How many orchids in a collection is normal?

[Louise]

what's normality...something useful but often boring : we all need some fun. Orchids are fun to me but also i appreciate everything i learn by growing them.
People collect a lot of different things mostly objects, the difference is that we collect living species. Not only as for the lets say ashtray collector do we buy more of them regulary but those plants by growing regulary take more and more space (lucky the one that colects ashtrays!)
We need space continuously and that space we share with others, for me I have to share it with 3 cats and as anyone nows they, like orchids, love windowsills ...sometimes i see that they are a bit fed up with new plants coming
To this day I think I have nearly a hundred orchids...and i live in a small flat

[brush]

In my collection now , I have 90 orchids . Is this normal ? Not sure exactly if it is normal but I guess it is normal if you have an obsession with orchids . You just have to collect the one you don't have , and bring home that oh so beautiful one , and take up the little space on that table for one .

I think once you get one and have been bitten by the orchid bug , it turns into an obsession , if you have 40 or 200 . There is no turning back .

[Royal]

I have about 250 right now and I don't have a greenhouse. But anyone who knows me would tell you I'm anything but normal.

Last month I saw a documentary on PBS about Ferret collecters and breeders. Just tell the hubby, "hey, at least they're not ferrets!"

[camille1585]

What's normal? Well I think it depends how you look at it! For my family my having 50 orchids is NOT normal (they call me the obsessed orchid freak- which I won't deny) For me 50 is normal, but not as normal as it could be! The only thing that is normal about orchid growing is that once you get some, you always want more!

[Blueszz]

Yesterday when I visited my parents and discussed artificial lights, my Dad said only commercial growers will do that. I said no... hobby growers do that too, as you run out of window sill space or like me get fed up with changing the blinds several times a day, pushing plants towards the windows, pulling them back etc to regulate the amount of light they are getting.

Not hard to guess the next question: How many orchids do you have currently?

The wrong answer was: Hmmm, wait a moment, I should count them first

I started counting, 11 in my bed room, 3 in corner x of the living room, 3 outdoors... and Mom concluded... you'll have about 20?

No actually It's about 30 but a lot of them are tiny seedling sized plants.

Clever answer from my Mom: but you have to water these too and I had to admit that the tiny plants needed more care than the larger well established ones.

I didn't tell her I have 37 orchids which makes me feel bad as I feel pretty obsessed

Nicole

[PleuroPal]

I've been told that once you get a tatoo, you immediately start thinking about your next one. I don't know if that's true for most people but I will say it became true for me with my first orchid. I've been doing this for a few years now and I'm up to around 50. I think my girlfriend is jealous... She thinks I love them more than I love her. I tell her she's silly but I hope she doesn't put me to the test.

[jkofferdahl]

I think that 40 is, in fact, quite ABnormal. You need to go buy some more!

[Ross]

What's normal is having only enough plants that you can get the watering done. What's "over the edge" is not letting that stop you

[dounoharm]

i currently have about 300 in my greenhouse, and i know them each by name, lol....they are all behaving themselves and currently reproducing by division.....some were just too big to manage! i have a major light problem in the house, so we only put display plants in there.....and all the growing is done in greenhouse...but i have had a major itch to buy more lately...if i can just squeeze in another 30.....hmmm

[kinknstein]

I have 102 chids now, though one or two look to have signs of virus so they may have to go bye-bye. I have another 6 chids arriving tomorrow and plans on purchasing at least 20 more this summer. Normal I guess would be as many as possible!