How do you keep/have all those Orchids!?

[lotis146]

Okay so I told myself no more Orchid browsing, no more OrchidBoard for today, but I couldn't help it.

Feeling guilty for my first and recent impulse ebay buys (3, may end up 4 if no one outbids me!) I found my way back here like a stray dog. And of course I used your latest buys to make myself feel, well, much better. ;-)

Some of you guys are crazy (I'm just jealous)! But how do you do it? I tried to reason that you live in warmer climates than my Midwestern lands, but then there are plenty of you from the cold "Polar Vortex" suffering regions that have in just a matter of months bought 2 and 3 times my 4 (5).

Roomy houses? Greenhouses?

What's the trick, is there one? One week I browsed online sellers, this week it was ebay. OMG, there are SO MANY different Orchid! I mean I knew there were but to see them, well how do you choose?!

I absolutely plan to get some from Hausermann's (my first stop in an Orchid greenhouse it will be) and I already feel guilty about it. So I just had to ask how you mega collectors do it? I think I've said it before but you're almost bad influences, "if so and so got 6 in a month then 7 more next month then 8 more three months later than why can't I..."

Thanks in advance for sharing a bit of insight into your world. I feel like I need a sponsor! Will appreciate all you share from how you display/organize them, how you decide to buy, you get the picture. I wonder if as my collection grows should I get one of those little in house greenhouses for those not flowering and keep them "stored" and compact. SO many questions people, sorry!


Lotis

[RosieC]

I know that feeling.

Not sure how many you have total, I'm at the 140 mark just now, but I have bought them slowly over a few years. I have to restrain my impulse to splurge except when I go to orchid shows... then I do usually get quite a few.

I'm not in the polar vortex area, and we've had a mild winter here in the UK, but I'm used to getting winters with somewhere between a couple of days through to a couple of weeks below freezing.

I cope with a very understanding hubby who puts up with every windowledge packed tight with orchids, some tables in front of windows packed tight with orchids, and a rail for the mounts across the middle of the bathroom window (above a windowledge full and a bathroom counter full). Then a greenhouse for the cool growing (but need frost protection) orchids and then a few that are happy to be frozen kept outside.

Summer is easier, some will move to the greenhouse as the weather warms (some already have) and some will go outside, and it doesn't feel quite so packed as in the winter.

Once you have lots it's not just a question of space though... but of time. I don't have enough of that to spend time with them as I would like, but have to find the most efficient method of watering etc.

[dounoharm]

I managed to deal with about 20 in houses around the country...I had loads of cymbidiums while I lived in California, but left those with friends when I moved to florida....I whittled my collection down to the final 20 when I moved from there to north Carolina...mostly big cats....then I splurged on the greenhouse! man was I in heaven! then, the fuel bills got to be too much, even for me...$400 a month for the greenhouse was more than heating the cabin there, so I sold everything but a few paphs...then I moved to texas/Oklahoma...my bf has houses in both states so we travel from one to the other constantly, lol...I have a light stand in Oklahoma with my fav paphs, and I just DONT BUY ANYMORE! bad as I want them, I know I cant keep them alive, so I enjoy what I have and let it go at that...it was sure nice to have a greenhouse tho...I do miss it!

[EricaMarie]

I am no mega collector but I do have a few :P Mental count about 40. Every square inch of my window space is occupied. I no longer have a kitchen table. My nightstand and the table next to it are pretty well stacked. They have also recently overtaken part of my sewing table. In the summer I move some outside into a little popup plastic greenhouse. (maybe 4x4ft.) And that clears up space for a while. Then I probably buy a few more- because of all the new space! LMAO) A few might die over the year. I just killed a seedling I had and a small oncidium my husband bought me as a gift. Whoops. But I think people who buy that many must have a year round greenhouse or a nice grow room.

[Fairorchids]

At one point I grew under lights in my basement (and brought them outside in summer). Then, as the collection grew, it became impractical.

I currently rent greenhouse space (watering goes a lot faster when you can use a hose, without worrying about splashing water around). The only reason that I do not have my own greenhouse, is that our property is too small for the size GH I want.

Getting a GH should be the goal for all 'orchidolics'. And, whatever size you think you need, double it. A couple of hints:

While 36" (90 cm) is a comfortable bench width, most people can reach to 48" (120 cm), in particular if you do not need to touch the plants every day. Since lumber comes in 96" lengths (240 cm), it is also a practical width to eliminate waste in materials.

Allowing for a 2' (60 cm) aisle in the center, that makes a 10' (300 cm) wide GH ideal. While some kits are as short as 8', I recommend going 12' or 16' (trust me, you will still run out of space).


You do not have to spend a fortune on a GH kit; it can be constructed from pressure treated lumber and covered with either double wall sheathing or two layers of plastic (get UV resistant type) if you are prepared to replace the covering every 4-6 years. The main investment will be a heater, exhaust vent and a motorized louvered vent for the wall opposite the exhaust.

You justify this investment to your spouse, by explaining that you can start vegetable seeds early, and keep the household in tomatoes, peppers, etc. for the season.

[cbuchman]

I started small, just 2 or 3 orchids while we were living in the Boston area in the early 1980s. I still have a piece of one of those original orchids, a Lycaste aromatica. That orchid moved with me to Cleveland where it lived in a bay window off the kitchen. When we first moved to New Jersey, I had lights in an upstairs spare room and the basement, and summered outdoors on a screened porch. I was quickly outgrowing that space when we moved to another location in New Jersey and the deal was that the house had to have a greenhouse or a logical place to put one!

We ended up building a heated sun room with a tile floor using the structure of an existing screened in porch. The sun room is attached to the house connecting the garage and the house (so it increased the value of the house significantly since the garage is not considered attached) and the house heating/cooling systems. We used a Fours Seasons kit, added a sliding door onto our patio, a sink with hose/wand, a dry well with a drain in the floor. And my indulgent husband built me benches and shelves that capture and hold a tiny amount of water in trays under the plant ranks and drain directly into the dry well, so there is minimal mess. I still summer outdoors.

I’m up to about 135 orchids and have started to focus on smaller and smaller ones so that I can have more. I also have several large plants (lemon tree, fig tree, 35 year old gardenia, Oxalys in a 12” pot, about a dozen amaryllis, and 4 Clivias). So it seems like I don’t have sufficient space!

[Fairorchids]

Carrie,

As I said, whatever size you think you need - Double Up.

Br,
Kim

[Subrosa]

I plan on putting a lot of mine outside for the summer, so I tried to look at the space I have to keep them when they can't be outside. I have a setup mounted on top of an aquarium I was already running, and set up a paludarium that has become more of an orchidarium, but my window growing space is limited one nice windowsill that faces SE and a few that face NW. So I try to keep stuff that I can winter over in those spaces.

[RandomGemini]

I have about 30 orchids now. I'm setting up a lighted growing rack for them this weekend.

My collection waxes and wanes. I will probably buy plants a couple of times a year from here on out at a show or when I'm able to travel to someplace with an orchid nursery and I'm going to mail order a couple of things that I just don't see that way.

The trick for me and keeping the number down, is my spouse. He wants to build a greenhouse for me, when we relocate to some place outside the sub-arctic zone we live in now. Until then, I promised, one terrarium, one growing rack. He deserves to have some space too.

[Vanda lover]

I started off by buying whatever orchid that I came across if I could afford it. Now I have to be very selective because the house that we moved to is small and we no longer have a sun room. I have about 50 orchids taking over every window sill. They all go outdoors for the summer. The one problem I have found when you get a lot of orchids is that if you have an insect problem, it is difficult to keep up.
I am out of rhubarb spray and I still have a few mealy and scale.