Welcome to a new decade! We hope that you all made it through 2009 in good health and spirits. It has been a difficult time for most of us these past three years, but we are blessed to have had your support through it all. Thank you for that! We wish you the best going forward.

The last three years have been difficult ones for Oak Hill Gardens, but we have been able to deal with the downturn by continuing to find ways to save on our expenditures. The drop in oil prices helped us lock in natural gas prices for this past winter at much more reasonable rates than last season. Unfortunately, we have had to lay off an employee and reduce some hours for others, but we hope to make a comeback in this area if and when the economy begins a recovery.

Our smaller space is easier to manage, and it goes along with the trend of hobbyists tending toward growing smaller varieties. The two greenhouses that we closed over the last three years housed mostly large Cymbidiums, standard Cattleya varieties, and houseplants, all of which took up a lot of space and, in general, seem to be less popular than in years past. We still have a good 12,000+ square feet under glass for growing!

We are seeing upswing in the popularity of growing species, miniatures, and mounted plants. This has lent itself well to our new, more confined growing area. We have done our best to supply the largest possible variety of orchid species, hybrids and mericlones at reasonable prices. Hermann continues to operate our laboratory and flasking operation. He has produced much of what you see in this catalog by sowing seed from our extensive stud plant collection. His focus has continued to be the propagation of species orchids; you will see that reflected even more so in this year’s catalog.

You may also notice that we have again reduced the color portion of the catalog. This is not only to save money, but is a reflection of the fact that the vast majority of orders these days are placed via our website. There are still about 60 photos in this year’s catalog, but almost 1200 on the website! We encourage you to take a peek at our website at www.oakhillgardens.com, if you are not already utilizing it. It is easy to use, and kept up-to-date on a weekly basis. We are told that is a great resource tool for the orchid grower. Every month we offer plant or supply specials on our homepage!

In addition, we always post currently spiking and budded varieties on the home page, ready to ship so that you can get a quick fix of color, if you so desire! We have also been sending out an Oak Hill Gardens e-newsletter since summer of 2007. If you are not already receiving it, please sign up for it by requesting it via e-mail at oakhillgardens@sprintmail.com. The newsletter will keep you apprised of what is on special and what is about to bloom! It also contains orchid growing tips!

There are many more varieties available in the Oak Hill Gardens greenhouses which we do not have in sufficient quantities to list in this catalog. If you like to explore, come visit us to discover other rare gems amongst our “odds and ends.”

If you are unable to visit us, plan to attend one of the many orchids shows in which we will be taking part. The 2010 show schedule is listed on the back of our printed catalog mailing wrap, and also on our events page. You also won’t want to miss the Eighteenth Annual Chicagoland Orchid Festival on September 24-25-26, 2010 (contact us for details!).

We invite you to use our catalog with complete confidence, as we guarantee satisfaction and pledge to serve you as best we can. You may place an order from this catalog by mail, fax, phone or e-mail. Secure on-line ordering of all of our plants and supplies is available on our continuously updated website! The website is updated every week, so you may keep stopping by to check out our new offerings!

If we can be of help with any special requests, growing help, show information and horticultural answers not found elsewhere, feel free to call, fax, or e-mail us.

Enjoy the growing hobby!

Hermann Pigors Liese Pigors-Butler Greg Butler

 

Oak Hill Gardens
37W550 Binnie Road
P.O.Box 25
Dundee, IL 60118-0025
Phone: (847) 428-8500
Fax: (847) 428-8527
E-mail: oakhillgardens@sprintmail.com