Just a simple intro

[Tervnut]

Here's a brief (well not that brief) synopsis of me in introduction ...

I have always loved orchids. Several years ago I was able to purchase several compots (cattleyas, phals, and a vanda), they did wonderfully until one of my dogs decided they looked better ground into the rug. I did, and still do, feel dreadful - they were so promising! Needless to say I've been afraid to get more ... but couldn't resist the sale orchids this year ... I know most of them are NOIDs, but I am a Phal lover through and through - little makes me catch my breath faster than a large phal with one or more spikes of five-inch span WHITE flowers ... oh, pure white IS the prettiest I think.

Today I have eight little 'noid' phals currently being babied back from the brink, due to Lowes neglect and ignorance. They are looking WAY better than they did two weeks ago, and though they have a long way to go, I think that by next spring I'll be enjoying abundant blooms!

I want to learn to propagate and clone these lovlies. I plan to have a greenhouse in the next fifteen years, and I want it lined with the plants that can be enjoyed all year round! I have big aspirations!!

Having been married for seven + years, we've lived in FL, PA (grew up here and am here now again), and MN. I have a background in biology/genetics, though am a homemaker by choice and by privilege, grew up in the country on a farm, love the outdoors, and have quite the garden this year - first time we've been somewhere I can have one in years.

Besides orchids I am extremely fond of roses, hibiscus, houseplants, and many of the flowering perennials. I love to grow and preserve the bounty of summer for enjoyment in the cold winter months.

I would like to take one of those BIG white flowered phals, and cross it with a p. gigantea and create a show stopper, those immense leaves draped with large showy white blooms, get the best of all worlds there I think, . I have a ways to go, and those little noids I saved are going to be excellent 'test' subjects .

I really look forward to learning from all on this forum!! Thanks for reading!!

[WhiteRabbit]

you came to the right place - we love new victims! ... er, enthusiasts!
Please post pix of your plants and blooms - we love em all - not just orchids

[RosieC]

Welcome to Orchid Board

They have some really massive white phals in our local garden center which are labled up as P. Gigantea but are certainly not the species... they sound just like what you would like to make, a cross with a white, flat, round faced flower and the propper P. gigantea species. Anyway needless to say they are gorgeous even if they are mis-labled.

Anyway you've come to the right place... which are just addicted to orchids here. As WhiteRabbit said we also just love pictures... I spend so much time looking at them and drooling over them... my wishlist ends up very long as a result

[CTB]

Welcome aboard! Best of luck with your dreams, orchids are masterpieces.

[Tervnut]

Thanks all! I'll post pictures when they're available. My current phals are all snipped and recovering (don't even know what they'll flower like - can't wait to see! due to the poor quality of the roots I had to remove the spent spikes before they were dried, I probably could have gotten another several months of bloom out of them IF they'd had a good root system.) and the ones my mother and I purchased, which she has, are all in the 'grow like crazy' stage, I expect spikes to start forming in the fall .

Just so excited about all the possibilities!

WhiteRabbit, I am an enthusiastic victim ... lol

RosieC, I wouldn't be able to walk away from those orchids you mention at your garden center ... mislabeled or not, they sound amazing! Sometimes the prices they're asking make me choke, but I'm losing the battle and am going to have to start expanding my collection with flowers that are healthy!

Oh ... one other thing I didn't mention above is that I plan to mount some of these NOID phals (again - they're my guinea pigs) there is nothing so striking as an orchid looking a'natural on a chunk of driftwood, cork bark, or a branch. LOL ... SO much to love and so little time to appreciate it all !