Hello fellow orchid enthusiats!
My name is Randy and I live near Atlantic City NJ in the USA. I got my first orchid (a Cymbidium) in 1992 although I didn't really start growing them until I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show in 2000. Up until then I was into succulents. I like bizzare looking plants and I had no idea how bizzare looking orchids can really be. Cymbidiums have pretty normal looking foliage. Unlike some of the more quirky orchids.
Well, actually I had 2 prior to that but I had killed them because I had no idea what to do with them. I had those back in 1985.
When I finally got serious about growing orchids I did quite a bit of research. The conditions I had in my greenhouse at that time were impossible for orchids; I was heating with kerosene and the exhaust caused all the flowers to drop. So I did some major work and made the gh orchid friendly. The succulents didn't care about the exhaust from the kero heater.
After sinking about 5 grand into the gh in 2001 I wound up leaving my husband in 2004 and bought a house with my 74 year old father who needs someone to live with him because he has muscular dystrophy. I now have a house attached gh, but it doesn't have all the bells and whistles I put into the other one. My biggest consolation is that my X is now living in the gh.
He's a leach. He can't work for anyone else, only for himself. If he works for someone else he tries to make everything his way because, after all, he is perfect. Well I sold the house to a friend of his with the stipulation that he could keep is back yard business there. They fixed up the house and rented it out. My X could either sleep in his shop or the gh. He chose the gh. We're no longer together because even though I paid the bills and worked full time he wanted me to do all the housework, do all the shoping, mow the lawn or hire someone to do it. His contribution to life was his work on the buidling that was his shop. And he built a kitchen outside for his own use because he didn't want to cook inside with me anymore, because, after all, he was perfect. I wasn't neat enough for him. I could clean all day, no dust, no cobwebs, spotless floors, no dishes, clean bathroom, etc. but if there was on pile of clutter anywere to him the house was filthy.
It took me a while to convince my father that there was no way in h*ll I was ever going to go back to living with this man and that he could relax. He was afraid that if I saw my X I would go running back to him. NO WAY.
Anyway that's a brief autobiography of me now.