Absolute beginner, relocating a collection

[Davesp310]

Well, I'm making slight progress ! The suggested technique of wetting thoroughly then "rolling" the roots seems to work quite well, although I am leaving the "tangled" pots to sort out later (so some are still in "clumps" of two or three pots).

My initial thoughts are that most are in need of re-potting. Of those that still have legible tags, the latest date I have found is 2007, so I assume this is the last time most of these were given any attention.

Oh, and I think I need to find somewhere for them to live permanently - the wife is starting to make strange faces when I bring yet another box home and deposit them on our (now full) outdoor table.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Yes I think you will need some help. I am not an expert ether so this will be just to much all at once. See if you can get the orchid club to come help and let them find homes for some of them. Let them tell you which ones you should keep and which ones to get rid of.

I would think that they will tell you which ones are hard to get ones and such. Give you advice as to which ones to keep.

I am sorry about your dad it's hard to watch them get old. I am a part care giver for 2 gentlemen one is 94 1/2 and the other just turned 96. The 96 year old should probably be in assisted living but he will have NO part of it. Stubborn,stubborn, stubborn.

[Davesp310]

Well, thanks for all the tips. As of last week, I have finished the physical re-locating of dad's collection . I'm now the proud owner of approximately 350 orchids , and that's after disposing of quite a few of the collection to friends / family / etc - I reckon there would have been in excess of 5-600.

Longer term, the plan is to join a local orchid club / society, work out exactly what I have, cull the collection to a more manageable amount and find a permanent home in the yard somewhere (ie get them off our front verandah to appease the wife)

The majority of the collection seems to be Dendrobiums (about 6 foam boxes of soft cane ones, another 6 boxes of kingianums in many differnt colours, and a few hard cane ones). There are also a box or two each of other types (ones I think I can identifiy are cattleyas and oncidiums), plus another box or two of odds and ends that I haven't been able to work out what family they belong to. Also quite a few mounted on branches, plus a couple of large specimens (one epidendrum with pink flowers completely fills an 18" pot with "canes" up to 5' tall for instance). I also found quite a few books on orchids, to the point where I can now work out roughly what type of orchids they are !

So far, I have sorted them out, re-potted the ones in the worst condition (it is spring here, and the last few months have been very dry, some of the plants were looking very sad and dry - others had completely overgrown the pots, some had even fallen out / been knocked out in the move). Many seem to be just starting to generate new growth, so I figure I'll just water and fertilise for now and see if I can get some "condition" back into the rest before attempting to re-pot.

My only setback so far has been to discover that I have a few natural predators of orchid flowers . Every now and then, a few buds or even opened flowers would vanish overnight, I was up late one night on the weekend and found the fellow in the photo below munching on a Dendrobium flower (its a brush-tailed possum, they are plentiful here, and we feed them on our front deck on leftover fruit, etc so I guess its partly my fault ). So, I brought a few plants indoors when they flowered, and discovered that our cat also likes munching on orchid flowers.....

Anyway, thanks again for your thoughts and advice. I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions but for now I'm happy !

[nikkik]

I'm so happy to hear that you were able to move all of the orchids! What a fantastic collection you have inherited. I think your plan is great! And I look forward to reading your posts in the future.

[HighSeas]

My heart bleeds for you. As I looked at the pictures you posted....I could only imagine that this was the place where someone spent a great deal of time and love.

My own mother has Alzheimers, so I know what you're going through. It's tough. Hang in there and do what you can...when you can. Don't forget to take care of you too.

The very best to you and your family.

[Island Girl]

Wow! I'm not sure you have enough orchids there heheh

Good Luck with them, I hope you will still hang around here on the OB! Your yard will look great with all those orchids bloomin all over the place!

....y'all's opossums are cute there, ours are kinda ugly! And, are usually HUGE!

[FSUOrchids]

Nice job, I have to imagine that took a lot of labor and time to fix.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Well I'm glad at least part of the work is done. How fantastic to have such a big part of your dad still with you. That cute little fella just couldn't help himself I can't blame him.