Hoosier Orchid Company, an Indiana corporation, was founded February 14, 1989. Its roots really go back much farther, to William Rhodehamel's obsession with orchids which started as a child. On June 14, 1989, we broke ground on our facilities at 8440 West 82nd Street in northwestern Indianapolis. These facilities consist of a 2800 square foot building containing our laboratory and offices and a 4750 square foot greenhouse complex. The buildings are located on 17 acres bordered by 82nd Street on the south and Interstate 65 on the west. In the fall of 1989, we purchased the collections of Great Lakes Orchids, Inc., of Romulus, Michigan, and Sea Breeze Orchids, Inc., of Bayview, New York, and, along with the plants from William Rhodehamel's private collection, set out to become the finest orchid nursery in the country, specializing in tropical species orchids. In 1997, we purchased much of the breeding and sales stock from The Angraecum House of Grass Valley, California, Fred Hillerman's fine nursery which specialized in Angraecoids.

Our business is about evenly spilt between mail order and walk-in retail trade. In addition to our catalog and direct sales, we offer a number of programs and services. We give speeches to orchid and other horticultural societies around the world, and we participate in up to 25 orchid exhibitions and other trade shows around the United States and world each year. Here at home, we offer a full range of services to everyone. We offer repotting and plant boarding services, arrangements of orchid plants, deliveries, organize special events, offer tours of our facilities, and make donations to local charities. Our customer service ethic is exemplary, and we answer orchid or non-orchid horticultural questions, either at our nursery or by telephone.

What’s a “Hoosier”?

Many of our customers ask us how we came by the name of our company. Others, in the Midwest, have heard the term “Hoosier” all their lives, and know that it is a name for people from Indiana, or for the state in general. In fact, our official state motto is "The Hoosier State". Confusion from other quarters is understandable. Even some residents of Indiana don't always understand. In a sermon a few years ago at Saint Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Dr. Kent Millard, the new minister, related an experience that had to do not only with the term "Hoosier" but with Hoosier Orchid Company itself. He began his sermon that Sunday by saying:

"This is our fourth Sunday with you, and a number of people have asked me if I've adjusted to living in Indiana. Well, about ten days ago, my wife had an experience which made us know we were in Indiana. She called a florist and she was looking for a certain kind of orchid... and the answer on the phone was "Hoosier Orchid Company." Minietta said, "I don't know an orchid company, we just moved here." And they said, "No, Hoosier Orchid Company." And she said, "I'm calling you because I don't know any orchid companies." And they said, "No. Hoosier. H-O-O-S-I-E-R. Hoosier Orchid Company." And we suddenly realized that Hoosier does not mean "Who is Your" it means Hoosier.

Where the term came from is less easy to say. Howard H. Peckham's modern history of the state, Indiana: A Bicentennial History (W.W. Norton & Co., Incl, New York, 1978), contains perhaps the best account of how the name came about:

Various explanations have been offered, more ingenious than real. One version is that in 1825 a contractor named Samuel Hoosier or Hoosher was building a canal around the falls (actually rapids) of the Ohio. He preferred to hire most of his workers from the north bank, or Indiana side of the river, and they became known as "Hoosier's men" or simply "Hoosiers". The name stuck to them.

If at first it was an uncomplimentary word, shouted in derision as were Quaker and Shaker, originally the early settlers of Indiana wore it as a badge of identification. Soon they called themselves Hoosiers proudly and even defiantly. The word might indicate that a man was rustic, but at the same time he was a virtuous yeoman of Jeffersonian standards, neither ignorant nor ill-mannered. In fact, Indianans who moved on to other states almost never denied their heritage. They readily announced to new neighbors that they were Hoosiers. Those who leave the state now seem not to lose their allegiance to Indiana, their sense of once belonging to a certain place. They can grow sentimental, even lyrical about it.

Seed Propagation Laboratory

Hoosier Orchid Company offers one of the largest and most complete listings of seed-grown species orchids available anywhere in the world. We maintain an extensive seed propagation facility, and continue to try to grow as many orchid species from seed as possible. We sell only artificially propagated plants, either seed grown or divisions of well-established plants for which we maintain parental stock. We do not sell any wild collected plants. We believe this is a responsible contribution to ex situ conservation, and we are proud to offer our customers the finest in seed-grown species orchids. We believe that all orchid hobbyists can help with conservation, by purchasing seed-grown species, by refusing to purchase wild-collected plants, and by growing all plants to the best of their ability.