What are good orchids for beginners?

[SaraJean]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and mention catasetums. They may not be a great "first" orchid but I think they are fantastic beginer orchids for someone who is interested in learning. They have such distinct growth patterns that they practically scream at you what they need. They just want light, water, and food during their growing season. Catasetums grow so fast in the mid spring through summer that to label them "vigorous" would be an understatement. Having such an absurdly fast growing orchid can be very satisfying, whether you are a beginner or not. I haven't found them to be too fussy about humidity either. They can also be pretty forgiving. If there is at least one non rotted pseudobulb, it can recover quickly. I had left one of my big catasetums out in the cold and rain for a few weeks during its dormancy (this is a great way to rot and kill a catesetum, indeed I rotted 3 of my 5 p-bulbs)... it then overcompensated by growing three new pseudobulbs the next year, all of which sent out flower spikes.

Plus catasetum flowers are cool and often very fragrant.

If space in an issue, there are some mini varieties out there too. I just picked up a few small growing hybrids from Sunset Valley Orchids and they absolutely adorable.
Here is a nice article about this group on the AOS website by Fred Clarke who is the owner of Sunset Valley Orchids
http://www.aos.org/AOS/media/Content...catasetums.pdf

---------- Post added at 12:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:20 PM ----------

Originally Posted by nogreenthumbs

I've been reading, and Catasetums sound less tolerant of a hamfisted newbie that might be tempted to start watering as soon as they see the tip of a root. Granted, if you do your research, I think they can be successfully grown as long as you know a few fairly firm guidlines surrounding their dormant phase and how to feed/water

I'm just noticing that you mentioned Catasetums in one of your posts
Truely, they are not hard. What they teach you is how to listen to your plant. You learn about dormancy (and restraint), how to care for vigorous growers and, in a very short time, how to divide them. In a nutshell, that's why I mention this type: they are great plants to learn on!