I have been growing orchids for a year now: the good, the bad and the ugly

[SaraJean]

I can not BELIEVE how many orchids I have amassed in a short about of time! 50 plants and counting, and my poor spouse is about to kill me It has been an absolute battle with some of orchids but I feel like I am learning a lot with still a loooooooooooong way to go. I have been playing around with different ways to grow orchids: mounting some, s/h for a few (some with success, others not so much), or different types of media like my Rhy. that is in a basket filled with epi web or my den kingianum that is just in a pot filled with leca. I still have a ton of questions but I am having a blast learning. My only goal for last year was to not kill the orchids. I didn't care so much about blooms and I just wanted to focus on root and vegetative growth. I figured I could focus on blooms next year, but some of my plants surprised me both in good and bad ways

First off, the good: I got some of my babies to bloom! My Rhy. Gigantea, Den Aphyllum, Max Tenuifolia, a NOID Phal rescue from a coworker all put out nice displays, and then my Iwanagara Apple Blossom just opened about a week ago with another spike on it to go. None of these were in spike or bloom when I got them a year ago, so it was like Christmas when I was able to see the first bloom start to appear.

Now the Bad: Temperature and light requirements have been a huge struggle for me. I have burnt nearly every single one of my orchids. Some days, I swear, it smelled like fried orchid outside. Mostly this was from me not understanding just how sensitive some of them are to sunlight, especially super hot Southern Louisiana sunlight. The other was from me moving a few of them around in my courtyard with out really knowing what time the sun was blasting where. And then I burnt THE CRAP out of my big, beautiful phal bellina and about 8 other orchids when I cut down some palms on my banana tree, which allowed full sun from noon till 5pm into my little growing area. Oops

And of course..... The ugly.
My Zygopetulum hates me. I have been fighting a loosing battle with this poor plant, it seems to have a will to die and I just won't let it. Rot, fungus, infections, tons of black spots on the leaves, for every new root it shoots out- two more die, pests; you name it and I have had this issue with just this one orchid. I guess it has been a good learning experience
Another plant is a gorgeous Den that I picked up from an orchid show. I have proceeded to drop said gorgeous dendrobium at least a dozen times. There were no leaves and two of the canes were starting to yellow. I was getting ready to put it in the trash when I noticed a new growth, so maybe there is hope yet. I just feel bad for this guy and I am going to try and save him even if it takes a few years for it to recuperate.
And of course my bulb elizabeth ann buckleberry. This was a large plant that I put in a 8" clay pot. It was super happy and sent out 6 new growths. Then I got kitties. Kitties decided to knock over and break my bulbo and now I have ONE healthy leaf. The poor bulbo has now stalled and I have seen no new growth on it since the incident happened in december. Sigh

I am going to post some pictures of a few of my orchids and in particular if anyone wants to give me some adivice on my burt phal bellina leaf (or any other random advice) I would appreciate it! Not sure if I should cut the leaf off or not, the burnt part has not gotten any worse or spread so I am kind of on the fence..

EDIT: just in case anyone is wondering, I have officially killed 3 orchids. One bulbophyllum masdevalliaceum, which is a shame because I am falling in love with all of the weird and wonderful bulbos; one odontoglossum that just would not stop rotting; and one phaph that was potted too deep and rotted to death very quickly. Lesson learned!