first time you bought an orchid? ?
 

I was wondering when did you buy your first orchid.
I received a old yellow phal when i was 10. But i only bought a few catts and paps on my 11th birthday.

How about you?

Was probably -97 or so, and I stumbled upon an orchid exhibition at the local garden centre.
I'd intended to get a new Monstera, but came home with a half dead D. nobile hybrid and wild ideas.
Of course I killed it in no time at all, but it did start to put out a new growth, and the idea of being an orchidist stuck.

Just over 40 years ago I ordered my first orchids from the Orchids by Hausermann catalog. (For those under 30 I may have to explain, this was a print catalog, an actual paper booklet that was distributed by snail mail to established customers and those who requested it.)

I was 15 and had my first summer job, and my first checking account. I wrote my first check for orchids! (Those under 20 may not remember checks. Ask your parents.)

5 plants - Phal. lueddemanniana, Brs. gireoudiana, Den. draconis, Pot. (now Rlc.) Edwin Hausermann, and I can't remember the last one.

I got my first one maybe 5years ago and once it perished I realized how little I knew about keeping them. Waited about two years before I got my next one, an oncidium, which is now doing great and is in almost constant bloom.

Last year November .... I jumped in head first with 7 vandas lol. They were not the best of the bunch as I didn't know how to choose them (like I should have chosen the ones with lots of roots and closer to blooming size)

Been hooked ever since ...... my collection has grown to 22 of varied types in 7 months lol

Got my first orchid when I met Gary Hammer in the early 80's at his nursery Paradise, I was already into plants for several years, but afraid of Orchids, everything I read said hard to grow, need greenhouse, so on and so on. Gary Hammer was a plant hunter he would travel into Mexico and other countries searching for new plants, which he is credited for several. He had several hundred of these strange plants laying on top of tarps and hanging by wires everywhere, hundreds of potted plants that I had never seen before, needless to say I walked away with several orchids and lots of other plants. I went back later and made a friend in Gary, went on a couple of trips with him into Mexico, that was an eye opener as to how epiphyte's grow and the difference in altitude or a small valley can make in environments and types of plants growing. It all made me s better grower.

Gary passed away a couple of years ago, that is a large lost for the plant world, we will never know what marvels he could have found in some far off landscape.

I got my first orchid in 2013. Actually my mom paid for it, though. We were out grocery shopping, and there was a Phal that had just dropped its blooms and was marked down to $7, and I felt like it was time for me to learn orchids.

First one I actually bought with my money was also a Phal, in December the same year. I was at Lowe's, and they had Phals all over the clearance rack. So I was examining the roots of a bunch of them, and none of them looked good, but then when I was reaching for one on the top shelf, the one next to it fell off and crashed on the floor. And wouldn't you know it, the roots on this one looked pretty decent.

first time you bought an orchid? ?
 

I bought my first orchid in 1958 on my honeymoon in Florida. We saw a sign along the highway and stopped just for curiosity. The man who sold the plants potted them in gravel. Of course, it didn't take long before I killed it. In the 60's I started buying again and before long we built a greenhouse. I still have a faded picture of me holding my first blooming Phal.
When we lived in Mexico from 1969-1976 we went orchid hunting quite frequently and I belonged to the Guadalajara Orchid Society.
I brought back several plants but managed to finally kill all of them, too. Now I have over 250 and still manage to kill a plant or two. :biggrin
Beverly A.

When I was 9 we went to a local rural show. There was a stand there full of orchids ( turns out 6 years later I work for that company now hehe ) and there were many magnificent orchids in bloom, but I took a particular likening to the Onc. Gower Ramsey in bloom, so I bought one for $6, it died soon. But I persisted and kept going back to the orchid nursery and bought many many more. :)

Bought my first couple of NoID Phals in late spring 2008 just before joining here, and just over a year after my first gifted phalaenopsis.

I still have all 3, the gift and the two I bought, though none of them is doing the best just now. They've not done well ever since my first re-potting attempts (already sour bark... the repotting problems with the first is why I came to OB seeking help :)) I keep thinking they are on the road to recovery but it's been a long long road.

I bought the second two, because, ever efficient me, I bought the box of dry powder orchid fertiliser for my first, instead of those little bottles that cost lots for very little fertiliser. Then I found the measuring spoon/instructions were for enough for about 10 orchids... had to buy more to make better use of the fertilider (well I just had to, you know how it is :biggrin:).

By the end of the year I had over 10 and the collection was growing fast... might have been cheaper to have bought the little bottle of fertiliser :coverlaugh: