Greetings from sunny Central Florida.

[Floridan by Choice]

Up until a couple of months ago, when I finally retired, I had no idea how to take care of orchids. Oh we had a bunch of them - whenever we would get an orchid in the house we would enjoy it until the blooms dropped off then I would set the pot on some shelves out in the back yard. They got watered twice a week when the sprinklers came on and I think I might have dropped a couple of plant food spikes in each pot once, or maybe twice over the years. I didn’t spray them with anything for anything, and sure didn’t re-pot any. Once, we even had a bird build a nest in one. Over the years I really didn’t treat the plants well nor show them much respect but a lot of them hung on – surprisingly.

I had no idea of the names of the different orchids (still have some I have not identified), knew nothing about how to water them, nor anything else about them. Turned to the internet and started researching orchids, their diseases, their pests, etc., etc. Yada, yada, yada – So, here I am, a real newbie, started with about 50 grossly ignored orchids, some that can be real old, that I have grown to love within the last couple of months. These orchids have shown how hardy they can be, so let’s hope my starting to take care of them won’t kill them. I certainly have a lot of questions so your help in getting and keeping these guys healthy and blooming will always be appreciated,

Glad to be here.

Cecil