Hi...which orchid hooked you first?

[GreggC]

of orchid, but the variety of orchids. My collection includes miniatures as well as standard sizes. Scented, unscented. I like the regular orchids that you see plus I like some of the very different stuff. One thing that you can say about orchids is Vive Le Difference or is it Differance?

[Undergrounder]

Mine was seeing a display of Cymbidiums in full flower at a local nursery, they just blew me away and i went home with a half a dozen Cymbidium seedlings. The very next day was a major orchid fair in my local area and after that i was goooonnne.

My addiction has stabalised though, and i'm living on a maintenance dose of about 120 fullsize orchids and 80 or so flasklings.

[GreggC]

But I have about a hundred and fifty orchids to keep me busy. Most of what I have is oncidiums, cattleyas, fewer dendrobiums (my wife likes those), a few phalenopsis (I lost 20-30 last year in an ice storm), even fewer Paphs and Phrags, and then a bunch of really neat odds and ends-Wilsonaras,Dgmras, Brassias plus the very different things-Lochartias, Isochilums, Dendrochilums. The ones I lost in the storm last year was because I use electric heat in my greenhouse and I had bought a digital heater. My power was only out for about 40 minutes, which would have been fine, except when that heater kicked back on, it was on low. Yes, I have a thermometer which is for in the house and a remote for out in the greenhouse. I did not realize it, but someone had pushed the button. I thought it was 60 in the greenhouse and in realitym it was 60 in the house! My wife hit the button a few days later and it was 44 in the greenhouse. The only thing that got wiped out was the Phals. I had to make up for it this year at buying time.I bought some other stuff because I have proven that I could kill Phals. all ready. I was because I got to buy a bunch.

[Tsuchibuta]

That sounds like my worst nightmare Gregg. I just built a greenhouse over the summer because my collection has grown so large. I have about 300 orchids mainly dendrobiums, but some phals, a number of bulbophyllums, and a plethora of other odds and ends. I am heating with electric right now and I have nightmares every night about the electric going out. I've been looking into a back up heating device or generator but still haven't made up my mind which way I wanna go.

[GreggC]

that I bought the year we had the tornado. It would do, if I needed it to. Yes it was a nightmare. Every year, we have a contest that all the members in the society participate in. We won first prize for a white phalenopsis that had 44 blooms on it. The plant had just gotten enough age on it that it was really starting to put on some flowers. Bang-it was gone and it teed me off. I bought replacement plants, but not that many phalenopsis. My focus on orchids has changed from growing more of the easiest to growing more of the interesting ones and ones that I know I won't have problems growing. For example, I tried unsuccessfully to grow Zygopetalums, Miltonias. I never bothered to try to grow Masdavallias and Draculas because of the humidity factor. Instead, because I have had such good luck with Oncidiums, Cattleyas, Brassias and Dendrobiums, I try growing hybrids that have at least some of those in them to see if I can get some luck from that part of the parentage. I am growing Miltassias, Miltoniopsis, Miltonidiums, etc. because they are not dying. They may not turn out, but I figure that this way, at least I have a fighting chance.

[Taceas]

My first orchid was a white NOID Phalaenopsis sp. from the local grocery store's florist department. I'd noticed and resisted buying it, as I didn't know anything about them and assumed they were difficult, not to mention their prices were way overpriced.

Over the next few weeks I noticed it looking more and more neglected and starting to suffer. Then one day in while looking at it again, the lady asked if I wanted it, saying she was going to throw it out since it was clearly going to die and couldn't sell it. I couldn't say no.

And I still have that poor ragmuffin orchid 7 years later (and it blooms yearly), so I guess my green thumb works with orchids as well. After that I was hooked. =)

[Gin]

The one that hooked me was Mem. Crispin Rosales a Catt. not my first Orchid but the first that bloomed .
Went to a box store in So. Ca. on a rack were little plants in bags , I bought one, took it home opened the bag on the inside of the tag was written (Your orchid will bloom in 3 to 4 years) I set it on top of the air conditioner ledge . Watered when I thought about it , It out grew the 2 inch pot , I went to the Library and checked out an old book , got in the wrong section , re potted in garden dirt.
Thinking back it was sandy with lots of decomposed horse manure . It grew and bloomed. I can still recall the scent I was hooked . Gin

[mehitabel]

It was a Phal amabilis, that bloomed for two whole months starting one dim December.

Short days, 4/7 of them gloomy, and one radiant, exuberant, unsinkable phal.

Reeled me right in.

[Angurek]

My first orchid was a Den. Burana Stripe, but the orchid that began the craze for me was Vanda coerulea. The blue flowers just mesmerized me.


I'm planning to add a V. coerulea to my collection someday, and I hope I can find one.

[Tindomul]

Welcome to the Orchid Board. Glad you joined. Great question! My first was a set of three orchids. I work at a college as a lab tech and orchids were to become lab materials for the botany lab at the time. Fortunately all three came out intact with flowers and all. They were a NOID white Phal, a NOID dendrobium and an Oncidium 'Sharry Baby'. I still have all three. I believe that by that time I had already joined this forum in search of orchids that might be small enough to get to bloom inside my vivariums. But those were the three that gave me the confidence to keep going.