Yippee! The wife has decided that it is within our budget for me to get another new baby or three (depending on price, obviously) and I have "scooched" a few plants closer together in the shade hut to make some room. I've been poking around online and looking at a few little hotties, but I would love some input from fellow orchid enthusiasts on what my next plant should be. Please do not be offended if I don't go run right out and buy the plant you suggest, or even any of the plants that are suggested in this post, but I will definitely be doing some research and keeping in mind any and all suggestions for the future. Below are my criteria, and an abbreviated list of plants that have/ have not done well for me.
I would rate my skill level of care at "intermediate to advanced": I have the know-how and time on my hands to keep some slightly tricky 'chids, but I will not be measuring out nitrogen and trace minerals into reverse-osmosis water at the correct level of ppm under an exact range of foot-candles. i live in FL and grow outdoors under shadecloth or hanging in trees. therefore, cool growers and humidity-dependent plants will suffer when it gets baking hot and all drought-y.
i tend to like some of the "weirder" plants rather than showy/poofy/extravagant. no flashy phal, fluffy cattleya, or home depot dendrobium has ever so much as turned my head. scruffy is good, opulent not so much. also, i MUCH prefer species as Nature created them over hybrids that man has muddled together. but i will admit, our meddling and muddling has created some incredible plants, and i will not rule them out entirely.
my current favs/ best performers have been "true" encyclias, prosthechea, tolumnia, brassavola, and a few modest catts and variations on phal violacea. my vandaceous babies definitely perform on schedule, but i can tell that they need more water than i have time to give. the exception to this would be my neofinetia, which is doing awesome. i have heard of a blue form- if anyone knows where to get this, i would love to get one as long as it is kept the same as my white one.
things i have loved to look at and failed to grow well include mini phals, an aerangis, and a few bulbophyllums. they are all still alive, but flower sporadically if at all, and all obviously suffer from a lack of ambient humidity. i can water daily, but all my plants are bone-dry within hours.
a few types i have been eyeballing whilst wiping away a spot of drool include various coelogyne, psychopsis/"butterfly oncidiums", epidendrum type dendros (that's what i call them, at least- i'm thinking of my pierardii and its long, pendant cousins), etc.
SO!!! If I haven't scared you away with my exacting criteria for selection, I would love to hear your suggestions! I truly wish that I could just walk into a greenhouse, sweep my arm toward every plant, and boldly shout, "I'll take them all!" But this is not realistic under my financial and space restrictions, so I have to be one choosy son of a gun. Please help. Or don't, and I'll just keep doing my research and hope that I find something I can keep well and enjoy. Either way, I GET NEW ORCHIDS SOON!!!
Pick my next orchid!
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