Your Orchid phases...

[lotis146]

So I told OrchidsAreFun in another thread I made for a new plant of mine that I was going to create this thread.

In my relatively short time as an Orchid enthusiast I've watched myself go through a couple of phases already. They've been short and sweet, largely driven by my inexperience I'm sure. At first I just wanted to get my hands on new orchids and I was more than happy to pick them up at big box stores. Then I really started trolling Ebay for Orchids and that did me in. I saw some posts of coloratum Paphs here and vinis and I was certain I needed to get Paphs, Paphs and Paphs. Got some, like em, but didn't love love them like the ones I wanted I saw here and elsewhere.

I went to an Orchid grower where I thought I was going for Catts I'd seen online (only the flowers did I see) until I saw the whole plant. Shoot! They had tons of Phals and I was drawn back to them for that trip.

I had a short phase of wanting mini Catts until the mini Catts started to tell me they aren't sure they like me so much and now I've got over a dozen that I'm waiting to see bloom. Plus I wanted to get more blue minis!

Now I love Oncidiums but for some reason when I saw bunches in the greenhouse I loved them but thought gosh they're so big! Which I do have quite a few hybrids but I think I'm waiting for the perfect ones.

Right now though I'm a bit obsessed with Zygo hybrids. I think I'm drawn to getting my hands on some of the less common hybrids even as I've got a couple common ones. They don't have Paphs beat on their beautiful leaves - half why I thought I'd always be hooked on Paphs mostly - but I like their shape, their unusual color combination (dark purple/brownish/reddish and green?), and that their fragrant. But honestly the plants themselves are big and awkward, most of mine. When they're different I think they're pretty darn cool and it's awesome that a lot of them are fragrant.

So we'll see. If I had to guess my next phase I could move into it'd probably be getting target Oncidiums, those with lots of striking moderately to large-sized flowers. (Not that I'll ever stop loving the Zygos...) Oh sorry one more thing for my saga here - gosh I'm long-winded - I also think Zygos got me because my Zglm Rhein Moonlight turned out a bit of a surprise and then it grew a bunch of new growths for me, I killed one, one stalled (and is now growing) and of the other two one threw two spikes! So I was rewarded I feel by that plant as a newbie and it has me watching it even more closely than some of the others.

Deep breath...Are you still there?

So what phases have you gone through in your collecting, be you new or old in Orchid collecting years?