What got you hooked growing orchids?

[JudyC]

Nita and kiki- I usually water them by group. I take down 1 wall, put them in the tub and hose 'em down, wait 20 minutes then hang them back up, I do it on Mondays while I'm washing mounds of laundry.

kiki- I try to adjust the lights seasonally, they're on 8hrs in the winter, then I work up to 14 or so in the summer.

Bird song- WOW your room is going to be huge. You could probably slap 300 in there with no problem. One thing I would suggest is a ceiling fan, maybe 2 in a room that size, they make air circulation so much easier. I have a portable wet wall that I got at Sams/Costco (do you have something similar up there?)it's great for getting humidity into a room, I know your winters are cold and dry. I would also decide ahead of time what parts of the room will be used for. You'll probably want a sitting area or maybe a dining area. It kind of helps when your watering (you don't want overflow water sitting on wood furniture). Let me see....use outdoor paint, we didn't at first and I'm paying for it. I think if I was building a room from the ground up now I would put a drain in the floor in the main watering area that way I could spray if I wanted without worrying about run off. That's all I can think of for now.

[Bird Song Farm]

Judy, thanks so much for the tips! Some I had thought of but the outdoor paint was one that hadn't even come to mind! What a great help that will be and I know will save a lot of misery!
AL

[kp53]

what a great story, I live outside Rochester and haven't missed that show for several years. It sure makes you want to buy.

[Roly0217]

I guess that my great aunt got me hooked into orchids. She had a huge specimen plant growing on the citrus tree. I always loved and about 5 months ago I decided to start my collection with a small Dendrobium. So far I'm at over 70 plants and counting...

[ceebees_orchids]

I got my first orchid for Tu Bi'Shvat in February 2020- a purple miniphal! I loved her because she was supported with sticks, just like me (I used a cane and crutches at the time for balance issues). Later for my birthday I got a big white phal- then I found out about an orchid nursery just 10 minutes from my house and went to pick up my first Vanilla Planifolia and a Dracula Lotax as well. I've been collecting ever since!

[DirtyCoconuts]

This is a great thread.

Many great stories

I’ll add mine a bit later.

[jcec1]

One side of my family came from Malaysia and Singapore and were orchid fans, a relative was the founder of the South East Asia orchid society, another has an orchid named after them. I remember my grandmother growing phalaenopsis, then my father and now it is me.

[SouthPark]

I think it was the colour and shapes of orchid flowers and orchids (leaves and bulbs etc) themselves that got me into growing orchids. That is pretty much the same as for most other growers maybe heheheh.

It was equally impressive to know about the variety of orchids out there - which is quite a lot - which also includes all the members (siblings) of crosses between orchids. Variation is definitely impressive.

[Orchidtinkerer]

I got into orchids because I realized how short life can be. I became disabled a few years ago, could no longer work, tried getting help from doctors but didn't get anywhere so I nearly lost my house, got very depressed as a result.
Still have not gotten a medical diagnosis and without that I am according to doctors fit as a fiddle.
I was thinking if my life was coming to an end I wanted to experience something new in life. I've already travelled lots, been to 26 countries in the world. I've tried all the food I can think of, have experienced the world so what things had I not experienced yet?
And the answer was orchids. More specifically I was interested in discovering the different smells of orchids.
So far I have smelt about 10 different orchid fragrances.
My aim is to reach 100 in my life.
Looking after them feels like a bit of a chore sometimes but they have added a new joy to my life.

[voyager]

I'd have sworn that I had answered this.
Apparently not, can't find it.

So here goes:
I had entered a photo in a contest sponsored by the AkOS, Alaska Orchid Society.
I entered a pic of some Calypsos I had found growing in the mountains in June.
It did well for a small ad hoc entry in a small ad hoc contest.
It sparked my interest in native orchids.
Next, I found a small, miniature, obscure species in a local bog, Hammarbya paludosa.
It was only about 2" tall.
I could never find another.
Then, I began finding others and adding them to my Alaska Native Flower photo collection.

It's been a while but as I remember it there are 14 native orchid species in Alaska.
I was hooked on native orchids.

Then, a friend and his wife took a vacation to Hawaii.
Fiends that they were, they brought back some Bamboo Orchid bulbs they had bought in the Honolulu airport.
Fool that I was, I planted them in a pot in my living room.
It took me 3 years to coax them to finally bloom, which I've since heard it's almost impossible to do inside a house, especially in Alaska.

Then, I began buying and importing orchids, starting my collection.