Will you teach me? ;-)

[Chele]

everyone!

I am a newbie here, and nearly a newbie to orchids. I just adore them. I know very little about them. I buy what I like and hope for the best when I get them home. So far so good. But my collection, small as it may be, is getting to the point where I will need some information to keep them going strong and bloom happy.

I have a lot of cattleya's, one finally bloomed; Some phals, paphs, dens and one labeled intergeneric, which looks to be like a yellow/brown dancing lady. (Thats the nick my neighbor says it is)

In any case, I look forward to 'meeting' and learning from all of you.

[BikerDoc5968]

For starters to give you some reading material, look at a book by Ortho Books called Complete Guide to Orchids. ISBN 089721506-0. The Otho series has another orchid book but it isn't anywhere near as complete. The other reference is the AOS website. They have cultural sheets that can be downloaded and printed. After that questions posed to the general membership always works....we love questions!

[Chele]

Thanks, I will certainly check into this book.

What little experience I have with orchids I got from my neighbor who was formerly a floral designer. She had a couple and I got the 'bug'. I was always afraid I'd kill them but I *knock wood* have been very fortunate that they all seem to be healthy and happy... except for one -- and that is/was my fault.

I got distracted when a friend dropped by while I wasl giving one of my cats in a wooden planter a good soaking. By the time my friend left I completely forgot about it/them. The bad part is, is that I have a utility sink in my back yard and I fill it about 1/3 and put the plants in there for the soaking. It has no shade -- AND making it worse yet - all the water leaked out coz I didn't put the stopper in tight enough. When I got home from work the next day, one (of the two) plants were fried. And I do mean fried. Nearly all its' leaves were mostly all black (like an over ripened banana) and I was just devastated. Of course I rewatered/saturated it since it was dry as a bone and immediately brought it in completely out of the (south Florida) sun. I watched it for a couple days to see what it would do.

Some of the really bad leaves dropped by themselves. Others I cut off just at the 'bud'. I grow my cats in bark and spag moss. Its been about 2 weeks now. Surprisingly this morning I saw new growth of all things. And there are still some leaves have a little black/brown (sun burn) marks on them, but I'm leaving it as is for now --
UNLESS
Someone has some better medicine advice for me to make sure I don't lose my pot of cats.
Thanks so much

[Chubidubi]

Chele and
You will learn soo many things here.
Just sit back and enjoy the ride