seeking advice on how to re-establish and keep a healthy collection

[slowlearner]

I am new here. this is my first post.

My story is humiliating. Let me share it :big grin: in order to demonstrate that, despite my reading and viewing some video and live demos, I have gleaned little about orchids. I seek some kindly coaching on how I might better succeed with them, because I really like plants. I cannot pronounce let alone remember many of their names. In fact, I have yet to keep a plant alive for more than a few years. Of those, I may have only seen a couple rebloom. I have considerable organization challenges associated with ADD; I can be impatient and easily frustrated; I am hopeless with most mechanical concepts.

Still: I know that I can do better than buying plants in bloom and throwing them out when they die!
I. know. it.

10 years ago, when assessing my obstacles to maintaining healthy orchid plants through bloom cycle, I thought: it's because I live in Massachusetts and subject them to all manner of flux in heat, light and humidity. At that time, I lived in a small apartment in an old building and got whatever heating schedule the condo owners board agreed on for themselves…my fiancé, however, had an office large enough for an orchidarium.

We got a commercial product from orchidariums.com (btw: I get it that you are all techies and built your own systems. just tolerate me, please.) called the Grand Cayman and he set it up. My plants were admired by many but I felt uneasy about their care because I couldn't monitor them well. I collected plants slowly from shows and all seemed healthy despite the fact that my husband was mostly doing maintenance without a dedicated sink. initial success went to my head and, when we got married (maybe 6 months later) I ordered a wide variety of plants from Hawaii that were not available from local sources to top off the collection and fill out the case. I knew it wasn't wise, but I found the instant collection very gratifying to look at.

Perhaps you can guess what happened. A couple of plants died. I wasn't sure why. Soon enough, it became clear a disease or something had been introduced--because they all began to fail. Then: I tried to quarantine, I cleaned the system, I threw out the worst-off and cut bits away on others and sterilized the tools, but eventually I had to admit a total defeat.

Once I lost the plants, I cleaned that case like nobody's business and let it dry out. It sat unused in my husband's temp. controlled office for a good 5 years. This year we finally got a house and now it's downstairs awaiting set up and plants. I can watch closely this time before things get a chance to go haywire.

As of now, the single plant I have now is a Phal. in the living room that kept it's strong bloom (I think) all summer and autumn before falling dormant last month.

In two weeks my husband and I are going to Hawaii on business. I am hoping to find someone at a single nursery who could help me pick out and set aside healthy plants, for delivery home in early January. Mindful that I am going to be setting this thing up again to keep them in, I'd like to acquire a range of plants with culture needs that are closely-enough-related to find a suitable cycle for all so that I can stick with it long enough to get the hang of keeping more than one variety alive long enough to learn more. If I can establish just this much: clean, healthy plants from the same source so that I can monitor and compare one against the other…and have a helpful community to ask help from along the way? I know that my confidence will get the bump it needs. My plan from then would be simply to maintain those plants through one bloom cycle without 100% mortality before moving on in any way.

Can anyone recommend an individual at an island nursery who they think might be willing to work with me for a couple hours? We are going to Maui and maybe Oahu, but I assume I will need to travel to the big island for the right orchid facility. I am going to cold call, else wise.

very best regards and I appreciate any helpful or encouraging response to my post.

Celeste

[Leafmite]

Sorry you lost your collection. I lost many of my plants to an ugly thing called 'Black Rot' (my own fault) and had to start over with the cattleyas and a few others (still looking for a certain mini that I lost).
I don't know what orchid vendors in Hawaii are best. Dave's Garden's website has a place where vendors are reviewed and before I try a new vendor, I always go there to see the reviews. I buy most of my orchids from Hausermann's, Oak Hill Garden Orchids and Al's Orchid Greenhouse.
Good Luck and welcome to Orchid Board!

[Orchid Whisperer]

I suggest that rather than buying a bunch of plants in Hawaii, learn really well how to take care of the Phal you have first, and others like it. Use your Hawaii trip to see orchid nurseries and maybe build a wish list for the future, many Hawaiian growers also sell mail order/online.

[Jayfar]

Also to add, shipping from Hawaii to MA in January might be sub-optimal. Be sure the seller includes heat packs in their shipments and ships by Fedex 2-day.

[RosieC]

Welcome to Orchid Board

Sorry I can't help with places in Hawaii. Don't worry about what happened in the past though, the best of growers can get hit with such problems. Good luck with re-establishing your collection.

[My Green Pets]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

I suggest that rather than buying a bunch of plants in Hawaii, learn really well how to take care of the Phal you have first, and others like it. Use your Hawaii trip to see orchid nurseries and maybe build a wish list for the future, many Hawaiian growers also sell mail order/online.

I would even go so far as to suggest that growing plants such as Phalænopsis, Paphiopedilum,Oncidium(et cetera) hybrids in a windowsill might actually be easier than inside your orchidarium.

Why? Because inside a closed environment like this with plants growing close together, you have a much greater chance of humidity/moisture getting out of control, fungal infections, disease, mold...you name it.

Even if all the plants you put in there are in pristine condition, there are always fungus and mold spores floating around which can easily and happily take up residence in your little jungle.

