Unpopular Orchid Opinions

[Jeff214]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

I wonder why a small group of people are allowed to determine what is beautiful. I think orchids, roses and other flowers that smell wonderful are beautiful and I do not understand why this is not a part of judging with these plants. It really should be.

I never understood orchid judging in general, haha... I feel that some of the beauty and wonder in appreciating the plants gets lost in that process. I lack the competitiveness gene maybe haha.

[PuiPuiMolcar]

I find most orchids that are considered "rare" by orchid societies are ugly aesthetically, and I'm not fazed by orchids that cost 200-1k when the color only looks one tint of color different than the already existing common orchids (they tend to be the cattleya alliances.) The same reaction when I go to Andy's Orchid shop then find out most of his rare orchids for sale in reality are half the size of your hand. It's all just personal bias and folly no direct attack, however, if people are growing them our of pure love for orchids and just not being a collectionist then they'll have my utmost respect.

I suppose it is a selfish way to look at orchids because I only grow what I like, i.e because they look good to me.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by PuiPuiMolcar

I find most orchids that are considered "rare" by orchid societies are ugly aesthetically, and I'm not fazed by orchids that cost 200-1k when the color only looks one tint of color different than the already existing common orchids (they tend to be the cattleya alliances.) The same reaction when I go to Andy's Orchid shop then find out most of his rare orchids for sale in reality are half the size of your hand. It's all just personal bias and folly no direct attack, however, if people are growing them our of pure love for orchids and just not being a collectionist then they'll have my utmost respect.

I suppose it is a selfish way to look at orchids because I only grow what I like, i.e because they look good to me.

My theory is that this sort of plants are not 'pretty' for the average hobbyist, so not much demand for them. This means that few vendors have them, thus making them 'rare'!

[rbarata]

Note that "taste" changes with time and experience, sometimes driven by circumstances.

[FL_Orchid_Collector]

Good video, I have been watering in the evenings lately and the first week the orchids looked sad but they're enjoying it now. I'm glad to hear what you said about letting media dry before watering - I've been caring for branch-mounted orchids with no sphag for years and I've been watering daily but a couple of phals desiccated to the point of stopping growth so I started mounting with sphag this year for my mom's Mother's Day orchid haul and added sphag to the two shriveled phals and have been waiting for the sphag to dry before watering, but it looks like the roots are unhappy from being too dry. I'm going to try watering before the sphag starts getting crispy now and see what happens. I bet it'll do the trick!

---------- Post added at 12:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:15 AM ----------

This was really meant for a separate post re: PuiPui

And think of orchids in which a specimen is the size of your hand... the same space can have 5 orchids... or 50... hmmm if you look closely enough a 1" flower is as grand as the largest Cattleyas.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by FL_Orchid_Collector

And think of orchids in which a specimen is the size of your hand... the same space can have 5 orchids... or 50... hmmm if you look closely enough a 1" flower is as grand as the largest Cattleyas.

And even much smaller ones. There are many little gems, some so small that they are best appreciated in a photo, where you say "Wow!"

[Leafmite]

I got tired of the pain of dragging out the camera and macro lens just to see the flowers in detail so I no longer grow the tiny orchids. It was rather embarrassing to take these orchids to the Orchid Society meetings and no one could see the flowers without me pointing to them each and every time. They were cool for a time but the novelty wore off for me. I returned to growing stuff that had visible flowers (Hello Mini-Cattleyas!).