Where are you in your orchid collecting

[flhiker]

Well I have around 2 hundred total. From mini species to one that has a 7 ft. spike. and many noid hybrid phals, dens, Catts, and Oncidiums. I grow all my orchids outside under trees and they seem to be doing well. I wouldn't have been able to grow these had it not been for the OB and it's generous members. But yes my taste have slightly changed. I seem to gravitate towards species, although not above getting a hybrid noid if the flowers catch my eye. After all it's about the show.

[Pilot]

I was just telling my wife tonight about this very metamorphosis! I used to buy whatever struck my fancy and now? I'm very discriminating on what I buy. For me, it's about the phals...first orchids I bought and still my favorite. I have gravitated to fragrant orchids and those approaching blue. But the golds are awesome too...such as those with Phal Lawrence, which for me happens to have a lovely sweet fragrance. I too lean to the species as well. Love my big leaf orchids!

[greenbean]

I've been growing orchids for about 7 years now. Before that I had spent years casually drooling over occasional photographs of orchid flowers and started researching orchids to figure out what might be a good starter plant. Like many people, my first orchid was a NOID phal. It was 50% off because it was way past blooming so I didn't know what color it was, but I figured it was only $8 so not much harm if it died. I had already been a serious plant addict for most of my short life, and orchids were just the latest in a long and continuing list of crazes.

Anyways, after several accidents involving broken spikes and family members in the doghouse I got it to bloom and found it to be a very large white phal. I still have it and call it my Great White NOID. It has just started producing more than 1 leaf per year and is up to 8 blooms on a spike, all about 6 inches across.

From there I bought a few more test subjects at a garden show. A Maxillaria tenuifolia, Paphiopedilum 'Macabre', a Cattleya aclandiae, and a Slc. Jewel Box 'Dark Waters'. The Catt. aclandiae quickly died of root rot and the Slc. wasn't much better off, though I did salvage it and it might have bloomed by now if I hadn't gotten impatient after 4 years of waiting. That particular seller would be blacklisted in my book if I thought I would run into them again.

Initially I was mostly into Phals, despite their slow growth in my cool climate. They still comprise a large portion of my small collection. Next I got into a Paphiopedilum phase and they now form the second largest group, and still growing. The remainder is a random smattering of mostly species and miniatures. I definitely gravitate towards species, fragrant flowers, and plants with cool names, like Miltassia Shelob 'Tolkien'. Most importantly, the growth habit can't be too messy or the flowers too "floofy". I avoid most of the Cattleya alliance and Oncidium alliance for these reasons, though I love my Brassia Eternal Wind 'Hawaiian Breeze', my Bc. Hoku Gem 'Freckles', and my recently acquired Miltassia Shelob 'Tolkien' and Bepi. Femme Fatale 'B.J.'

I love Oncidium Sharry Baby, but will probably never own one because I hate the ugly leaves. Jewels are my favorites at the moment, and I finally found a cheap source right here on OB! I can stare at their burning, sparkling veins for hours! Mottled-leaved Paphs will probably always be among my favorites because they have both attractive foliage and flowers. And I am always seeing random plants that I want to add to my collection but have to wait until I'm no longer moving between school and my parents' house (which is coming up fast, since I'm almost done with school). lol.

[tucker85]

I started with a large white phal that someone gave me as a gift. It did well and I later bought a couple more phals. When I finally decided to get serious about orchids I bought only cattleyas for several years. I was trying to get to the point where I had something in bloom all the time. Recently I’ve discovered ascocenda and vascostylis, these are two vanda crosses that bloom often here in south Florida. I hated the way vandas plants looked but when I found that they bloomed so much down here I started collecting them. Right now I’m into vandas, the small novelty phals and compact, fragrant cattleyas. The funny thing is that I bought orchids online, mostly from California, for about four years until I found out that some of the best orchid growers in the world are right here in south Florida.

[Merlyn]

Tucker, is that one plant you're holding in your avatar ?

[camille1585]

What a nice thread! Nice to hear the stories of how people ended up growing different things as time goes by.

I also started with a ‘must buy every single orchid in sight’ phase. My student budget strongly limited what I could buy, but I was still drooling over every orchid I came across. I started with Noid Phals, and then when I discovered the big wide world of orchids that existed outside supermarkets and garden centers, I went nuts, buying lots of different things.

Over time some didn’t bloom (Catts) or died because I had the wrong conditions, and others just didn’t like me (Dens). Then I got into a mini mounted (intermediate temp) orchid phase. I’ve stopped buying those because mounts hate me. In the meantime I have discovered that I am a Phal person at heart, and over the last 2 years I’ve slowly accumulated more. My collection is over 50% Phals now. I don’t really like most ‘normal’ mass produced hybrids, I like species, primary hybrids and novelty type hybrids. Right now one of my main Phal goals is to collect different equestris types, as well as all the equestris primary hybrids that I can find.

Since my conditions aren’t great for warmth loving phals, I’ve invested in some lights, and a heat mat. It’s really making a difference, they are growing much faster now.

[NIVENJ]

Pretty much started with one teensy little chid just on 5 years back.... where the bug bit and the addiction started........ Have not settled as yet, as to a specific alliance or specie........

the weather round here is pretty good for growing a wide variety of chids, so the collection has just been growing, and growing, on a rough estimate..... i should think there to be a good few hundred plants (500 +) from species through to hybrids and our local indigenous chids aswell............

knowing a few growers and wholesalers, in the orchid world surely does not help either......... it's a ohhhh look, thats pretty, and just has to be taken home kinda thing...........

Lately, i have included in the collection the pleurothalid alliance and been growing a few with good results and will in due time be expanding on this aswell, aswell as the maxillaria group,,,,,, have 7 different plants so far, and should by mid next week have another 12 arriving to join the family..........

mini's ad small growing plants seem to be the latest look-out, as they take up much less space.......

so perhaps in due time the collecting ( or shall i say hording) habit will calm down and i'll settle to specific things only......

For the moment, i'm pretty happy to expand some more and having a great time learning and adjusting to each chids individual culture.........

[Otis226]

Like most here, I too started with a Big Box store Phal hybrid. From there it expaned to Catts., a few of which I grew yrs. ago, then some Dends. and a couple of Oncids Latest fascination has been the vandaceous tribe, mostly the smaller, Ascocendas, ect. I've only been a serious orchid addict for about a year, so still consider myself a total newbie, but I get into anything I become interested in with both feet!
Upcoming hope is that a friend sends me a couple of hybrid Schomburgkias to work with. I'm patiently waiting for those lil gals.
Cheers,
Tony

[RosieC]

I'm much more discerning than I used to be. I used to have trouble resisting the NoID's in my supermarket, now I like to look and enjoy but I can easily walk away without buying.

But when it comes to named orchids, at shows or nurseries then I find it hard to resit anything pretty looking, big or small

[Vina]

well, I started with phals and nobile type dendrobiums, as most of us did
than i discovered all fancy looking minis , the smaller the plant was the better.
but my true passion now for last 2-3 years is lady slippers. I found that my conditions are good for some phrags and paphs.
On the other hand - I'm not trying to stick to particular collection frames.
Today I see my collection as mid size (it's abot 170 plants) and blooming year round. preferably with fragrant flowers. So, I'm giving away some of my plants and collecting new ones to meet this one requiremnet, sometimes to fill the empty holes of the year I still have.