Hello Orchid people !

[chantrelle]

Hello,

I'm from Quebec Canada (English is not my first language, so expect mistakes) and I've just meet with the world of Orchids

I mostly do a lot of garnering and in the winter to keep my mind off the winter, I sow perennials, something like 50 to 60 species.

It is about time I stop sowing so many perennials, I have a few T5 neons as well and nice metal selves. Therefore, I fell my love for orchids has happened exactly at the right moment in my life and I should jump right in.

I only have two NOID Phal for now, got them cheap at the super market. They are going to be my guinea pig orchids as I will use them for my first repots and all

However, on march 25 I'm going to go an orchid expo in Montreal and I expect to acquire about 5 orchids. (I sincerely hope it will not be more than that....) Basically, I want to start with Hybrid phal, Hybrid Odontoglossum/Ocidium, maybe Dendobrium Phal. It will be very hard to resist getting and Hybrid Zygopetalum but these are no orchid for beginners.

As you can see already... I'm pretty intense when I get into plants.

Looking forward to read more on this boards. What I've read so far is amazing lot's of incredible info.

[jkofferdahl]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

[AJW]

Welcome. If I can provide some advice. All the types you have identified as wanting to get require different growing conditions. To avoid disappointment seek some local advice as to what grows best and what conditions are required before you purchase. That way 5 is the first of many rather than the last of a few.

[jkofferdahl]

Originally Posted by AJW

Welcome. If I can provide some advice. All the types you have identified as wanting to get require different growing conditions. To avoid disappointment seek some local advice as to what grows best and what conditions are required before you purchase. That way 5 is the first of many rather than the last of a few.

This is an excellent point and I'm glad you made it. All too often people choose their orchids by the pretty flower, not knowing the conditions the plant needs. To be successful with orchids you need to know the conditions where you plan to place your plants, then select plants with needs that fit into your conditions. Doing so could avoid a lot of plant loss and frustration.

[rbarata]

Welcome to the board, chantrelle.

It will be very hard to resist getting and Hybrid Zygopetalum but these are no orchid for beginners.

What makes an orchid easy (or not) to grow are the environmental conditions where you grow them.
Nothing more!

[charlesf6]

[rbarata]

...And if you have an idea of them, maybe you could post them here so that we can give you some sugestions.

[chantrelle]

Thank you all for the warm welcome already.

---------- Post added at 04:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:33 PM ----------

Originally Posted by jkofferdahl

This is an excellent point and I'm glad you made it. All too often people choose their orchids by the pretty flower, not knowing the conditions the plant needs. To be successful with orchids you need to know the conditions where you plan to place your plants, then select plants with needs that fit into your conditions. Doing so could avoid a lot of plant loss and frustration.

Oh I will read more about these then. My thoughts about getting a few different breads or species (do we say species or breads in English in French is it genre ) was experimenting about which one would fit more in my home environment. (Is there a post where it would be relevant for me to ask some questions about my environment ?)

I don't really mind losing or not succeeding with a few to
start with. My experiments with sowing (Primula Hellaborus and others not easy one) taught me you can not always have success and often the next time around you just know more. However, I get most people need few first success to get into such thing as orchids.

Where I live it is not easy to have acces to nice orchids other than NOID Phal. Therefore the expo coming is kind of a chance for me to get more existing stuff. But I sure will give good thoughts to your advices.

Than you,

[Dollythehun]

Welcome! The advice is good. Know your conditions first, orchids, in my opinion, are not cheap, and I hate to kill anything (except bugs).

[jkofferdahl]

Originally Posted by chantrelle

Oh I will read more about these then. My thoughts about getting a few different breads or species (do we say species or breads in English in French is it genre ) was experimenting about which one would fit more in my home environment. (Is there a post where it would be relevant for me to ask some questions about my environment ?)

I don't really mind losing or not succeeding with a few to
start with. My experiments with sowing (Primula Hellaborus and others not easy one) taught me you can not always have success and often the next time around you just know more. However, I get most people need few first success to get into such thing as orchids.

Where I live it is not easy to have acces to nice orchids other than NOID Phal. Therefore the expo coming is kind of a chance for me to get more existing stuff. But I sure will give good thoughts to your advices.

Than you,

I'd call the different plants different varieties. Species is a term for a naturally growing plant, and bread is something we eat. "Breed", though, is a good term, and I think is what you meant.

You can ask questions about environment anywhere, though a good place for such a post might be the "Beginner's Forum". My guess is that you'll get an avalance of answers to questions you ask. There's a good book here in the US called Orchids to Know and Grow. It's very dry, but the information in it focuses on matching orchid purchases to the existing environment. If all you have is a bright, warm spot you don't want orchids which prefer cool and shade and so won't perform for you.