Types of orchids suitable for beginners?

[gnathaniel]

Welcome to OB and to the addiction, lunarlemon! I'm an erstwhile Ashevillain myself and still missing the mountains. Maybe someday we'll get back...

Definitely check out the Western NC Orchid Society, the group putting on the orchid show in April. This year's will be an extra-big fete but even in a normal year they put on one of the better orchid shows in the eastern US. The group is also very active and friendly, and by going to monthly meetings you'll see, learn how to grow, and have opportunity to acquire a huge variety of plants. Forums like this are great but no substitute for hands- and eyes-on cultural advice from experienced growers.

As for what'll be easiest for you to grow, that's a tough call since it depends on so many variables, chiefly your personal plant-tending habits and aesthetic preferences. For me, what's 'easy' arises from some combination of what suits my growing conditions and what I like and will pay attention to. I like Dennis (Orchid Whisperer)'s advice to get really good at growing what you already have, and John (Subrosa)'s advice to find plants you can grow outdoors year-round.

re: Draculas, in my limited experience (I've killed 2 or 3) they're very intolerant of cultural inconsistencies and are among the more challenging Pleurothallids to keep alive. Very pure water is important for most cloud-forest species, and if you really want to grow these well you'll probably need to water them with RO or distilled rather than dechlorinated tap. Seek out Andy's Orchids at the upcoming orchid show, they sell a vast array of Pleurothallids and other groups and can give you both solid culture advice as well as the hook-up on a lot of cool plants you won't find elsewhere.

All prior rambling aside, two of my favorite relatively easygoing orchids are Dendrobium kingianum and Paphiopedilum delenatii. Both are compact to varying degrees (I've seen kingianum clones from 2-14+" tall though most are in the 6-10" range), beautiful to look at in and out of bloom, usually very pleasantly fragrant, easily adaptable to windowsill culture, highly temperature-tolerant, and best of all common and cheaply acquired, making them a lot lower-pressure than many orchids.

[NYCorchidman]

Welcome aboard!

We are not all crazy here, but some are crazier than others. haha
Seriously though, I hope you become crazy but selective plant lady. Always check for pest and diseases when introducing new plants into your collection. This will save a lot of stress, anger and energy down the road.

There are no such things as beginner plants or difficult plants.
If you can provide proper conditions, anything will grow. Problems arise when people want to have something pretty or unique without being able to provide (or realizing) the right conditions for them.

Now, with your nice and cool winter temperature (I wish I had it!), you can grow beautiful colorful and wonderfully fragrant Miltoniopsis if you like such things!
There are many colors to choose from, and all benefit from cool to cold winter conditions to do well long term, hence most warm indoor grower are not that successful with this group.

There are also many paphiopedilums ( People either love them or hate them lol) that will do great with your conditions, but perhaps slightly more shade than full blast afternoon west sun. You mentioned trees providing shade, but I have no idea how mush shade. It might be perfect or may be still too bright for these.
I would recommend paphipedilums in the section parvisepalum. These are the ones that less people are repelled to, it seems, and majority of them do well with cool winter conditions with warm summer.
So it fits the bill for ya.

Then, consider Stanhopea if you like strange flowers with strong scent.

You will also do well with certain Dendrobiums like nobile hybrids and other similar groups.
Den. kingianum might need cooler conditions than what you have, but you can try and see how they respond if you find them good to your taste.

There are just so many that will do well for your conditions.

You will have to narrow down by your preferred colors and other factors like, do I like spotted or oddly marked flowers or clean cut looking ones?
Do I want fragrant flowers? Stinky ones? Some people do, believe it or not. but me, though. haha
Are sensitive to strong scent? some flowers can give you headache in the room.
Do I want large plants? small plants? hanging baskets or neat pots?
These will help you narrow down the list of what you want to have.

[lunarlemon]

I'm going to dig into all of those suggested families! Thanks so much for the great start, NYCorchidman!

As for what I like, the weirder, the better. I love dark purple/almost black flowers, long spindly petals, strange geometric shapes, bright chartreuse greens, polka dots, really anything weird and flashy. Think Ziggy Stardust as an orchid. Size doesn't present an issue for me right now as I have tons of room and good light. The west light is almost completely dappled all year long (right now it's a little more direct because the leaves haven't grown back, but it's low winter sun and still having to get through all the trunks and limbs).

Oh, and I picked up a couple things from Lee's as another poster suggested, and everything went very smoothly. Got a message the very next day with shipment info and the plants arrived in perfect condition and right on time. He was also very helpful when I realized one of the plants I chose was aquatic and gave advice on how to care for it. Good experience, really cheap!