How many orchids have you killed?

[seamonkey]

One way or another, I've managed to do in quite a few orchids. The first one I ever killed was my first den- I failed to give it a winter watering rest and it rotted. I've lost half a dozen phals, most to crown rot and one to pure neglect.

I've murdered several paphs with underwatering, my Lycaste slowly dwindled to nothing but shrivelled bulbs, my Sarcochilus gradually rotted and died. All in all I've been host to the painfully slow deaths of about a dozen initially healthy orchids.

I'd like to hear your stories of woe- how many orchids have you killed in your collecting career, and how did they perish?

[slipperfreak]

I haven't exactly counted, but I've killed more than enough . I don't see it as something to be ashamed of, but rather as part of the learning process. Learning from your mistakes is the best way to improve!

When I first started growing about 9 years ago, I was a pre-teen and didn't exactly know much about plants - orchids were my first serious foray into horticulture. I do still have my first plant (a Cypripedium parviflorum), but I don't have any of the original tropical orchids I started off with anymore! I remember killing Phals from overwatering, and I killed my first Phrag from underwatering. I also lost a few plants from leaving them outside too long and they were killed by a surprise frost (I used to summer plants outside).

[dounoharm]

i have had orchids for over 30 years and i have killed my share...i do still have pieces of Bc Praetii that i have been carting around the country for all of those 30 years, it was my first catt type, and i cherish it dearly....it is amazing the neglect and downright abuse it has taken and still grows and blooms for me! i have overwatered it, and underwatered it, left it bareroot in a 5 gallon bucket of water for over 6 months, froze it nearly to the point of death but it came back....its the everyready bunny of orchid-dom! my other forays into paphs phals and many other types didnt make the transitions across the country and all the moves in adverse climates....but hey, i bought some more and kept up till i learned how NOT to kill em....trial and error.....lol...now i have a greenhouse and it does all the hard work for me....

[Angurek]

How many orchids have I killed? More than my share, to say the least. Let me put it this way - If none of the said casualties were still alive, my collection would be twice the size it is now.

Unfortunately, even the best grower kills some plants. But as dounoharm said, it's a learning experience. Once you kill a plant, you learn a lot more about its culture. It's much easier to keep a plant the second time around; besides knowing more about how to keep it alive, the heartache of losing it once is enough to make you do your best to keep it alive.

[Alexis in Redland]

According to my morgue list, I've killed at least 264 plants. Wow, I must know a lot. Or not.

[nhman]

To the many orchids (well probably more from their frame of reference than from mine....) that I've sent to or caused to go to that great compost pile in the sky (or more specifically, in my back yard.....)
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
Experience is a good teacher!
That being said, I have learned and listened to my failures and believe that I am a better grower because of my failures.

[lily99]

I killed my first phal when I was in high school because I kept forgetting to water it. I killed an oncidium last year. We had an unusually cold and wet summer. I should have taken the orchids back inside, but I got lazy and the oncidium rotted. I'm surprised there weren't more casualties. I recently threw out a Lalia anceps because it wouldn't bloom and parts of it kept getting rot and I wasn't sure why.

[bodaciousbonsai]

I have had plants die from the following reasons.
Frozen,burnt,overwater,underwater,lazy,experiments ,
etc.

[Bolero]

At least 200.

[nibbler]

While only new to this, I am currently in the process of killing my first Phal. Overwatered.......... then proceeded to over water a second time. Still trying to save it though. Heres hoping.