What an exciting day!
 

First, I woke up with NO pain in my knee, thanks to the cortisone injection I got yesterday! Yippee!!! :dance13:

Now, on to orchid stuff...

yesterday, my hubby and I drove past a house a few blocks away from my house with a large sign on the front lawn...all I caught as we went by was the word ORCHIDARIUM!!!

Needless to say, I was obsessing the rest of the evening and this morning we took a ride back to see the details :coverlaugh:

The sign said ORCHIDARIUM
2' x 4' x 3'h $200.00

$200.00 :yikes: WHAT??? :faint:

Of course, I rang the bell to ask about it and the guy brought us into his garage where this HUGE tank was sitting, surrounded by about 8 light fixtures, a misting system and a bunch of pots and media. He said it was all given to him by his dad who can no longer grow his orchids... :(

All I kept thinking was :hmm "how am I rearranging my house to fit this baby in somewhere"...while my husband had a glazed look in his eyes :coverlaugh:

I told the man I will get back to him. As we drove away and started discussing where it would fit, we realized (and I really knew all along) that we have no room for this monster...but my husband is a really good guy and asked if his large 50 gallon fish tank would make a good orchidarium

:hmm "Well, that would be great, honey" :love:

So, all the fancy-tailed guppies we have will be adopted out and I get a new orchid tank!!!

(/udb)

Life is GOOD!!!!!

LIFE IS GOOD INDEED SUSANNE. I'm really happy for you.

I forgot to put this info in:

It was the Grand Cayman Orchidarium which lists at $2400 on their site!
orchidarium.com

What a steal! I wish I knew somebody local who could take it.

Becca isn't going to be happy with this post! :evil: Betcha she paid the full shot and then some!

Second, is your hubby crazy? I mean like give up his fish for some stupid plants! :rofl: What's the world coming to, I mean first the fish, then the workshop! :hmm Great idea I just had. Better yet, why not the laundry room? :scratchhead: We got water (hot and cold) we got a drain, I can make this work! Nope! :biggrin: :rofl: Like that would go over like a lead balloon full of bricks. Last time I made some comment like "Honey, I really need to get the orchids watered." The response was something like (I am paraphrasing here :biggrin: ) You chose this hobby and you chose to saddle yourself with these duties. :hmm :scratchhead: That wasn't a compliment was it? :scratchhead: There's a bunch of things I could've said but didn't. That's where I got stronger! I have learned to curb my tongue. Especially if I want dinner tonight :rofl:

Too funny, Ross!!! :rofl:

Anytime I'm complaining that I'm tired and hubby asks what I did all day, I try to avoid mentioning the chid care 'cause that just brings on "the look"! :crackup:

Come on Sue! You know you have room for it! It isn't that huge!!!!! $200.00 is definitely a steal! You say 8 lights? I don't think those are the lights that come with the orchidarium....I have three light fixtures, each with two bulbs per fixture, thus making it a 6 bulbs as advertised. And it didn't come with a misting system...so that is one heck of a deal!

You know for the full price of an orchidarium....I could have gotten a greenhouse, but then I would have had to put out more money for things such as a heater...lol....just something for others to keep in mind when looking to purchase the Grand Cayman at full price.....

Sue If I were you I would still buy it! You will regret it if you don't!

Where is she to put it? :scratchhead: I know! In Cadillac Michigan! :biggrin: :bowing

:rofl: Oh Ross you really are a piece of work aren't you? No you silly man, that was NOT a compliment! :rofl:

Dear me. I'm going on vacation for about 10 days, and hubby stepped up to the plate and offered to water. :cheer: What a guy. I typed up a day by day schedule so he'd know who to water when and with what. I was wondering how I was going to pull this off.

