Cheese Co., last week's purchase was consistent with a policy of investment in standard commodities. The demand for orchids is constantly increasing, and the price has been stable. Only companies with large capital, long experience, and adequate plant facilities can supply the increasing demand. All these conditions are met by the Thomas Young Nurseries, largest orchid growers in the world. The 28 Young greenhouses are spread over 55 acres. Inside these greenhouses, where the native climate of each species of orchid is reproduced, are some 500,000 orchid plants, ranging from seedlings in little glass tubes to blooming flowers, with stems inside specially corked bottles of water, ready for shipment. Daily output of the Young Nurseries averages between 1,000 and 3,000 flowers, reaches such heights as 11,000 on Easter Sunday.