Not totally enamoured with big blooms...

[DirtyCoconuts]

vanilla are interesting- my neighbor added one to a new Poinciana tree and it climbed about 10' of vertical truck in a single season!!!

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Nemesisthewarlock

Thanks so much!
Ah well, you gotta hang out in person to get cymbidiums.

That's definitely one nice way to acquire orchids! That's a good way. Another workable way is looking at some orchid nursery catalogs, and also scan through ebay for some goodies.

Slipper orchids are so pretty - I've never known anyone who grows them, so I only have general knowledge concerning those.

There are certainly some very elegant ones out there. There will usually be at least 1 that will capture your attention - whether it is shape, colour, patterns, or a combination.

the ice-cube thing... that, I refuse to do.

Totally with you on that one. The person that started 'teaching' beginner growers to water with ice cubes would probably fall under the 'nutcase' category. This person is responsible for more than a lot of orchid fatalities. Can't be trusted with a thousand foot pole (as I had once mentioned before in some other post).

[Nemesisthewarlock]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

vanilla are interesting- my neighbor added one to a new Poinciana tree and it climbed about 10' of vertical truck in a single season!!!

Gosh, you've got the perfect climate for that! I can't bear humidity... I find it so sapping. Heat is bad, however I don't function in humidity at all. My ideal personal climate is Antarctica...

Hubby is the opposite, so it's air-con wars in Summer and Winter. Autumn and Spring is truce weather, and so we bide until the war starts again!

[DirtyCoconuts]

Originally Posted by Nemesisthewarlock

Gosh, you've got the perfect climate for that! I can't bear humidity... I find it so sapping. Heat is bad, however I don't function in humidity at all. My ideal personal climate is Antarctica...

Hubby is the opposite, so it's air-con wars in Summer and Winter. Autumn and Spring is truce weather, and so we bide until the war starts again!

Hahahaha I can imagine. I always tell my wife, you can put on more clothing....I can not BE cooler lol. She hates that joke

I agree about the humidity but it is one of the reasons I love orchids. It makes the humidity a tremendous advantage so I appreciate it. Unlike the other 92% of the time when I am just sticky and annoyed.....humidity in dress clothing is the absolute worst.

[Nemesisthewarlock]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Hahahaha I can imagine. I always tell my wife, you can put on more clothing....I can not BE cooler lol. She hates that joke

I agree about the humidity but it is one of the reasons I love orchids. It makes the humidity a tremendous advantage so I appreciate it. Unlike the other 92% of the time when I am just sticky and annoyed.....humidity in dress clothing is the absolute worst.

Oh! I couldn't imagine humidity in men's dress clothing - eeeew! At least ladies have more options.

I say the self same thing to hubby, lol.

If I were just sticky and annoyed, I'd cope, but it's both exhausting and debilitating for me. Two steps and I'm done for the day!

At least in this new house we have great reverse cycle air-con and a Tesla battery, so I'm actually able to go about my day and night in relative comfort. Plus zoning, so that rooms with plants can be adjusted - heaven.

In the old house we had evaporative cooling that made it humid (epic fail), and also didn't actually cool anything once it was past 35c/95f outside, and that's one of our milder summer days, so in effect - completely useless piece of garbage that made me more ill.

[Diane56Victor]

If you are interested in a local grower of slipper orchids try Nickys slippers website.
Nickys Slippers Paphiopedilum Slipper Orchid Flowers Australia
Lots of beauties to look at and not just slippers, all available to purchase online, growing advice etc but you have to make an appointment to visit.

[Nemesisthewarlock]

Originally Posted by Diane56Victor

If you are interested in a local grower of slipper orchids try Nickys slippers website.
Nickys Slippers Paphiopedilum Slipper Orchid Flowers Australia
Lots of beauties to look at and not just slippers, all available to purchase online, growing advice etc but you have to make an appointment to visit.

Thanks so much! I'll take a look one day if I get interested in growing them.

You're all a gold mine of information... it's brilliant! I feel like I could ask the most obscure question and one or possibly all of you would know something...

[DirtyCoconuts]

Evap cooling is hilarious. It won’t work when it is too hot or too humid....?????? When you need it the most lol

[Nemesisthewarlock]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Evap cooling is hilarious. It won’t work when it is too hot or too humid....?????? When you need it the most lol

Exactly!!! How they keep conning people into buying it, I don't know.

I thought perhaps those in other countries might be interested in Australia's current weather conditions... most of the cooler east coast is literally on fire, much like California was... Sydney is choking on the fumes, and this is heading towards them from our way...

This quote from this morning's news

"Perth is enduring a unprecedented heatwave for Christmas time, with the city to set to reach 40C for four consecutive days until at least Sunday."

They say unprecedented, but it's not - it's becoming the new norm...

"It is not out of the realms of possibility that we could break our highest ever recorded temperature of 50.7C at Oodnadatta, which is in South Australia."

And it's moving across the country, folks! 40c is around 104f and 50c is approx 122f.

One fine day when I had to go out in 49c, the glue in my shoes melted... lucky I was soon on the train and heading towards a place where there was shops. It was a language class and I couldn't skip it as attendance was part of the certificate. I'd already skipped a bit due to illness... the moral of the story is my phals will only ever be inside!

[DirtyCoconuts]

Wow. That is really scary from a global climate perspective and also from a “your safety” perspective.

I once had to cross about a hundred and fifty yards of blacktop at a border crossing in the Middle East. Couldn’t keep one bus due to the bad relations and so we had to walk to the waiting bus. I was wearing rubber soles shoes which completely failed in the ~200 steps it took. One the entire sole unglued and resulted in bad blisters through my sock and the the other the rubber sole melted into goo....

The sun is scary!!

Praying for all those in and in front of those fires. Only god can stop them it seems