9a/9b Epiphytic Orchids? (& WIP spreadsheet)
 

Hi, everyone! I'm new to orchids and had been lurking here while researching varieties I got this year. I am only interested in growing orchids that I can keep outdoors year-round as I really like them mounted on trees specifically and interacting with pollinators. I am in zone 9b (2023 zone map) in Northeast FL, so what I grow has to be heat tolerant but also capable of taking quick, dry cold (e.g. overnight freezes).

I am working on a spreadsheet of epiphytes that can take freezes and one of the tabs is for orchids. It is here: Hardy Epiphytes Reference - Google Sheets

The list is a combination of grower information and zones of natural distribution (I use iNat for this), doesn't guarantee trait is consistent across individuals but it at least gives an idea I hope.

This is all to say, I would be very interested if anyone here has experience growing species and them surviving freezing conditions. I can add them to the list (and my cart lol). For high-altitude species I will probably make a column for heat sensitivity.

This year I have acquired the following orchids and have been growing them outdoors no watering nor fertilizer:
Encyclia tampensis var. alba
Encyclia tampensis
Cattleya cenua
Laelia anceps albiflora
Laelia anceps var Guerrero
Phalanopsis / Sedirea japonica
Dendrobium nobile 'Smile' [this one is in hanging pot as it came in a nice one so I feel no need to mount it]
Dendrobium moniliforme 'Kouga'

Next up I plan on getting a Neofinetia falcata and any hybrid of Epi. magnoliae with an exotic I can find :)

Welcome!

Welcome!
Some of those will be marginal... when it gets cold, be sure that they are kept dry, a dry orchid can tolerate low temps better than a wet one. L. anceps (any of the varieties) is a very good choice. You may do better with the guerrero type than I do, it needs a dry period in winter which is natural where you live, where I am not the case. Other types of L. anceps do great - and people in So. Cal. who are inland, and at a bit of elevation so get colder, do fine with them too.

Take a look at the Index of Plants on my website, to see what I grow outside (coastal southern California) My winter low temps are usually above freezing. Coldest nights are clear and dry and can get close to frost, when there is rain (and therefore clouds) not quite so cold, cloud cover keeps the temperatures up a bit. .

Consider the temperate-zone Australian dendrobiums (like kingianum, speciosum, falcorostrum, other relatives, and their hybrids). Cymbidiums not all that epiphytic, but very cold=tolerant (and heat tolerant too)

Thank you for the welcomes :)

I checked out your site, very cool stuff!
Thank you I will look into the northernmost Australian Dendrobium spp., they are on my list as well.

I mostly grow bromeliads including Tillandsia species so I am basing a lot of my orchid care off of that. Keep them dry and in a site with canopy is really important to keep frost from settling on leaves. Many broms are surprisingly hardy, almost if not all from southern Brazil even the zone 10 areas can take temps to mid-20s if given that level of protection.

The culture difference between brom growers and orchid growers is interesting to me. There's many examples of brom growers keeping them outdoors and testing winter hardiness but I struggled to find similar with orchid growers, people seem a lot more conservative with them.
My plan is to leave out what I'm more confident on (Laelia anceps, Encyclia tampensis, Dendrobium moniliforme) and if some of my plants are dividable I will keep pieces outdoors to test and report on. If any perish, the surviving indoor portions I will sell so I can recoup some of my losses haha

I'd expect Bromeliads to be a little tougher with respect to cold than most orchids. They certainly are more tolerant of drying out. For the orchids, I rely heavily on habitat data. Those from higher elevations, even on the Equator, can experience cold close to frost. You can stretch the temperature range somewhat, orchids are adaptable, but there are limits. If they live outside all year, they can acclimate. When I acquire a new orchid in fall or winter (that I expect to be cold-tolerant), and suspect that it has been in a greenhouse, I'll pamper it through the first winter, then put it out in the spring, when it can experience the full range of natural temperatures. By the following fall, it's acclimated and will do fine.