Thirty Years Clean and Sober ...
ended last Friday. After 30 years without any kind of houseplants or orchids in my life I rebooted my interest in growing things (properly) indoors with an order from Carmela Orchids. Seven plants: one in bloom, one in spike, all healthy, all lovely. I'm very pleased.
I live on a different coast now than then; compact fluorescent were just becoming a thing; I didn't know about this forum then (did it exist?).
I found you guys searching for "fragrant Cattleya hybrids" on Google. 30 years ago I was not married to a wonderful blind woman that surprised me with two flowering Phalaenopsis for my 60th three years ago. I plan to specialize in fragrant species and hybrid orchids to entertain her because the other plants that interest me (African Violets and Cyclamen) have no scent.
She meant well getting me those Phals. She couldn't know that where we lived they couldn't survive without artificial light and humidity. I like to do things right, I never could do right by the Phals though. I tried. Kept them going for 3 years but eventually <hangs head> ...
But now we just bought a little condo with a balcony facing east that is way too small to actually use. I plan to enclose it in greenhouse plastic. In the meantime the new arrivals are under an LED plant light (those deffo did not exist 30 years ago) and I mist them every couple of hours.
I've been lurking for a few days and I think I have knowledge and experience to share here. And if the fragrant Cattleya thread is any indication, I think I will learn plenty from quite a few of you too. That was certainly not the case in the other forum I knew about where by far the majority of visitors were newbies in way over their heads with impulse purchases or gift plants that they hoped to re-bloom.
If you haven't noticed ... I love to write ... ciao.
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