Hello from Holland!

[JandenHeld]

I live in the Netherlands and started growing orchids about 25 years ago. At first on the windowsill, then in an indoor greenhouse (a plastic affair in a spare bedroom), and the last ten years in a real 6m by 3m greenhouse.
Orchids fascinate me because they live 'from nothing', their roots just growing in the open air. For the average terrestrial plant an epiphytic orchid must be something like a ghost.
My special interest: every species of orchid. Alas, my rather cool and shadowed greenhouse prevents me from growing spectacular groups such as Catasetums and Cattleyas. But I do have a lot of Dendrobiums, Bulbo's, Coelogynes, Pleurothalloids and some Gongoras and Stanhopeas.
I don't have 'green fingers' (or is it a green thumb in English?), so learning to grow orchids is a slow and sometimes painful process for me, the road behind me strewn with the corpses of murdered (mostly drowned) plants.
In this forum I hope to learn a lot about orchid cultivation, and of course to share what I have learned myself.
Have a nice day!
Jan