I hate to hear your having problems. Maybe you were just a little too enthusiastic about purchasing so many varieties in so little time. I seem to remember that just a few months ago you mentioned being a newbie orchid enthusiast. Then you began making a lot of beautiful purchases in a wide range of selections with different growing habits and requirements. I was actually impressed, because all your plants looked so healthy. I thought to myself one of two things... either this guy knows more about orchids than he's letting on, or he truely is a newbie who's in for a rude awakening somewhere down the line.
I've gotta hand it to you, you've got guts. As a beginning grower, I would have been petrified to care for so many chids in such a brief time frame. My first bold purchase was an expensive, gorgeous, show quality nobile dendrobium which I almost killed because I lacked the knowledge of it's special growing requirements. That scared me enough that my next purchases were limited to inexpensive baggy plants or discounted noids in various stages of ill health. My mission was to learn about orchids by successfully growing them or nursing them back to health. By the way, this is how Junebug came by all those boring noids she posts photos of all the time.
I've learned to take things slowly.
It wasn't until the last year or two that I began adding a few named hybrids and species to my collection, but only after researching their environmental needs and cultivation requirements beforehand. Eventually you'll learn to distinguish which plants you can successfully grow from the unsuitable beauties you must admire from a distance. Then, when your plants are thriving and growing out of their pots you'll be stressing over how to safely divide them and how to expand your green house.
My heart goes out to you. As you've discovered, we orchid growers tend to bond with our plants. They have the potential to give us years of joy and we fuss over their care like they're our children or pets. We panic when they show signs of illness or bug infestation, rejoice when they grow and bloom, and grieve over losses.
What's done is done. Now it's time to accept your losses, dry those tears, and move forward. Successful orchid cultivation requires knowledge, time, patience, and proper growing conditions. We're all going to experience problems now and then, but we gain knowledge from our mistakes, failures and success stories.
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