It's really hard to generalize by genus. Take Dendrobium for example. There are thousands of different species and they all have different requirements. My Phal. type Den. requires no winter rest. It doesn't even like a reduction in water or fert. My Den from the Formosae group likes a very slight "pause" in the fall, but if you miss it it doesn't really seem to care and blooms anyway. I have a NOID nobile Den that I gave a hard winter rest. No water, no fert, bright light and cold temps from 10/31-2/14. It looked a little worse for wear when I brought it back in the house. It only gave me 3 measley blooms. There are nobile Dens that don't require a "hard" winter rest. They like more of a reduction,no fert and cooler temps. I'm thinking that's what I might have so I'm keeping it in the house and watering sparingly through the same time period. We'll see what happens next spring. The point here is that generalizations can be dangerous. There are always those plants who didn't know they were supposed to like a winter rest.
