Types of orchids suitable for beginners?
Hello,
I'm excited to have found what seems to be a friendly community to start my journey into orchid-dom! As a short background, I will say that I've always wanted to be a crazy plant lady and have made great progress in the last several years with that. My house is a jungle and friends are constantly giving me their houseplants, both healthy and dying, so I've been learning a lot about many different kinds of plants.
Recently, I've learned how to not kill orchids and bonsai and could not be happier! I assumed these things were for more advanced plant people, because I have killed my fair share in the past. Maybe I have finally ascended? Who knows. What I do know is that I feel confident enough to start what will hopefully become an enduring collection of orchids but I find myself at a loss as to where to begin. The woman who helped me begin with other houseplants taught me a lot about paying attention to my specific growing environment and watering habits and helped me choose plants to start with from there. I suppose I'm not looking for that same advice with the specificity of orchids. So far, I have 5 grocery store Phalaenopsis and one Patricia McCully 'Pacific Matriarch' and would like to add to my collection responsibly with some more exotics. Looking around at available orchids to buy is overwhelming and I find myself ooohing and ahhhing at orchids I may very well kill. Right now I am obsessed with Draculas. Are there any dracs that could be recommended to a beginner with orchids, intermediate to general houseplants?
I'm in Western North Carolina, in the mountains. Asheville, specifically. I have my current orchids in a western wall of windows that gets good, bright, indirect light due to lots of trees outside. My current orchids have all put on new leaves this summer and are starting some (pardon my ignorance of proper terminology) flower stems, so I think they like it there. RH is low right now because it's winter (30-40%). Temps are usually around 65, with a low of 58 and a high around 70 right now. Summer conditions will be significantly higher in terms of RH (probably over 60%) and high temps in the house could be as high as 80 (maybe even more). I water them weekly with dechlorinated water and give them a weak fertilizer solution three out of four weeks that I got from repotme.com
Wondering mostly what families would be suitable to dive into for my conditions and level of experience. Like
I said, I do oogle the Draculas, but I'm open to suggestions!
Thanks so much in advance for any advice!
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