Take it easy, take it slow. Buy some easy-to-grow plants, post your questions on here, read a ton about them, and you WILL learn how to discern what they need. It just takes the element that is absolutely crucial to being a successful orchid grower: patience.

Edit: Something else that I feel is absolutely necessary for a beginner but I don't see it posted very often is that you have to pay regular attention to the plants. You don't have to examine them with a microscope every day (like I do, lol), but really look them over every time you water them. Examine the leaves, roots, stems, flowers. Identify the growths when they pop up. Get to know the plants. How many leaves/pseudobulbs do they have? What do the roots look like, are they fat or thin? You really have to become familiar with them, and when you see something you don't understand or can't identify, you've got the OrchidBoard right here at your fingertips!

I'm sure everyone would like to see a photo of your current Phal, any chance you could share one?

[slowlearner]

I would so like to thank you five for your thoughtful responses and warm welcomes. I appreciate the time you took for me.

UPDATE:
I wound up not making a special trip to one of the big nurseries on the big island this year. My husband and I attended the meeting in Maui and went straight to Oahu for some holiday r and r.

Yet--I couldn't help. Yet I found a nursery. And visited. And purchased. From Kawamoto Orchids. I went in just for advice and *maybe* to buy, but what cinched the deal were these nutty specimens on the walls from a place called "Ian's Orchids".

Apparently, Mr. Kawamoto had bought the stock out of Ian or his partners' or estate. And, I have no idea who Ian is or was, but all of these plants (appearing unique!) were clearly especially healthy and mounted with love and care that only a papa could give to his keiks!

So, I explained my plan to Mr. Kawamoto (himself, a study in Zen) and he agreed that it was likely a bacterial rot that spread through the collection and killed the whole thing. I guess that once it starts, there isn't much to do. Sad face.

With respect to Orchid Whisperer's advise...I was hoping to set up the orchidarium again with 1) a variety of plants 2) I hand picked myself 3) at the same time 4) from the same source and 5)at a time when I could receive them, unpack them, set them up, watch them closely and care for them myself. Because: I have an orchidarium taking up space where I can possibly improve on the house-growing conditions of Massachusetts Zone 5b/6a.

This may be misguided, but I am in year three of a home renovation that was meant to take 6 months. I now dislike contractors. I am hoping to succeed on making a microcosm of my property something that does not make me wince.

I bought a variety and arranged shipping for a day I could receive. Which was today. And it is one degrees. So cold out that, by the time I answered the knock at the door, the fed Ex lady was already getting back in her truck and the perishable goods container was where she left it...in the snow.

CambriaWhat, I now see your point. There were several heat packs in evidence, but they were no longer warm. So: I think I have a bunch of plants where the media froze. The inside of the box was colder than the outside, it seemed. Two air plants were not packed with any wet shredded paper and those may still be good!

But now I am confused.

The Nursery is giving me a partial refund.

I am trying to sort out how to clean the orchidarium again, as it seems to be much dirtier than I remembered leaving it. I guess from storage. Any advice? At all?

Thanks again,

Celeste

[RandomGemini]

Bleach. Wipe it down with bleach and then rinse it and allow to air dry.

---------- Post added at 03:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:42 PM ----------

Here's what else I have to say to you.

First, welcome to OrchidBoard. These folks are WISE and wonderful! They have kept me from killing my 18 orchids so far, and I just started in July.

You have the same problem I do. You want to dive right in! It's so hard to slow down and take things easy when you're excited about a new hobby. I compensate for this.. by spending a LOT of time reading about the plants that I intend to keep.

I stick to hybrids. I have a few species that I am trying, because I think I can grow them in my conditions (same zone as you, but I'm in Washington State). I want to set up an orchidarium, and I think the fact that you have one already is great, but I think you should back up this system of yours with mountains and mountains of research before you make anymore orchid purchases. Find out what sort of environment your orchidarium provides for the plants, then find out what grows in those conditions and choose plants you like from the list of things that you are capable of growing in your space and don't buy anything that you are not 100% sure you can grow, unless you know you won't feel bad about losing it later on.

"Research is what I'm doing, when I don't know what I'm doing."

Hope this helps.

[Polarizeme]

Welcome to the board!

Slow down! By rushing in headlong, you create the opportunity for self abuse. My son used to do this.

Patience my dear... You'll have many opportunities to find orchids and to raise them right. Take a breath and find ONE new orchid to buy and start with. When it has new growth and beautiful roots, buy another.

Until you stop and take the time to understand it and "own" it, you'll end up with unhappy plants and more reason to beat yourself up.

I don't intend for this post as a rebuke, I just don't want to see you travelling down that road....

[Bulbofett]

Slow down and start with one or two plants that you know you can handle. I know its so tempting sometimes to get the big pretty guy, but then you get lost with all the special care and quickly become burnt out.

I'm insanely jealous you got to go to Hawaii and meet the famed Kawamoto! I love all of his plants, and he takes such immaculate care of them. Its such a shame some of them froze. Hopefully you're able to revive most of them.

Welcome to the board!