Suzanne, at $200 the orchidarium is a steal. You wouldn't have to build anything, plus the whole front of it opens up. I just got rid of a 50 gal fish tank. It was bad enough trying to clean it with fish in it let alone plants. I couldn't quite reach the bottom. I'd get the orchidarium. ;)

You'all might think I am kidding, but I print monthly calendars from my Franklin Planner software and faithfully cross off the days. I have codes for "water everybody" - "water all but the 'big guys' (the Cats, etc.) - and "water only the mounts." When I have my "second" doing the watering, he gets toothpicks in the second category (I call it blue dot) and red flags in the first category (which I call "water everybody"). It helps me remember when, and if, I've watered. Gotta do stuff like like as you get older (more senile). :biggrin: My "second" really looks forward to the "water only the mounts" days, cause that takes like, a couple minutes or so.

Suzanne, buy the darned thing. You'll wish you had later

Lecent

That's actually an excellent idea Ross. It really does make it easier on our subs if they don't have to remember everything. I thought about getting colored sticky dots and color coding the pots that way. I'm not going to have him fertilize. He's already going above and beyond.

heh all you minnie orchid lovers! ya,ll know that you want that orchidarium. but can,t have it
nah nah nah nah nah na

Believe me, I was looking to rearrange furniture to get it in here but I really really do not have the room for it :(

It's okay though because as soon as the fish are gone, the 50 gallon tank is mine :banana:

Well, Sue found someone to take the orchidarium....IT'S AT MY HOUSE!!! :shock:

Darn thing rattled around in the back of my truck ALL THE WAY HOME!! :rofl: :rofl:

:evil: Who am I kidding....I'm thrilled and of course I NEED MORE PLANTS TO PUT IN IT :rofl:

:rofl:

Congratulations!!!!:cheer: :cheer:

I'm so happy for you. I've been sitting here feeling bad about it sitting there and no one to buy it and make good use of it. It's just too good a steal for anyone to pass it by. I'm glad it found a good home and I'm sure filling it with orchids will be fun. :goodluck:

Marilyn

Thank you Marilyn...we're going to completely break it down tomorrow and throughly clean it. Still have NO idea where we're putting it but I'm sure I'll find a good place....it's an amazing piece of equipment and I agree, it would've been a shame for it to continue to sit there unused...

What a deal, Susanne! Can't pass this up. I think you really must have it as you probably are needing more space for orchids! :rofl:

:)

Hi Shirley...you must've missed the last few posts in the thread ;)

Dana bought the whole setup while she and her husband were visiting with us these past few days :clap:

Congrats to you Dana...you know that we're all going to want pics once you get that thing set up, so don't even try to get away without posting some. :evil: :D

Way to go! :biggrin:

I wouldn't dream of it!

We broke the whole thing down and really REALLY cleaned it. This is where it gets interesting...we aren't going to use any of the shelves it came with. We've painted the bottom grids and back glass black and in lieu of the shelving, we've created wire "tubes" (4 in varying sizes and width) with the hardware cloth it came with and will be stuffing those with long fiber spag moss and will be planting or hanging plants from the tubes. I'm considering planting some compact catts (or maybe other high light chids) in the tops of the tubes thereby creating some shading in the lower levels.

Hang on a sec, I need to:drool: over this concept...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I will not be using the air stone "misting" setup and have opted to hand mist everything for the time being. :roll:

The beauty part of this idea is that if the "tubes" need to be repositioned, no prob!! just move it :evil: (not to mention the fact that I think I can get at a minimum 25 to 30 plants in here which would be WAY WAY COOL!!!!

I'll be posting some pictures tomorrow...please let me know what you think and share any ideas you might have...I welcome your thoughts :blushing:

First of all congrats Dana! I'm envious! The likelihood of me finding one of those sitting in someone's garage here is about zero!

I'm either too tired, or way too visual because I'm having a hard time envisioning what you are describing. :photo: for the description impaired please! :lol:

Now I have gotta see this! I can't wait until you post pictures. I have the Grand Cayman as well but I use it with the shelves it came with. The air stone thingy is a joke, so it is good you are not planning on using it!

I'll have to take an updated picture of mine and post if for you...it is crammed full!

