Who are you, and what do you grow?

[cbloveday]

Hi I'm Curtis. I had 2 orchids for the last 2 years and recently bought a grow stand and bought a collection of phals, phaps, catts, phrags, vanda, etc. I currently have 25 plants and 3 keikis. I put the bloomers upstair where I can enjoy and put the growers under the light, heater and humidifier in my grow room downstairs in my bar as I am a orchidholic not alcoholic.

[pale blue]

Hi! I'm Megan, I'm 32 from central Jersey (and dreaming of moving to Florida). I've been mostly a lurker on this site since I joined but now that I'm sort of laid up at home and not working I'm posting a lot more. I also had the pleasure of meeting a couple of board members at the NYBG show a few weeks ago

I've only been into orchids for a few years now, I must have close to 60 but I haven't counted in a while. I grow them all with the exception of one huge paph under T5's on shelves. My main passion are paphs, but I also have phals, neofinetia, and some masdevallia, and a few other miscellaneous species. Oh yeah, I'm mostly a species buff when it comes to plants.. with a few hybrids thrown in for good measure

I'm in the process of setting up a terrarium for my masdies and other high humidity-loving plants (a pleurothallis and a dracula). I need something to do while I'm off from work for a couple of months

I do love this board, the people here are very kind and helpful and it's a wealth of information!

[Jkelee]

Hi Heather!! Welcome to the best place on earth!
My name is Jackie. I have a couple to few hundred chids. (I lost count)
I keep them all outdoors. Some on my pool patio, Mostly in my chid hotel, some in my green house.
I only use 'Mother Nature' for light. Try to use her for wind, rain, sun, everything.
I have phals, paphs, catts, dens, vanda's, onci's and lots of species.
I've only been growing for about 3 yrs, when I bought my 1st chid
I am sooooo addicted to chids!!

[Becky15349]

This is a fun thread, I never saw it before!

I'm Becky, Im 27 and I live in Chicago Illinois. I have about 60 orchids and most of them are minicatts. I do have a few standards but they are so big, I try to stick with the smaller varieties. I live in an apartment north of the city with big south windows, so the catts thrive here the best. I also have a couple nobile dends, oncids, and these crazy species cattleya aclandies that I keep buying but they are tiny!!!

I work in advertising and no one in my office understands orchids, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, since when I'm posting on the board, no one knows that I'm not working JK LOL!!!

[Royal]

Originally Posted by Becky15349

This is a fun thread, I never saw it before!

That's because it was buried under three years of posts - Heather started it in 2006!

[Crannoch]

Deane from the Wild West Coast of Vancouver Island here. We actually have sun today so will make this quick!

Just started with orchids after many years absence caused by a cat (no longer with me) who shredded 45 Phals while I was out one weekend.

Right now I have several Phals, a Lockhartia oerstedii, huge Brassavola Little Star, 1 Paph and 1 Masdevallia Dragon Fire. All are in bloom and growing in various locations of this little house. We are building two greenhouses - 1 as the nursery and one for veggies and orchids in summer/fall. Must have space to grow

[Hedge]

Hi Heather, I'm a Heather too but you can call me Hedge, to avoid confusion! I'm 49 , English, living in North Lincolnshire, and I've been growing orchids for about three and a half or four years.

The majority are Phal hybrid NoID's,(about 10) I also have three cymbs, two paphs, two Dendrobiums, a Colmanara "Masai Red", an Odontoglossum "Anna Claire" and a Dgrma Winter Wonderland White Fairy. I grow on windowsills and outdoors in the summer. I must be doing something right cos I am managing to rebloom them

O and I'm married with two teenage children and a dog. And I also have small collections of cacti and succulents, and a few Pelargoniums that I cherish.

[orchidegg]

Hi,
I bought my first orchids on a trip to Hawaii around 10 years ago. I bought 3 and 2 perished rather quickly from my ignorance. Somehow the dend (id lost long ago) survived and continued to grow new canes and flower. Eventually I got a phal from Costco or somewhere and finally decided to read up on how to treat the orchids properly. I love species-anything mini and hm, well I have representative orchids from most of the lower light requirement alliances phals, paphs, etc. I grow strictly indoors on any window space I can find.
I also have 2 spoiled dogs. They do their fair share though as therapy dogs and READ (reading eduacation assistance dogs) volunteers.
I also like to garden outside.

[jkofferdahl]

I'm John. More than anything else, I grow dumber by the day.

Orchid-wise, I started growing in about 1979. I was quickly addicted, but in a piecemeal way. I'd get a plant because it looked interesting, not because I had the right place for it to thrive. After several years, however, I focused in more on plants I can keep in the conditions I have to grow. That's remained a constant since about 1985. However, in 1990 I went back to school, and had to let go of most of my plants, many of which moved to the greenhouse at my undergraduate college. Several moves kept the numbers down. I began to get a nice collection going again, but a spiteful ex-wife took care of that for me.

My children, parents, and friends put a few orchids in my hands to go with the few survivors, and for about a decade I got along fine with maybe a dozen or so Phalaenopsis. A couple of years ago, though, as I looked at the plants that somehow survived along with me, the fever struck again.

I grow in what I call a modified windowsill environment, using artificial lighting to supplement the natural. My living room is the main growing room, and houses about 80-85 plants, mostly Phalaenopsis, and of those most are species rather than hybrids; there is also a dendrobrium, some Catts, and a few other oddities. In a cooler back room, though, I have about 15-20 Paphs which seem to do fine with just natural light and the cooler temperatures.

[kiki-do]

Originally Posted by beezermommy

Hi Heather - My name is Cheryl and I live in sunny Sunrise, FL. today it's 81 degrees. I grow mostly dendrobium, cattleya and vanda orchids. I won a beautiful Phaius at an orchid show last weekend. It's Krptonite and has the most extraordinary maroon flowers. I grow all of my orchids in a screen enclosure around my pool. I am blessed that myorchids love the weather. I have a small problem with scale that I got when a friend gave me an orchid and I did not separate it from my other orchids. Any hints on scale removal?

I'm just reading this now, sorry for the late response. Did you get rid of the scale problem? I think the most common scale killer is Safer's 3 in 1 by Bayer. I believe that is what it's called. I've run out of it so trying to think off the top of my head.