Greetings from snowy Grand Rapids, Michigan!

[laxfan25]

Hi! I just stumbled across the Orchid Board while doing the Google on an orchid topic, and I'm happy to have found the place!

My name is Bert Smith and I live in Grand Rapids, MI.

I got my first orchid about 10 years ago at a Home Depot in MN - it was a Dendrobium. Thinking that orchids were challenging I bought an Ortho book on Orchids. It listed some resources in the back, including some growers, and there was one in Plymouth, MN.

I stopped in and said "I'd like to buy some orchids". The owner looked at me and asked "what do you want?". I said "I don't know, what do you recommend?" He gave me a look like you might expect, but then took me around and recommended a few plants that he thought I could handle. I got an Onc. 'Tiger Crow', a vinicolor Paph. 'Macabre' and a mini-Catt Slc Sierra Doll. 10 years on they're all still living! I laugh now when I think back on what a newbie I was, and how patient Jerry Fischer from Orchids Limited was with me!

We moved to Michigan in 2001 with my half-dozen orchids. A few years later there was an orchid show advertised at Meijer Gardens, and the sickness really started to spread. I've met so many wonderful people through the vendor tables; Sam Tsui from Orchid Inn, Greg from Oak Hill Gardens, Russ Vernon from New Vision Orchids, Natt's Orchids, Cindy Flesnik from Green Acres, etc., etc., and my collection is up to 86 orchids at last count. I joined the Grand Valley Orchid Society as well, and have met great people there.

I grow on window sills, fortunately we have three bay windows (two north-facing and one south) that provide almost enough room for them all. I take them all outside in the summer time (late May to mid-September) and they enjoy the fresh air immensely. I feel like they "survive" indoors, but it's certainly not greenhouse conditions. I am seriously thinking about going under lights in the near future, but being laid off at the end of the year will put those plans on hold.

I've learned a lot over the past decade - going from neophyte to a decent orchid grower. It takes a lot of work to maintain them, and there are some that I have been unable to re-bloom, even though they're putting out new growths. I'll be posting in the other forums to see what I might be doing wrong, and I look forward to spending time in my latest Web forum!