My worst mistake was getting my first orchid. Oh, the expense, work and heartbreak that has brought over the years. And pure joy!


Ray Barkalow
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Oh yes! No cats here, only catts and dogs. ;) And believing those innocent doggies would never dream of knocking beautiful blooms off a shelf in front of "their" window.

Or the G.Pyrenees who hoards, would NEVER dream of taking off with one of my outside-for-the-summer catts, to her doggy boneyard hoard stash.

Beginner mistakes, one of many lessons...still not learnt. :D

My corgi was the same way she took off w one of my den....never found it either...

My biggest mistake was buying too many inappropriate potting mixes and fertilizers in regular big box stores. Also trying to make coconut husk chips work as a potting medium - never again.

The Schultz orchid mix and the coconut ended up getting mixed with topsoil and used in the garden to grow tomatoes. The tomatoes didn't do so well either. Maybe by next year the stuff will have composted enough to grow something.

A big mistake - not realizing that all orchids are not the same - some require daily care and some want to be ignored; some want to be wet and others dry.... Each is unique! Now I acquire only orchids that have a prayer of surviving in the environment I can provide - though I admit, I am always expanding my environmental ranges :) so I can get more orchids and I fall in love with :)

While we're on the subject of pet related mistakes:

I recently purchased this great little plant stand for my african violets and a couple of the chids to sit on in my dining room, because my office window was getting cluttered and the light in the dining room in front of the doors is similar. I put my NOID phal on it that has this long cascade of 7 blooms on it on the bottom shelf and then I turned it so that the blooms stayed inside the plant stand.

An hour later, my two troublemakers (75 ish pound Labs) decided that it was time to zoom around the dining room in circles, together... and while Jet can avoid running into things, Lexi has no spatial awareness, whatsoever.

I BARELY made it into the dining room before she knocked over the brand new plant stand. However, she body slammed me and knocked me down instead. Thankfully, I didn't hit my head on anything and nothing was broken.

The moral of the story? Windowsills are safer. :D

I seem to have made a major amateur mistake, namely not procuring a money tree before venturing into the world of orchids...
Now it'll never grow!

:sly:

All right all right. We'll see about that ;)