Congrats Dana!! :biggrin: It's nice to know someone from OB got it. I think I understand what you are going to do with it and the wire tubes, sounds really nice!:drool: We'll be expecting lots and lots of pictures as you set up and fill it with plants.;) :biggrin:

OK, after two long days of cleaning, painting and organizing here are some pictures of the orchidarium. I ran out of moss for the large tube so I have to go back to the nursery tomorrow so I can finish it :lol:

The narrow tube in the back has the Myrc. (C. violacea x Mcp. tibiscinis) that David gave us last week-end :biggrin: and the teeny tiny erin pot in photo 6 is the little masd that Sue gave me

Any thoughts and suggestions would be very welcome!

Love that tiny erin pot! I really like what you have done with the orchidarium. It is funny how if you put something larger in it, it makes the orchidarium look smaller then it really is. Those must be some huge moss tubes! I like the idea you are using to hang your mounted 'chids. My question is do you think you can hang more mounts via the tubes rather then using the green wire mesh it came with and hang them from that? My next question is how is the humidity doing? Do your doors shut tightly? That was my main issue, the doors not sealing due to the track space in between the two doors.

I really like the look of the black....it tempts me to go and paint my white shelves black...lol.

I was thinking the same thing for mine... If I wasn't so damned lazy! :evil:

The humidity is doing pretty well. It's mainting at 85% and the temps are at 75 - I LOVE the way this is turning out. It looks amazing to me!!!

Yes, Becca, I am having issues with the doors not closing all the way....I wonder if that's a desgin flaw...hmmm

I sent Becca some suggestions on using weatherstripping to seal the edges.

Love that tiny erin pot!

Isn't it great! I think I have thimbles bigger than that but I think what I love about it most is who gave it to me

Those must be some huge moss tubes!

They turned out to be the perfect size but yeah, they are kinda big...I've already been through 4 bags of spag AND woodland moss!

I like the idea you are using to hang your mounted 'chids. My question is do you think you can hang more mounts via the tubes rather then using the green wire mesh it came with and hang them from that?

I wasn't really using the orchidarium as a primary place to put my minis...I already have an 80 gallon vivarium so this was in addition to and I wanted to go in a completely different direction....

I was thinking the same thing, Ross...it really is a good idea!

Yes I remember that Ross! But I am lazy so I haven't gotten around to it...lol. Plus I have my Mist King system so I am able to maintain the humidity.

Dana, since you live in Florida where the humidity is much higher then mine, I would imagine you wouldn't have much of a problem maintaining good humidity in the orchidarium.

Becca, I'd really like to see some pictures of yours! It sounds really great!!

I don't get it, this is all so new to me...these orchidariums...not a clue but, I love what I'm looking at. It's so dramatic and beautifully displayed.

Sandy, let me warn you right now: "Never yield to the dark side" :biggrin: Once you get a tank, you will never be the same. Next thing, you'll be searching Angraecoids, then Haraella, then other high humidity plants. It never ends. Next thing you'll be trying to grow plants you never could before. :drool: Maybe you should stay with the old standby's :roll: NAW! Just do it! If you have a basement, that will solve the temperature problems.

Dana,

I was having a hard time envisioning this thing...so I'm glad you posted pics! Thanks! :biggrin:

I don't know if you are planning on keeping that little C. violacea x Mcp. tibiscinis in the small tube, but you should consider that it is just a baby, and while C. violacea is moderate in size, the Mcp. tibiscinis aka Schomburkia tibiscinis can get rather large. Just something to think about. :hmm

hmmmm....didn't consider that. Thanx!

Hey now that's very cool looking! Very nice! So you hang your mounts on the wire and mist/or water the moss to keep the humidity up? What happens if the roots start rambling into the tubes? They might end up playing footsie with each other in the center of those tubes and you'll never know it! ;)

Dana, looks great! What a difference from when it was sitting in that guy's sun room, huh? :coverlaugh:

...and I see lots of space that needs to be filled in :dance13:

Congrats Dana! Looks nice. Only suggestion would be to "Buy more plants" and to share all details with us who are secretly jealous! :evil:
Boy oh boy, this thread was an exciting read. :shock: I wasn't sure how it was going to end up, :dunno: because I was saying "Sue don't walk away from that deal! Somebody buy it! Please!" :pray: Whew :whew
Great day, Sue! Great looking orchid village you got there Dana!
Now that was a happy ending. Thank goodness! :faint: