why do you grow orchids....?

[Ben_in_North_FLA]

I have been thinking about this for a while and have come up with several reasons why I grow orchids ( and lots of other plants, all legal stuff)....
lets start with the fact that I am a gardener at heart. Memories of my Dad and me working the vegetable garden together. I enjoy being out in my yard, orchard, vegetable garden, checking things out or exploring for wild native orchids n south FLA. Did that yesterday and it lifted my spirit to see so many encyclia tampensis and oeceoclades maculata in situ. Kudos to those municipalities that recognize the value of keeping native flora and force developers to get projects screened for native trees. Will post those pictures next week when I can do so on my home wifi.
I see all my gardening activities, orchids included as a continuous therapy session. The sight of a blooming orchid brings a smile to my mug and smiles is what we need a whole lot more of. Teaching a new orchid grower the basics and seeing them bring in the first blooming plant at local OS meeting with a never ending smile.
Orchids engage the mind like no other plant can ( am sure there will be various opinions on that and that is very ok) and they are a never ending stream of nature's beauty

I see nature as the ultimate artist and orchids as nature's gallery of beauty.

Why do you grow orchds?

[TomThumb]

I've always enjoyed having plants as a kid. I have lived in NYC my entire life so flora is not very abundant but i enjoyed having windowsills full of easy succulents. After moving out I lived in a garden/basement apartment for a much longer period than i intended. The succulents did not do well and my new cat ate many of them. I still managed to have some great spider plants as well as a hydrangea bush in the front dirt patch.

Surprisingly i was never interested in orchids. I always heard about how difficult they were and the common supermarket phals never really appealed to me. However when my mother became ill and numerous visits to the hospital led to encounters with many giant phals, my mom fell in love with them so i started growing them for her (she is not good with flora nor fauna). As with most things I do, i get very involved so now i have many phals, vandas, and a handful of other types suitable for my environment. I have windows on three sides and a very large backyard for new york where i intend to grow orchids in the summer.

My mom's illness is pretty rough on me and i find joy in seeing new root tips and growth in the orchids. They calm me down and give me some peace as all my plants have done for me in the past. With all the phals I have right now that are either blooming, in bud or in spike, i can see I will have a continuous supply of blooming plants for me mom through the next 2-3 months.

[Dollythehun]

I grew up on a farm. I've always enjoyed growing things. For a decade+ I owned a nursery and also found I enjoyed nurturing people. I discovered orchids 20 years ago when a customer gave me an oncudium. Phals followed. A few deaths and false starts later I had a greenhouse window full of phals. A few years ago I bought a few new orchids, expanding my horizons and discovered the Orchid Board. That was 100 orchids ago. I enjoy every root and shoot. They help me relax when ministering stresses me. They challenge me and reward me as no other plants have.

[Reeses]

I am a grad student and the past six years have been the most stressful of my life. Growing orchids has been my respite. It has let me connect with nature, and give back to these wonderful lifeforms that don't ask for much but give a fantastic show. Orchids became part of my self-care, and quite literally ground me when stress is getting to be too much. Plus, I get the satisfaction and pride when I am able to see progress of my plants, and I feel like a proud mama.

I am sure there are so many other reasons--the exotic flowers, the connection to nature, the look on people's faces when I say I grow orchids haha. But right now the self-care piece has been the most salient.

[Subrosa]

I grow orchids as a sort of counter balance to my other interests in plants. The bulk of my other gardening revolves around native species, with no exotics or hybrids allowed. Orchids (and to a lesser extent carnivorous plants) give me a chance to see the wild side, so to speak. Btw, your Oeceoclades maculata is an invasive species not native to FL. But these days, what isn't?

[Bulbopedilum]

I first got the interest in plants from seeing a nepenthes somewhere. Then I bought a Nepenthes rafflesiana. Unfortunately me and my family (I was little at the time) had to move to a far away place for quite some time, so 8 gave my nepenthes to my grandparents, there, it died.

In said far away place, I continued with an interest in interesting (subjective) flowers, succulents, and also growing stuff from seed.

When I moved back to Indonesia, I continued growing plants, starting with carnivorous plants. But then I found out about orchids, and I got an oncidium (Now dead unfortunately). Then I found out about Paphiopedilum and got one too.

The main shift to orchids was when I had to go somewhere for 2 weeks, and when I got back my carnivorous plants died, but the orchids were still alive, so I started growing orchids and here I am now. I still have a nepenthes rafflesiana and would love to grow carnivorous plants again but unfortunately the space got taken over by orchids...

A shift to aroids might be coming...

But the main reason I grow plants and orchids is mainly to enjoy their beauty and interstingness at home and so I can see them for myself...

[kingd]

I was raised around plants (and farming).
Must be in my blood 😁

[Dollythehun]

"I am a grad student and the past six years have been the most stressful of my life."

I totally get this! (And you must be at Ball State?)It's much harder at 60!

[kinknstein]

My interest in gardening began at a young age when I would roam through my grandmothers garden. She had an amazing green thumb and could seemingly grow everything.
Fast forward to my early twenties and I wandered through a local greenhouse on a cold winter day. Bought myself a Dracaena and I was instantly hooked on plants. I had a collection of about 50 tropical when I spotted my first phal and had to have it. Within a couple years I had amassed over 150 species and hybrids. Unfortunately about 8 or 9 years ago, I was away for an extended period and my collection froze to death after my heater died.
I have extensive gardens outside, and enjoy Japanese gardens and sculpting my pine trees, but I have just recently gotten back to indoor gardening, with about a dozen tropical, and a couple phals. But just yesterday I finally received some new orchids and the start to my new collection. I bought a Ang. didieri, Brassavola Little Stars, and a Neofinetia falcata.

[Ben_in_North_FLA]

@Subrosa.... I know Oeceoclades maculata is an african native and invasive to south florida.... but then aren't we all?
The story has it that some seeds blew across the atlantic on a hurricane and landed n FL and there abouts and established themselves fairly easily. They are a low impact invasion and the only orchid that if you lay down the right trap... will find you. The trap is a couple of bags or red mulch in shady spot, leave it undisturbed and within a year or two you will have new plants growing there. BTW the trap works in south FLA or caribbean basin areas, next time anyone visits feel free to validate.